JohnWesleyProject.com: Daily Devotions

Daily Devotions

There are five daily devotions for each of the fifteen weeks.  The devotional material is related

to the talk and is best used after viewing the relevant talk. The devotions encourage meditation on a relevant verse from the Scriptures. Many include John Wesley's comments on that particular verse and most

conclude with a relevant verse from a Wesleyan hymn to use as a prayer. 

Sometimes the specific prayers that Wesley wrote for children and for families are used.

As with the rest of the material in the JohnWesleyProject.com, the devotional material can be used by the individual but can also be used as a family devotion.

The following are some examples of a Daily Devotions:

Week 1 Day 1 Devotions
He Lives

I know that my Redeemer lives,
       and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.

Job 19:25

One need look no further than Job in the Old Testament to see someone

around whom floods rose and against whom winds raged.

The Lord himself describes Job as a perfect and upright man who

fears God and shuns evil (Job 1:8). Job loses first his children, then his wealth

and finally his health. As he sits on a rubbish dump scratching his sores

with bits of broken pot he experiences estrangement from his wife,

his friends and his God. His wife wants him to dump his religion which

she felt should have protected him from such calamity; his friends insist

that the reason for his hardship must lie in something he has done and t

hey bring him no comfort; and his God seems distant and uninvolved.

 This experience is not unique to Job- perhaps you can identify with it or

know someone who does. How do we get to that place where from the midst

of pain and suffering we can make a statement of faith like Job’s:

“I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.”?

Do you want to get to such a place, or are you at such a place?

The good news is that every one of us can be in such a place in our faith walk.

In fact such a faith can be the norm for us, not the exception and it begins

with knowing Jesus the Redeemer as Jesus my Redeemer, a personal and

intimate relationship. This relationship is based on and made possible by

the fact that this Redeemer, who has become my redeemer, lives. He lives!

This is our faith, that the One against whom the floods rose and the winds raged,

the One who died is the One who lives; the One who seemed overcome was in fact the overcomer.

The redeemer Job looked forward to in faith is the Redeemer we look back

to in faith and the work He did in Job is the same work He longs to do in us.

Believe that God’s promises are true and for you and commit yourself to

adjusting your life as God speaks to you through His Son’s Sermon on the Mount.

I know that my redeemer lives
And ever prays for me;
A token of his love he gives,
 A pledge of liberty.

                                                                                  (Collection of Hymns Number 373)

                                 

Week 6 Day 1 Devotions
But What Does It Mean?

Your word is a lamp to my feet
       and a light for my path.
Psalm 119:105

When the Psalmist writes about God's word he is usually referring to the Law

but we can quite comfortably take what the Psalmist says about the Law and apply it to the entirety of God's written communication to us, the Bible.  Someone has painted the picture (with words) of the Psalmist having

little candles or lamps tied to his feet and only as he lifts his foot and moves

forward does some light shine on the path ahead.  The idea is that God's

word guides us more step-by-step than by illuminating the whole of our future for us. 

In another context we are told to ask for daily bread, not monthly provisions. 

So it is that Christians turn expectantly to God's word, the Bible, for guidance and direction

.  While most (one would hope all) Christians agree that God speaks to us

by His Spirit through the words of the Bible there is not always agreement

on what the words mean or what a particular text really says.  When it comes to

interpreting the Scriptures, some believe a literal interpretation is the only way,

others that a literal interpretation must always take precedence

(John Wesley was certainly part of this school of thought) while others allow

for varying degrees of freedom in deciding what a text might mean; for example,

who really believes that if our hand causes us to sin we should get a knife out the

drawer and cut it off?  How does God's word become a lamp for my feet

and a light for my path if it doesn't always mean what it says?

The Beatitudes might be helpful here: always come to God's word spiritually poor,

acknowledging the bankruptcy of your understanding.  Mourn the fact that

God's Word doesn't have a more important place in your life. 

Approach God's word meekly willing to come under the submission

of whatever God might reveal to you and then hunger and thirst for God-given revelation. 

Celebrate God's mercy in deigning to communicate with you through

His word and come to His word with a heart purified by the cleansing

forgiveness which follows honest repentance.  Make peace with your Bible

and especially those parts of it that you wish weren't there. 

Be prepared to persecute, to banish or even put to death wrong

interpretations of God's word that you have clung to.

The Bible is God's word for us today and is an important means of God

communicating His grace to us.  There was a time when the Bible

was not in the hands of ordinary people like you and me and the interpretation

of its meaning was in the hands of a select few.  Believe and then praise God

for the fact that with the guidance that His Holy Spirit gives,

you can read the Bible and be led into understanding what it means.

As far from abjectness as pride,
With condescending dignity,
Jesus, I make thy Word my guide,
And keep the post assigned by thee. (458)

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