Friday 5th June | Rachel Kirkby
Readings
Reflection
All of today’s passages acknowledge signs of God's people.
In Joshua, the Israelites were marked as people of God by circumcision. They had reached the Promised Land and now was the time to reinstate this covenant practice - a sign of cutting off the old life and beginning a new life with God. Circumcision was the Israelites outward sign, marking them as holy, set apart as God’s chosen people.
In Luke we read of Jesus’ instructions on how his messengers should conduct themselves. The 72 disciples sent out were told to be prayerful people, peace bringing people, grateful people who rely on God’s provision. Note that the workers of God are not identified by their qualifications or status, but by their conduct. The sign that these messengers were people of God was in how they acted in love, gentleness and humility whilst sharing the Gospel, not with aggression or force.
In Psalms 142 and 144, we hear David crying out to the Lord in anguish and rejoicing in the firmity of God’s promises. David is clearly in a hopeless position, hiding away in a cave from the angst of King Saul. Yet he cries out to God and holds firm in the hope that the Lord has the power to rescue him. He is marked as a follower of the Lord by the hope he professes. Though circumstances around us are as ever changing as the wind, we can be marked as God’s people by our choosing to praise him in the midst of both prosperity and adversity.
My challenge for you today - what is your sign that you are a child of God? What marks you out as a disciple of Christ?
Prayers
Dear Lord,
We thank you that we are children of God.
Help us to live like lambs amongst wolves.
Let our actions reflect the Holy Spirit living within us.
Let our mouths speak of your promises.
Let our minds be renewed by the hope we have in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
Collect
God our redeemer,
Who called your servant Boniface
To preach the gospel among the German people
And to build up your church in holiness:
Grant that we may preserve in our hearts
The faith which he taught us with his words
And sealed with his blood,
And profess it in lives dedicated to your Son
Jesus Christ our Lord,
Who is alive and reigns with you,
In the unity of the Holy Spirit,
One God, now and for ever.
Amen.
