Invocation
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Word
The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them.” Acts 11:12
Meditation
Today’s meditation is written by Susan Senechal.
My 90-year-old uncle has lived in the same house his entire life. The youngest of five children, when he got married his parents (my grandparents) moved to a smaller house “uptown” and let him stay at the farmhouse in which he was born, there to raise five children of his own.
I currently live in St. Louis. It seems most of the people I know have lived here all of their lives, or if they moved away for college, returned as quickly as possible.
All of this is foreign to me. As an adult, I have lived in six different cities as well as the city of my birth, all spread out across the US. When I tell someone I’ve recently met where I’m from, they often respond by asking if we are a military family. “No,” I want to respond with a laugh, “Just running from the law.” In reality, this is just how God sometimes works in the lives of people who are serving him.
I think I’ve gotten pretty good at packing our belongings and moving around the country. But there’s a much more difficult move I have yet to master—the one across the room. The move to different people who may not share my background, my skin pigmentation, my ethnicity. That’s the move he asked Peter to make—to a people who were strangers, of a different ethnicity, outsiders to his faith—people with whom it was not even lawful to associate. (Acts 10:28) Peter didn’t go without hesitation: three times he told God “no.” But God showed him in a vision he accepts men from every nation. (Acts 10:35) Finally Peter responded, “Who was I to think that I could oppose God.” (Acts 11:18)
Sometimes we think God only says “go” to missionaries, to places across the world, to foreign countries. But often, to you and to me, God’s “go” is to a different people just across town. Or just across your back fence.
Dear Jesus, help me to respond to your “go” with eyes open to people who may live nearby, people who have a different background than me, but whom you are welcoming with open arms. Amen.
Prayer for the Spirit in Those Around Me
- For the Spirit to work faith in the hearts of those far from God, especially for my family and friends who do not know God as I do. I name them now . . .
- For the fruits of the Spirit in me and those I know: that my roots grow down deeper that fruit may sprout up. For more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
- Fill us when spiritually empty, strengthen us when weak, compel us when doubts conspire against me.
- For more people to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Benediction
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Amen. (Rom. 15:13)