Wings of Prayer Devotionals

Scripture Readings:

Luke 24:29 - "But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us; for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them."

John 15:5 -"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing."

Devotional Reading:

At the culmination of a weekend camping retreat with my high school youth group, when I was a teenager, we arose before dawn Sunday morning, climbed up the side of a mountain, then sat trying to catch our breath as the sun came up and took it away again. All of the struggles through brush and over boulders, the skinned knees and scraped hands, the aching muscles, were forgotten when those first brilliant rays peered over the horizon and spread their beauty and light over the landscape. The view was breathtaking, and we would love to have stayed there just drinking in the wonders of God's creation. But soon we had to start back down the mountain, back through the tangled brush, the boulders, more skins and scrapes, back to the "real world" and back to our ordinary routines.

We all love the mountaintop experiences with the Lord; but it's in the day-to-day routines of life where our Christianity is lived and tested, and it's those day-to-day struggles that can wear us down. We trust God for the "big" things, like salvation; but lose sight of Him in the ordinariness of life: when the toilet backs up, the car won't start, the kids are fighting, someone lets us down, we're sick or just plain tired. Little things pile up and overwhelm us. Then, in addition to feeling overloaded and discouraged, we beat ourselves up for not being better Christians.

In one of my favorite hymns, "Abide with Me," is this verse:

I need Thy presence every passing hour.
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter's power?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

When I am sick, in pain, almost too tired to breathe, I need God's presence "every passing hour." When I'm too weak to fight temptation, I need His grace to "foil the tempter's power." When I'm focused on my problems, and my own efforts prove inadequate, I need Him to be my "guide and stay." I know intellectually that He abides with me "through cloud and sunshine;" but when clouds obscure my vision, do I always remember that? No, because I am human, and humans forget. We get caught up in our daily struggles and forget that we're not alone, that He's there to help us. We forget that, in spite of us, the plumbing will get repaired, the car will start again, people who have let us down will uphold us sometimes and let us down sometimes, for such is human nature. Eventually, we will feel better and more rested.

In the meantime, what should we do? Allow ourselves to be human, accept that we will not always live "the perfect Christian life," that we will sometimes be a good example, and sometimes a not-so-good example, of what a Christian is and does. We need to forgive ourselves, knowing that God already has.

God doesn't expect perfection as we abide with Him. Abiding means living close to Him in all our imperfection, weakness, and failings, realizing that He loves us as we are. To abide is to bear patiently, tolerate, continue. We need to bear patiently with ourselves, tolerate our humanness; and continue on side by side with the Lord, remembering that we are loved, accepted, and valued just as we are.

Prayer: Father, help us to keep our eyes on You in the midst of life's struggles. Give us the grace to accept our humanness and to be patient with ourselves and with others, even as You accept us. Help us to remember that when we are weak, You are strong; that You know our frame, that we are dust; that You understand us better than anyone, for You made us. Help us to use the lessons learned from boredom, pain, sickness, sorrows, and struggles to reach out to others who are hurting and struggling. And every moment of every day and every night help us to remember that You are with us in the ordinariness of our lives, and that makes every day and every life extraordinary.

Optional Growth and Enrichment Activities:

Research: Look up the word "abide" in a dictionary and/or thesaurus and write down the various meanings. Then, using a concordance, look up the Scriptures that have to do with abiding.

Reflect: In your journal, write down the definitions and Scriptures on abiding that are most meaningful to you personally from your word study research. How can you "abide" with the Lord at work, while doing errands, while cleaning the house, when you're ill? In your own words, write what it means to YOU to abide in the Lord.

Reach out: Someone once said that a friend is one who knows all our faults, but loves us anyway. (1) Do you have a friend who accepts you as you are? Write a note, send a card, or make a phone call to tell him/her how much you appreciate their friendship. (2) Let your spouse and children know that you love and accept them as they are, too. (3) Write a letter to yourself in which you give yourself permission to be human; then vow to abide with and in the Lord, and let Him lead you and continue to mold you into the image of His Son.