Sunday, January 9, 2011

A Prayer for Sunday, January 9, 2011

“He Did as…Commanded”

We tend to read or to look right past those places in the Bible or in history or in literature or in the lives of people around us where somebody does as the Lord commands them.

We should not because there are important lessons to be learned from such amazing acts.

Help us, O Lord, to pay closer attention so that we can learn appropriately of obedience.

Give us the courage to do what you command or lead us to do regardless of how it might run against the grain of our own preferences or of the expectations of our culture…which it almost certainly will do.

Give us the grace to accept adjustments to the ways we act and even to the ways we think, feel, and desire if such adjustments are necessary to our obedience…which they almost certainly will be.

Give us the humility to understand that our obedience, while it will do us good, is not finally for our personal good but the good of your purposes and your kingdom, regardless of how hard such humility is to achieve…which it almost certainly will be.

Help us to want to do what you command us and help us to do it.

Amen.

“When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus” (Matthew 1:24-25).

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