YAM Prayer & Meditation Digest Is Back!
Jewel Lester
YAM Prayer & Meditation Digest Is Back!
As the COVID 19 Coronavirus outbreak continues, ASBC YAM is still practicing social distancing and all in person events/activities still remain cancelled until further notice. As YAM reemerges from the August Month of Rest, we are continuing the YAM Prayer and Meditation Digest that will be sent out on Thursdays. Enjoy these weekly devotions from your YAM board leaders!
During a Time of Change...Pray and Meditate!
Scripture:
Then Haggai said, “So it is with this people and this nation in my sight,’ declares the Lord. ‘Whatever they do and whatever they offer there is defiled.” ‘Now give careful thought to this from this day on – consider how things were before one stone was laid on another in the Lord’s temple. When anyone came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When anyone went to a wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were only twenty.
‘From this day on, from this twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, give careful thought to the day when the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid. Give careful thought: Is there yet any seed left in the barn? Until now, the vine and the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not borne fruit.” ‘From this day on I will bless you.’”– Haggai 2:14-16, 18-19 (NIV)
Meditation:
Lord, you instruct us to carefully consider how things were before. Before, we used to experience life a certain way. Before and even up to this point, we may have struggled, and not fully lived up to our potential.
But now Jesus, You are calling and empowering us to build, cultivate and be restored again. You are telling us that like these people in Haggai, we too should be able to tell a difference in how things were before and how things will be after. With You, there is always a “before and after.” With You, there is always a “from this day on.” With You, we are able to look at moments in our lives and see a difference in who we are becoming and who we’ve been.
Some of us are at that point again in our lives, where You are calling us to leave “before” and start building towards “after.” You are calling us to build ourselves up in mind, body, soul, spirit and relationships.
Prayer:
Dear Lord, help us to not be afraid of the difficulty of building. Help us to be more hopeful over our uncertain future, than we are hesitant in our uncomfortable past.
From this day on, we will be different. With You, we can do it. In Jesus’ name, Amen!