Focus

Slow your breathing and become aware of the taking in and letting out of your breath. Focus on putting things aside so you will be open to what God is saying to you today.

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Read

Isaiah 66:1-13 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Thus says the Lord:
Heaven is my throne
and the earth is my footstool;
what is the house that you would build for me,
and what is my resting place?

All these things my hand has made,
and so all these things are mine,
says the Lord.
But this is the one to whom I will look,
to the humble and contrite in spirit,
who trembles at my word.

Whoever slaughters an ox is like one who kills a human being;
whoever sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog’s neck;
whoever presents a grain offering, like one who offers swine’s blood;
whoever makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like one who blesses an idol.
These have chosen their own ways,
and in their abominations they take delight;

I also will choose to mock them,
and bring upon them what they fear;
because, when I called, no one answered,
when I spoke, they did not listen;
but they did what was evil in my sight,
and chose what did not please me.

 

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Reflect

In high school, the popular kids hang out together and away from the unpopular kids. In the corporate world, the CEOs and VPs go to lunch together, not with the low-level workers. In the military, officers often bunk and eat separately from enlisted persons. It seems to be the natural order of things: the more powerful people stick together and stay separate from the less powerful people. God doesn’t seem to play by that rule, though. Isaiah, speaking for God, says that omnipotent, omniscient, almighty God, wants to hang out with the humble and contrite folks; not the high and mighty people who offer fancy (but self-serving) sacrifices. God wants to be with the people so down and out their own families have turned on them. When God became human in Jesus, we saw this tendency continue. We should never assume that God’s ways are our ways or that our ways are God’s ways. God often does things completely backward from what we consider the natural order of things, such as a new nation being born with none of the pains of developing that nation.

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Pray

Thank you, God, for caring and comforting me like a loving mother does for her child. Give me a contrite and humble spirit, God, so that I may be drawn closer to you.

Go with God!