Evening Prayer: May 8th

Gracious God, thank you for the gift of this day. I thank you for your continued presence in my life for I know I could not have made it through this day without you. You have carried me in my weakness and been with me in strength. I humbly ask that you would forgive me for my sins and grant me peace. Now, Lord, surround me and my family with your presence. Grant us peace and rest this night. If it be thy will, wake me tomorrow that I may be a witness to the amazing love of Christ Jesus, whose name I now pray in. Amen

Daily Scripture Passage: Psalm 22:25-28

Psalm 22:25-28 (ESV)

²⁵ From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
    my vows I will perform before those who fear him.
²⁶ The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied;
    those who seek him shall praise the Lord!
    May your hearts live forever!

²⁷ All the ends of the earth shall remember
    and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
    shall worship before you.
²⁸ For kingship belongs to the Lord,
    and he rules over the nations.

Thoughts to Ponder from 1 John 3:18-24

1 John 3:18-24 (ESV)

¹⁸ Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

¹⁹ By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; ²⁰ for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. ²¹ Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;²² and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. ²³ And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. ²⁴ Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

“Let us love…in deed and truth” (1 John 3:18)

In today’s Scripture lesson, John offers us solid guidance on how to “remain” in God’s love (1 John 3:24). He tells us that one of the secrets to this is to listen to the movements of our hearts. That’s because the heart, or the conscience, is the place where the Holy Spirit speaks to us most intimately.

On one end of the spectrum, John talks about having “confidence in God” (3:21), which means the Spirit is pouring God’s love into us and reassuring us that we are following his commands. On the other end of the spectrum, our hearts can “condemn” us when the Spirit makes it clear that we have acted selfishly and taken advantage of someone (3:20). Surely we have all had experiences on both ends of this spectrum.

John makes it clear that it’s not only a matter of our consciences. Throughout his letter, he emphasizes the Holy Spirit’s work of writing his words in our hearts and helping us to follow them.

So what does this mean for us? It means that if the Holy Spirit is at work in our hearts, then we should take it seriously when we sense a tug in our hearts (conviction). We should pay attention to these things because it may well be that the Spirit is trying to help us make the right decisions and draw closer to the Lord.

It is encouraging to know that the Holy Spirit is constantly at work forming our hearts and helping us to make good decisions. He’s even at work when we aren’t aware of him! It’s reassuring to know that he won’t stop working in us until our every thought and action pleases Jesus and builds up his kingdom.

So try to remain in God’s love today. Try to listen to the moment of your heart. And try to put into practice whatever you think God is asking of you.

Holy Spirit, come and move in my life. Inspire me to do your work and deeds in spirit and in truth. Amen.

wau