GREETING (Adapted from Psalm 119:105 & 111)
God, your word is a lamp to our feet
and a light to our path.
Your decrees are our heritage forever;
they are the joy of our hearts.
HYMN 93 “Let All the World in Every Corner Sing”
PSALM 115
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
We beg you, God, make us blind and deaf
to all the seductions that would lead us astray.
The lies, advertising, and marketing ploys;
all the false gods accost us wherever we turn.
Wealth, success and fame are to be ours
they promise, dripping sex and oozing money.
“Look at the crowds!” they challenge.
“All those people cannot be wrong!” they claim.
The dazzling lights, the throbbing music,
the media swarms in a celebrity feeding-frenzy.
They drive the most expensive cars, and
live in glamorous homes, dress in high fashion.
Their tables are feasts spread for royalty,
and their parade of high-tech toys is endless.
Just idols, illusions, and empty promises;
they are mist scattered by the dawn’s breeze.
Their cut-throat treatment of one another,
exposes their desperate lust for anemic power.
Their bad-tempered treatment of servants
and working classes betrays their impotence.
“Follow us, and you will have everything,
your heart’s every desire,” they guarantee us.
But our hearts have only one desire – you.
Can the sirens of success give you to us, God?
They did not coerce you to create the world.
They did not force you to send Jesus to die for us.
They did not impose the love you have for us.
All these things came from you, the only real God.
The success we seek is faithfulness to you.
The reward we want is to love you more each day.
They can keep all their idols and promises.
Together they do not equal a day of your eternity.
Everything this world has to offer is nothing,
when compared to the love we find in you, God.
We will worship you. We will serve you.
And we will work to love as we have been loved. 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 96 “Praise the Lord Who Reigns Above”
CLOSING PRAYER
As we step away from our work,
and look toward a night’s rest, O God,
we continue in your company.
This and your steadfast love,
satisfy our needs and inspire dreams
of our serving you tomorrow. Amen.
Copyright 2020. Robert D. Ingram, 32746 Jourden Rd., Albany, Ohio 45710 (dr.bobingram@gmail.com). Used by permission.
