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“Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭27‬:‭14‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus, You hear every prayer that we say, and all the ones we cannot bring ourselves to even form the words. You know that what we want is not always what we truly need. Lord Jesus, help us accept that which we don’t want to accept but need to. Help us look beyond our limited perspective and see Your divine hand at work in our lives. We too often rely on our sight to see where You are guiding us, and we forget that You also call us to walk by faith.

We yell out to You, “But Lord . . . “ and we struggle. We struggle to be patient with You, not trusting You to bring us through to where You are calling us. We struggle to be patient with ourselves. We want perfection but we really don’t understand perfection. We see what others do and think that it is perfect but we miss what You are calling us to do and be. We can’t see perfection because perfection is never the same, except in You. Perfection is found is You but how that looks in me is different than what it looks like in another because we are all wonderfully and made. You Lord are the one who will see our perfection because You are the only one who can truly cause it and witness it.

Help us Lord to heed Your call on our lives and to not be limited by our fickle faith, but to allow the waters of life to guide our faith to deeper, stronger roots in You. We want to be able to grow strong and vibrant in You. Lord Jesus, we pray all of this in Your gracious and life giving name, Amen.

“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”
‭‭Revelation‬ ‭2‬:‭4‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus we do struggle to keep You as our first love. Our busy lives distract us, our wants and desires lead us to take our eyes away from You. Our hearts are elated by Your blessings but we start to worship the blessing instead of You, our Lord and saviour. Our minds are distracted by the worries and anxieties that we face almost daily and we forget that You want to help us through these times. We flounder in our successes and failures and forget about Your faithfulness.

Lord help us to remember Your love for us each morning when we wake up from the gift of rest. May Your faithfulness be on our minds as walk and work and play through the days You have given us. Help us to hear Your words of life leading us in our lives so that we refocus not on ourselves but on the You Lord Jesus the giver and sustainer of our lives. May our hearts and minds be rooted in Your Gospel and Your Truth, not lead astray by lies and despair. Help us to breathe in Your breath of life, and be filled with Your Holy Spirit to be able to bless others as You have blessed us. We pray this in Your holy name, Amen.

3 But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. (‭‭‭Psalm‬ ‭3‬‬:‭3‬ ‭ESV‬‬)

Let us pray.

Lord of all strength, we trust You to care for us.
In Your ever watchful gaze we are seen and not ignored.
In Your heart of we are valued and blessed.
Even in our sinful lives You call us to Yourself
so that we might experience forgiveness, redemption, and grace.
You strengthen our hearts to live for truth and not to chase after lies.
You strengthen our minds so we are not confused in times of trial.
You strengthen our bodies to live for more than ourselves.
You strengthen our souls to be true to You in the face of doubts, fears, and opposition.
Lord grant us eyes to see beyond our current circumstances and to witness
Your glorious hand at work in our lives and the lives of the people around us.
Lord grant us encouragement so that we would not be overcome with the problems we live with.
Lord bless us with humility so that we are not led astray by joy and excitement.
Lord keep us rooted in the waters of Your salvation so that our lives would flourish for You.
We pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

“But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.”
‭‭Acts‬ ‭3‬:‭18‬-‭21‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Refreshing is a word that we sometimes hear in regards to a cold drink on a hot day. In its essence it makes us think of a renewing or more literally a re fresh, it becomes new and a live once again.

Peter is encouraging people to turn back to God and away from their sins. Our sins become like a spoiled spot or mould on our souls. Peter is reminding his listens who were Jewish of God’s grace throughHis Messiah which is Jesus. Peter does not blame his listeners for the crucifixion of Jesus but encourages them not to stop in a state of ignorance but to move to the blessing of God’s grace through Jesus.

In this movement from sin to grace we see a similar freedom like the person who was crippled being able to walk. The weight of sin holds us back from the fullness of God’s love and life for us. When we turn back to God He promises us to to wash away our sins, in doing this God is re freshing us and restoring us to be the people that He intended us to be, to be free to live and thrive.

“And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple.”
‭‭Acts‬ ‭3‬:‭2‬ ‭ESV‬‬

How quickly life can change. This man didn’t know much else than what was before him. He most likely had had the same routine for most of his life. He had be asking for help most of his life. We need to remember that there is nothing wrong with this. We all need help. And he kept asking. It was on this day that the answer was different than all the others. He was asking for money or more specifically alms, but Peter and John did not give him gold or silver, they gave him the gift of Jesus. The gift of new life that Jesus had given to Peter and John was given to this man, this loved child of God. His life was forever changed. He did not expect to be able to stand up and walk home when he left that morning but he was. The people around him probably weren’t expecting to see something out of the ordinary but they met with the power of Jesus and their lives were forever changed.

We have to be careful that we don’t think that everything we want we will get. This isn’t about getting what you want or even what you ask for. This man did not get what he asked for, he received what was unexpected. We need to remember that we don’t always get the healing that we ask for. Paul did not get relief from the “thorn” in his side but the message that he received was that God’s grace would be sufficient. This also isn’t about Peter and John, this is about God’s gift to His people.

What we can take from this account is that it is important to keep asking. Don’t give up. This man kept asking for help each and everyday. The other thing that we need to remember is to be willing to accept the gift that is given to you even though it isn’t what you asked for. In this instance it was the gift of God’s grace and healing that is given from Jesus, through His Holy Spirit, through people like you and I, Peter and John. We also need to remember to give what we have been given. Give the gift of Jesus. Give the gift of hope, of healing, of grace, of life.

4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (‭‭‭John‬ ‭15‬‬:‭4‬-‭5‬ ‭ESV‬‬)

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus in our weakness we cry out to You, the giver of life. Our bodies are tired, our hearts are downcast, we are struggling.
Lord we want to abide in You, for You are the giver of life, our sustainer. We cannot carry on without You.
Help us to see and hear You for our heads are weary and we struggle to trust.
The world around us is broken, we are fallen and broken beings without You.

Lord Jesus, You are the bring of healing that we so desperately seek, that we cry out for with silent voices.
Your soul nourishing is what we long for. Help us to walk again in Holy steps.
Teach our hearts to once again beat with You, for this day and everyday for all eternity.
We pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Let us pray.

Lord Jesus, help us to see the sins we have forgotten so that we will see the blessing You are trying to give us.

Lord help us to hear our brothers and sisters in need so that we will be able to hear Your voice more clearly.

Lord help us to walk on the path You have laid out for us so that we will be walking with You everyday of our lives.

We pray this in the wonderful name of Jesus. Amen.

“and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭24‬:‭46‬-‭48‬ ‭ESV‬‬

All the hearing and seeing point to this truth of God’s grace. This is the message that we all need to hear. The promises that are evident in the Bible, are realized in Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection. God sent these promises through the prophets that people did not listen to or fully understand their message. Many times we even complicate this simple yet profound message of God’s grace and mercy. His resurrection pointed to the reality that when we repent He has given us forgiveness for our sin. This is a wonderful truth that focuses on the love that Jesus has shown to us. His sacrifice gives us hope. His life points the way to the source of our hope. His forgiveness challenges our assumptions about each other and who is able to be forgiven and saved.

May we have the ears to hear, and the eyes to see, and the mouths to willingly proclaim that good news that Jesus has given to us and changed our lives with.

“They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?””
‭‭Luke‬ ‭24‬:‭32‬ ‭ESV‬‬

How often do we not give hearing the Gospel or any of the scriptures the needed time in our lives?

Yes I realize that some people are more visual, and others are more tactile, but when we put all three of them together, we get a better foundation for our faith. Yet too often in the busyness of our lives we don’t take the time to hear the scriptures. This happens on multiple levels, one is in our physical lives and the other is in our spiritual lives. In our physical lives when we don’t take the time to listen, it means in many cases we are skipping church, we are skipping community with others, and we are skipping communing with Jesus. This leads into our spiritual lives of listening to the Holy Spirit.

We don’t have the same physical experience of walking with Jesus and hearing His voice in our ears. The two disciples that were walking with Him on the Emmaus Road had that privilege. The disciples that spent upward of three years had that privilege. The privilege that we have is the scriptures that house some of His words that have been saved for us and His Holy Spirit that He has given to us to help us to understand and to hear them. To help His words be alive in our lives and guide us each and everyday. To do this, for this to happen we need to listen to the Holy Spirit. Maybe that is in the still and quiet of an early morning or late at night. Maybe it is allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to you through your pastor or a wise, spirit filled friend.

Either way take time to hear. Take time to be in community. Take time to grow closer to Jesus.

 

“While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, “What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?” And they stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?””
‭‭Luke‬ ‭24‬:‭15‬-‭18‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The disciples were kept from recognizing Jesus. This seems a little strange. Yet when we think about the focus of this passage it is all about seeing. Seeing what Jesus had done, seeing what is in the Holy Scriptures, seeing themselves and the world around them. This is contrasted with not seeing, not seeing Jesus’ body, not seeing Jesus walking beside them, not seeing hope, not seeing God’s faithfulness.

The culmination of the chapter is Jesus being seen and heard. Sin affects how we see all of these things. Sin makes us doubt the scriptures. Sin makes us focus on ourselves. Sin makes us try to limit what God can do in our lives. Yet when Jesus reveals Himself to the disciples after unpacking all of the scriptures concerning the Messiah, and connecting that with the breaking of bread suddenly the gift of salvation is realized in their lives and they can truly see for the first time with resurrection eyes, and a resurrection mind, and a resurrection heart. All the impossibilities that limited them before were gone and the faithful, living presence of Jesus was standing there before them with the gift of new life to be lived and seen.