Sunday, April 2, 2017
Devotion: One of the greatest gift of God to humanity is freewill. We are able to choose our own attitude and direction in life. Sometimes we don’t always make the right choice. We rush to make decisions or have the wrong motives. We even sometimes choose not to choose and the consequences haunt us for our indecisions.
During the season of Lent, if you are on the wrong track, simply ask God to redirect your steps and help you get back on the right path.
Prayer: Holy God, we give you thanks for gifting us freewill. As we make plans for our life, help us to stay on course. Amen
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Refuge in Darkness
Devotion: Lately, my trust in humans has been broken. My marriage of 27 years is gone. Betrayal, anxiety, anger, grief, emptiness. And yet, with every step God has carried me through the darkness. My trust in God has increased as my trust in others decreased. I have learned to fully rely on God to provide refuge. When there was no way, God forged a new path. When there was no forgiveness in my heart, God has found a way to soothe the bitterness and hurt. I am still not 100 percent. I am still finding my way in this new territory, but I know that God will deliver me through this time. God has promised and in God I trust.
Prayer: Lord God, today we pray for those who are grieving the loss of relationship. Help them to find refuge in you, fight their battles for them and send your angels to lift them up.
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Devotion: I’ve heard it said that a life of faith is a life of seed planting, and most of the time, the planter is not around to see the seeds bear fruits. Pause on that for a moment. I thought of how it was never my intention or goal to go into seminary and ministry. But one thing led to another and I ended up in seminary, still with no plans of going into ministry, but with the aspiration to learn about the history of Christianity and my faith origin. It was in seminary that I began to realize that I didn’t end up in the classroom by serendipity and that I wasn’t just there to get an education or to fulfill my inquisitive mind. Rather, God was calling me into ministry, a seed that was planted years ago, and had taken roots in my family tree.
Many of my family members had been and continue to be in ministry, in the Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga (Methodist), either working as pastors, educators, or administrators for the church. Church in Tonga is very influential on pretty much everything, from politics to its way of life. My grandparents were ministers in the church and my great-grandparents and great great-grandparents were placed into exile when Christianity first arrived in Tonga because they chose to follow the new religion and Christianity had not yet been accepted as the country’s official religion.
The seeds that my parents and family instilled in my life growing up years ago are bearing fruits. While I wish that they were alive today, I’m grateful for their seed planting. Likewise, we’re doing the same in others’ lives, planting seeds. Maybe we’ll be around to see it bear fruit or maybe we won’t. But God pushes us forward to plant anyways and not be so eager to see the results. May we be reminded that planting seeds requires time to grow. This Lenten season, may you continue to grow in your faith, and may you continue to plant seeds in someone else’s as we remember our Lord who calls us to be planters.
Prayer: Creator God, Thank you for the seeds that you have planted in people’s lives. Thank you for making it grow. Amen
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