Focus

Prepare yourself to discern what is and what is not of God today. Still yourself so you can hear how God is calling you.

 

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Read

Galatians 5:2-6 (NRSV)

Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. Once again I testify to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the entire law. You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love.

 

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Reflect

I have, on many occasion, found myself uncomfortable discussing religion in certain company. Sometimes who that company is takes me by surprise. Sometimes the subject matter of the conversation takes a turn for which I feel unprepared. Regardless of the whos, whats, and whens, I have found the most important facet is how: How do I respond? How do I make others feel when I do?

It is tempting to select passages of scripture that would give us some sense of authority or even self-righteousness, so that we can discuss our faith without feeling threatened, without listening. We want to feel safe. We want to feel in control. We want to believe we have God “on our side.”

This attitude bleeds outside of our discussion of religion. Suddenly we’re using the same methods to settle our perspective on the world around us. We can use the opinions we’ve formed through uncomfortable conversations about religion to label one another, judge one another’s ways, and grow in separateness FROM one another.

What would happen if we let all our fears and judgments fall away? What if we worked to release everything that separates us from God and one another? It might be a different kind of uncomfortable, but I think we’d surely prefer it. Are we ready to move past our words, labels, and differences to live and work in faith and love?

 

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Pray

God, we realize you may not share our perspective on others or ourselves. Please help us to see more clearly and love more fully—releasing our grip on our own ideas to live more completely in our faith. Heal and comfort us and those we encounter along this journey, so that we may discover a new way of connecting to one another and to you. Amen.

“God’s own message, cradled in the Scriptures,

Teaches all to live by faith

In the One who came to earth to save us

And to show us mercy’s grace.

God eternal, wisdom, power,

Wooing us to follow Christ.

Wooing us to follow Christ.”

—Beverly St. John (1918–2017)

 

Go with God.