GREETING (Adapted from Isaiah 52:7)
How beautiful upon the mountains, O God,
are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,
who brings good news,
who announces salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
HYMN 408 “The Gift of Love”
PSALM 136
PRAYER
(Think back to the beginning of this day. Start there, and mentally walk through the day again, while you thank God for the day's blessings and God's continuous work of love. Confess and repent of those times when you forgot, ignored or rebelled against God. Continue to pray with your personal prayer list.)
SCRIPTURE LESSON
(Choose a passage of scripture to read. It can be a chapter, a paragraph, or a particular story. Daily lectionaries are available online or in print that assign a lesson each day from the gospels, epistles, Old Testament and psalms on a three-year cycle. Or you can create a plan to read a book of the Bible, or the whole Bible. Then follow the steps below.)
Read a passage of scripture. Read it out loud, very slowly and carefully as if for the first time. Continue reading until a word, phrase or sentence captures your attention. Stop there to repeat the word, phrase or sentence over and over, listening to it deeply in your heart.
Reflect on why the passage got your attention. Consider the area of your life to which this may apply. Is God saying something to you in this passage? Take time to listen carefully to whatever God may be saying to you.
Respond to God in prayer (or with journaling, music, art or whatever you choose) about what you have heard. Ask questions. Open yourself to God’s will for you.
Rest in God’s company. Be still and quiet. Move beyond thinking, practicing interior silence. Let yourself be open to God’s presence. Savor this moment with God.
PRAYER
Thank you, God, for those who have loved us today.
They make our lives so rich.
Thank you for your perfect love, today and every day.
You are everything to us.
Thank you also for the love growing in our own hearts.
Loving gives us meaning.
But, God, we want more. Take us further in loving.
Help us love the unlovable.
Only loving those who are difficult, or nearly impossible,
can make us more like you.
You showed us the greatest love when Jesus died for us,
while we were deep in sin.
“Take up your cross and follow me,” he commanded us.
We want to love like he did.
But some people can be so hateful, mean, and selfish.
How can we love them?
We need your long-suffering patience and desire to forgive.
Our tempers are too short.
We need your foresight, to see what people can become,
to make them easier to love.
We need to see them change, making some improvement.
That too would help us love.
Or, is a decision the only thing that we really need, God,
to love them, no matter what?
Is it possible for us to just decide to love more like Jesus,
regardless of the responses?
If this is so, God; then know that this is our heart’s desire.
Now, help us live our decision.
Amen.
SILENCE AND COMMITMENT
(Pause to reflect and listen. Work to push out of your mind any distracting or irrelevant thoughts. Concentrate your thoughts on the words of the hymns and choruses you have sung, the prayers you have spoken and the scriptures you have read. Be aware of what you are feeling. Listen for anything that God might be saying to you in this time you have spent together. As God responds to your prayer-time, seek guidance for how you can best respond to God’s will. Then commit to serving God’s will for you.)
HYMN 501 “O Thou Who Camest from Above”
CLOSING PRAYER
You, God, are the very essence of love and grace,
and tonight as we approach our beds for needed sleep,
we turn over all our concerns to your compassionate heart.
Wrap our families and friends in your protection.
Guard those whose paths we have crossed today,
and our neighbors: known and unknown, near and far.
Heal those with diseases, wounds and afflictions;
those boiling with deep troubles inside themselves;
and those cursed with bad decisions and crippling habits.
Bring good news to the people suffering in wars;
those impoverished by ignorance or sick economies;
and those living under the burden of earth’s pollution.
Take all your people into your arms tonight, Lord.
Comfort them with your steadfast and faithful love.
Let them find rest and hope tonight in your tender care. Amen.
Copyright 2020. Robert D. Ingram, 32746 Jourden Rd., Albany, Ohio 45710 (dr.bobingram@gmail.com). Used by permission.
