Focus

Pay attention to the tension in your body. Let go of it and any expectations to do anything other than God’s will today. Prepare yourself to hear God’s word.

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Read

1 Peter 2:4-10 (NRSV)

Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture:

“See, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,

“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the very head of the corner,”

and

“A stone that makes them stumble,
and a rock that makes them fall.”

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Once you were not a people,
but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.

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Reflect

One of the words to describe our contemporary culture is “consumerist,” meaning that we generally perceive the world to be full of products or services from which we, the shoppers, choose and purchase for our own purposes. A consumerist approach to faith would be to see faith as being a variety of products, from which we choose the one that suits us best to enjoy and use for our own purposes.

God calls us not to consume faith, but to be consumed by it, encountering the living God in the person of Jesus, and being swept up into the creative action of God’s grace and love. Jesus is not a living stone to be purchased to build up our own empires. We are the stones that are to be given into the building up of God’s kingdom. Jesus leads the way for us, the cornerstone of God’s kingdom. As Christ’s brothers and sisters, we join in the building of God’s reign on earth.

Notice ways today in which you tend to treat faith in Jesus as a consumer. How might you give yourself to follow in the footsteps of building up God’s reign on earth today?

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Pray

Creator God, thank you for all that you have made, for the wonders of your creation. Thank you that you continue to create, building your reign of justice and love. We give thanks for Jesus who shows us the way and who invites us to join in his ministry. Open our eyes to see where you are at work, and give us the courage to join you, following in the example of Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.

Go with God.