January 7, 2024 • Brad Strait
Conversation Starters ╬ Jesus’ longing to shelter his people “like a hen gathers her chicks” was a cry of disappointment. He goes on to say, “and you were not willing.” Who do you know who has been unwilling to be sheltered under the Lord’s love and care? Pray for them now. How are you yourself resisting God’s care and comfort? ╬ We thank God for the mothers who gave us life. They set us onto the path that we now walk. Each of our mothers has her own story to tell of joys and sorrows, of success and failure, of life and death. Ask God the Spirit to help you thank God for her, to forgive her, and to bless her journey with understanding and compassion. Can you lift her to the Father and pray, “She did the best she could”? Tell someone your own story.
Conversation Starters ╬ How do you read the Bible? Is it like a novel with a gripping story or like non-fiction that gives good information to know? “Eating” the Bible involves a meditative, slow, submissive process with interest in both knowing more and, more importantly, becoming more. In the companionship of the Spirit, will you seek to increase your “becoming-more” reading of the Word? ╬ Who do you know who “walks in the counsel of the world, stands with sinners, or sits with scoffers”? Pray for them! May God the Spirit create in them a great hunger for God’s Word who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
