Scripture: Matthew
5:38-48
Having had this reading earlier in the week, please resist
the temptation to skim it over (although if you have time for nothing more,
please skim!) and take your devotion time to re-read the Gospel lesson slowly,
perhaps even out loud.
Pray for the Holy Spirit to teach you as you read the
Scripture lesson, and ask him to teach you to pray, opening your heart and mind
to pray according to God’s will.
Prayer
On Fridays you will be encouraged to pray for a variety of
prayer requests. The hope is that through these prayer requests we will,
obviously, intercede for those need prayer, and that we will learn to think
more broadly in our prayers. If time is short, you could simply pray the Lord’s
Prayer.
For holiness. That our lives
would be a reflection of our holy God, and filled with the power of the Holy
Spirit so that our lives are good in God’s sight: holy because of Christ’s
forgiveness, and holy in our actions.
For the Church, the temple of
the Holy Spirit, that we would be united in Christ and the Word of God in its
purity.
For confidence that God’s gifts
to us are sufficient for our salvation and superior to the wisdom and pleasures
the world offers us.
For the poor, and for God’s
people to be a generous source of aid and comfort for them.
For contentment that we would
not covet or steal from our neighbors.
For the oppressed that they
would be protected and receive justice and relief.
For our judicial system to be
just. That it would uphold the law and do what is right, not regarding people
for their poverty or wealth, their skin color or educational background.
For the strength and courage to
resist the temptation to pursue vengeance, entrusting each wrong to God who
protects and saves his people, and showing love and forgiveness as a testimony
to our own salvation.
For a full appreciation of God’s
Word as Law and Gospel, receiving each from him in faith and being shaped by
the Spirit as he works through the Word in us.
For the Holy Spirit to teach us,
to open God’s Word to us, and to give us hearing hearts to receive the life he
gives to us through the Word.
Pray the Lord’s Prayer.
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