A WORD FOR TODAY, July 11, 2024
Peggy Hoppes
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Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, July 11, 2024
“Hey! Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which doesn’t satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in richness. Turn your ear, and come to me. Hear, and your soul will live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.” Isaiah 55:1-3, WEB
I have had friends, I’m sure we all have, who only call us when they need something. The call to ask for a favor, or when they are lonely, or when they want to complain about someone who has hurt them. Then they are impossible to reach when the shoe is on the other foot. They can’t help with a favor or are too busy to do lunch when we are lonely and need someone to listen. It can be disheartening and frustrating, and eventually leads to anger and brokenness. We get tired of always being there for someone who doesn’t care enough to be there for us.
Relationships are meant to be two-way streets, and while we complain about those who have taken advantage of us over the years, we have to remember that we sometimes do the same thing to others. This is especially true of our relationship with God. Anthony Bloom in his book “Beginning to Pray,” argues that when we feel like God has abandoned us, we need to remember that we are much like our uncaring friends because we only turn to Him when we are in need.
Bloom wrote, “First of all, it is very important to remember that prayer is an encounter and a relationship, a relationship which is deep, and this relationship cannot be forced either on us or on God. The fact that God can make Himself present or can leave us with the sense of His absence is part of this live and real relationship. If we could mechanically draw Him into an encounter, force Him to meet us, simply because we have chosen this moment to meet Him, there would be no relationship and no encounter. We can do that with an image, with the imagination, or with the various idols we can put in front of us instead of God; we can do nothing of the sort with the living God, any more than we can do it with a living person.
“A relationship must begin and develop in mutual freedom. If you look at the relationship in terms of mutual relationship, you will see that God could complain about us a great deal more than we about Him. We complain that He does not make Himself present to us for the few minutes we reserve for Him, but what about the twenty-three and a half hours during which God may be knocking at our door and we answer, ‘I am busy, I am sorry,’ or when we do not answer at all because we do not even hear the knock at the door of our heart, of our minds, of our conscience, of our life. So there is a situation in which we have no right to complain of the absence of God, because we are a great deal more absent than He ever is.”
Martin Luther taught that every Christian should commit themselves to a regular daily time of prayer and study. He recommends that we spend time with God every morning and evening. This way we begin the day with our eyes on Jesus and end the day in thanksgiving and praise for all God’s blessings. This time is not meant to be just a time of asking God for what we need, whether it is for ourselves or others. We are to spend time listening to Him, paying attention to Him, asking Him to show us His will every minute of every day.
In our busy world today, it is often difficult to find the time we need to spend alone with our Father. Even when we sit down to read our Bibles or pray, there is constantly something distracting us. Our minds wander as we consider our schedule for the day or something on the television catches our attention. We focus on a hundred different things, and it is hard to pay attention to our prayers. We end up saying a few quick petitions and then move on to our next project. Yet God comes to us in ways we don’t always realize. We often don’t pay attention, but we can see Him in creation, in our neighbors, in the friend who needs us without returning the favor. We know we see Him in the scriptures, worship, and fellowship with other Christians, but we spend most of our day ignoring the reality of His presence in our midst always.
The next time you pray, stop and listen. The next time you are walking through the grocery store, walk as if He is beside you, because He is. God does not always speak that we can hear, but He is always nearby. He wants to help with all our needs, and will answer our prayers according to His will, but He also wants us to return the favor, to do His work in the world, to listen as He talks, to experience His grace every moment of the day. Our life will be so much fuller when we embrace God as we are invited by Him through Isaiah because He has promised to fill us with every good and perfect thing.
A WORD FOR TODAY is posted five days a week – Monday through Friday. The devotional on Wednesday takes a look at the scripture from the Revised Common Lectionary for the upcoming Sunday. A WORD FOR TODAY is posted on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Word-for-Today-Devotional/339428839418276. Like the page to receive the devotion through Facebook. For information and to access our archives, visit http://www.awordfortoday.org
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