Lent 2017: Day Twenty
Week Three: Mission Field
Reflection for the Week: What encourages me to engage more fully in the mission field?
It is important to read this promise from James carefully. It is a statement of faith that God does indeed provide for us and meet our needs. In common terms, one might say God never lets us down. But that is not always how we feels is it? Author Maxie Dunnam puts it this way:
“There may be times when it seems that God lets us down. We pray for a healing, and it doesn’t come. We pray for a job, and it goes to the other candidate. We ask to be delivered from some crippling circumstance, but nothing seems to change. We seek a detour around the road with a cross at the end of it, but find all of the roads are closed. Sometimes it does seem as if God lets us down. Isn’t it true that the reason we think God lets us down is actually our own self-centeredness? We put ourselves at the center of the universe and expect God to regard us as such, to make it God’s chief business to look after us. That is to misunderstand God. God never promised to save anybody from trouble, not even his own son. We are not the center of the universe. God is the center.”[Dunnam, Maxie, Irresistible Invitation.]
If we are to respond to God’s invitation to life and faith, let’s be honest. God is not inviting us into relationship so that our individual needs may be met. God is inviting us into a relationship that is a partnership that properly fulfilled will meet our needs, because together we will meet the needs of all. God is not inviting us to lead in the relationship God is inviting us to follow.
Prayer: Thy will be done O Lord, on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
Rev. John Farley
Dean of Cabinet
California-Pacific Conference
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Inspiring the world as passionate followers of Jesus Christ so all may experience God's life-giving love...
Copyright © 2017 The California-Pacific Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:
The California-Pacific Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church
110 S Euclid Ave.Pasadena, CA 91101, United States
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Week Three: Mission Field
Reflection for the Week: What encourages me to engage more fully in the mission field?
It is important to read this promise from James carefully. It is a statement of faith that God does indeed provide for us and meet our needs. In common terms, one might say God never lets us down. But that is not always how we feels is it? Author Maxie Dunnam puts it this way:
“There may be times when it seems that God lets us down. We pray for a healing, and it doesn’t come. We pray for a job, and it goes to the other candidate. We ask to be delivered from some crippling circumstance, but nothing seems to change. We seek a detour around the road with a cross at the end of it, but find all of the roads are closed. Sometimes it does seem as if God lets us down. Isn’t it true that the reason we think God lets us down is actually our own self-centeredness? We put ourselves at the center of the universe and expect God to regard us as such, to make it God’s chief business to look after us. That is to misunderstand God. God never promised to save anybody from trouble, not even his own son. We are not the center of the universe. God is the center.”[Dunnam, Maxie, Irresistible Invitation.]
If we are to respond to God’s invitation to life and faith, let’s be honest. God is not inviting us into relationship so that our individual needs may be met. God is inviting us into a relationship that is a partnership that properly fulfilled will meet our needs, because together we will meet the needs of all. God is not inviting us to lead in the relationship God is inviting us to follow.
Prayer: Thy will be done O Lord, on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
Rev. John Farley
Dean of Cabinet
California-Pacific Conference
-------
Share this Devotion:
ShareTweet+1ForwardInspiring the world as passionate followers of Jesus Christ so all may experience God's life-giving love...Copyright © 2017 The California-Pacific Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:
The California-Pacific Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church
110 S Euclid Ave.Pasadena, CA 91101, United States
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