Create a peaceful space to pause, and allow yourself to feel God’s presence alongside you, as near to you as your own breath. In following the reflection below, as a church we will draw closer to God and to one another as we grow in faith and deepen our sense of belonging to God.
Jude v.24-25
24 Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing, 25 to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and for ever. Amen.
These words were first penned, we think, by Jude, (Judas) half brother of Jesus, though he only claims to be a servant of Jesus. Do say the words out loud, for that is how we are used to hear them as a doxology at the end of a service of worship.
This passage is a wonderful paean of praise and thanksgiving to our God which brings to our minds the eternal attributes of God: his glorious splendour; his supreme kingship; his endless power and ultimate authority. This is our God: “Immortal, invisible, God only wise.” And yet he cares for each one of us and wants to be in a right relationship with us. Our sins should come in the way, a barrier between us and our pure and holy God; but God broke that barrier by sending his son, Jesus, to take away our sins so that he sees us as sinless – faultless. It’s amazing! We can therefore come to God, not with fear and trembling before our Judge but joyfully before our loving Father. No wonder we should praise him. All this is in two little verses at the end of a small, obscure book of the Bible.
These words act as a reminder that when we come to our prayers we should praise and thank God for all he is and all he has done, before we start to tell him what we want him to do next. However many hymns are full of praise and thankfulness, my old school hymn is one such.
Praise, my soul, the King of heaven;
to his feet thy tribute bring.
Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,
Who like thee his praise should sing?
Praise him! Praise him!
Praise the everlasting King!
Henry Francis Lyte (1793-1847)
Prayer:
Dear Lord, we come before you
to worship you, to praise you, to tell you we love you.
Sometimes we are so anxious to remind you of what we and our neighbours want,
we forget to say thank you for who you are and all you have and are doing for us.
Forgive us and give us ever thankful hearts
to praise and love you and enable us to reflect your love in our lives.
This we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son, our Saviour. Amen.
Reflection and Prayer © 2020 Gillian Wood.
Hymn words out of copyright.
Image freely available from www.urc.org.uk
A printable version of this Daily Devotional can be downloaded from here
All material within this order of worship is reproduced by permission under CCL 1226356