Listen here.
Welcome to Devotions for Worship where we meditate on the
appointed Scripture readings for the upcoming Sunday. Thank you for being with
me today.
I am Pastor Eric Tritten from Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in
Hudson, OH.
On Saturdays we explore some devotional thoughts, habits,
and practices, by looking at what others have written on devotion. It’s been a
while since we’ve talked about this, but I want to remind you that devotion
is the deep reverence a person has for a particular teaching of the Christian
faith and it can be expressed in a variety of ways – some contemplative and
individual, others active and communal – all of which showing that the Holy
Spirit is at work in that time and place. We are actually looking at
devotion to hearing or reading God’s Word, and for God’s Word to shape our
prayers.
And to dig more deeply into devotion to the Word and prayer,
we are reading a letter written by Martin Luther to his barber which has come
to be called A Simple Way to Pray. I’m
going to be reading from the American Edition of Luther’s
Works, vol. 43. This version of A
Simple Way to Pray was translated by Carl Schindler, and the copyright
belongs to Fortress Press.
A Simple Way to Pray – paragraph 13 – I did not ask for
permission to print A Simple Way to Pray,
but there are many versions available on line. Here is a link to one of them. A Simple Way to Pray.
Obviously, Luther is walking us through the Lord’s Prayer –
which is both a prayer and God’s Word. This is how Jesus taught the disciples
to pray. We pray it straight through, “Our Father who art in heaven,” and so on
and now Luther is encouraging us to look at the prayer as an outline to dig
more deeply into God’s Word on the topic of the petition, and then let God’s
Word lead us to pray more broadly about what is so succinctly stated in the
Lord’s Prayer.
So under the fourth petition we pray for daily bread, and it
quickly becomes apparent that we’re not just talking about bread, as in flour,
water, salt, and yeast. We’re praying about everything that has to do with the
needs of life. In the Small Catechism, Luther says, “Daily bread includes
everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food,
drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout
husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers,
good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation,
good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.” Or as the psalmist says in
Psalm 145, “The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in due
season. You open Your hand; You satisfy the desire of every living thing.” And
again in Matthew 5, Jesus says that God, “makes the sun rise on the just and
the unjust.”
In many ways what we are asking in this petition is that we
would recognize where our blessings come from so that we would receive them
with gratitude and praise for the Giver of all Good things. We begin to see
that God lovingly cares for our physical needs as well as our spiritual needs,
and so he, our loving Heavenly Father, provides for us.
Prayers –
O God, you give daily bread even without our prayer, and
even to all the wicked. Thank you for your mercy, love and kindness as you
provide for the needs of our bodies and lives. Lead us to know that every good
gift comes from you so that we respond to you with thanks and praise, and
enable us to receive our daily bread with contented joy and thanksgiving. We
pray, Lord, that you would provide for those who are in need. We think
especially of people who are poverty stricken, unemployed, devastated by
disaster, and are in every kind of need. Have mercy on them and help them in
their time of want and need. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Memory Verse: [Jesus] said to them, "Therefore render
to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are
God's." (Matt. 22:21 ESV)
Thank you so much for using Devotions for Worship, I pray
that our time together has blessed you and given you something to meditate on –
some reminder of God’s grace to rattle around in your brain – for the rest of
the day.
I want to let you know that Devotions for Worship is now
available on iTunes. There is a link in blog notes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/devotions-for-worship/id1295926846?mt=2
If you go there you can subscribe and have these delivered directly to your
computer, iPad, or iPhone. I’m pretty excited about that. And if you’re there,
please take a moment to rate and review the podcast.
And one more thing. If you got something out of this devotional
time, would you like and/or share it on Facebook, Twitter, or wherever you do
social media? That would help me get the word out, and hopefully help these
devotions be a blessing to others.
God bless you!
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