A Year of Prayer: Season One Weekday DevotionalsSample

Have you ever watched a real-life video of a tsunami approaching a beach?

How was it filmed?

Somewhere on a scale of ‘foolhardy’ to ‘unlucky,’ the person filming the impending disaster stands with the camera rolling. As we sit safely in our chairs, beds, or homes, watching the wave with a degree of removed horror, we forget that there is a charted phenomenon where some people run toward the wave in order to capture it on video or to see it up close.

What is this morbid fascination we humans have with danger? Whether poking sticks at snakes or leaning too far over the edge of a cliff - we enjoy flirting with the feeling of the illicit.

Perhaps it is part of our spiritual rebellion—a denial of the inherent threat of pain, wounding, or death. Maybe it is a small defiance of the vulnerability of our earthy state—you can’t tell me what to do!

But God can and does tell us what to do. We are to follow God’s law for the world and plan for our lives. Christ has offered himself in our place so that we might know peace and holiness. No longer does the threat of death, pain, or wounding keep us anchored to earth.

We are new creations created for a new reality. So, how might we embrace this today? Instead of seeking danger or denying the words God has given us to live by, how might our frail humanity be redeemed into our heavenly hope right now, earthside?

'"You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”' (Jeremiah 29:13-14 NIV)

Prayer: Jesus, unstop my ears, un-fill my mind, and empty my agenda to worship and hear you. Carry me out of my exile and let me know peace in my wounds, healing in my mourning and grief-stricken places. Let me know holiness and wholeness as you and I rest together and eat in a place of seated peace.

Action: Pray the scripture above out loud and draw all or some of the words that stick out to you. Once you’re done, look back on what you’ve created and ask God for deeper revelation again.