A Prayer for Today

Soren Kierkegaard's prayer is my prayer for today:  

"And now, Lord, with your help I shall become myself."

Indeed, come quickly, Lord Jesus.  Let Christ be formed in me. 

After Christmas

Katharine Lee Bates was a 19th Century professor of English literature at Wellesley College.  She authored many volumes of poetry and children's books but is best known for the lyrics of "America the Beautiful."

Four of her lines from another poem describe how we should know and experience Jesus Christ today:

          Not the Christ in the manger,
          Not the Christ on the Cross;
          But the Christ in the soul,
          When all but love is lost.

Isn't this what Jesus meant when he said, "I am with you always..." (Matt. 28:20)?  Isn't this what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote, "I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20)?

Or as Charles Allen has said:  "the Christmas message should bring home to each of us not that we must still seek a Babe in a crib He outgrew, not a Teacher who has now moved from the classrooms of Galilee, nor an exhausted Savior stretched upon a cross, nor a Leader wrapped in the soft linens of death, but rather "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27).

Thoughts for a New Year

We often become discouraged because we measure our Kingdom efforts by the enormous needs that we see all around us.  Jesus' Parable of the Mustard Seed (Mt. 13:31-32) reminds us that "the smallest of seeds" grows up to become a tree.

Lord, help me to stop complaining about my "lack of resources" -- inadequate time, money, or energy -- and to utilize the resources you already have placed at my disposal.  Then, when you do a "mustard seed miracle," I will know that it was not because I was so smart, spiritual, or resourceful, but because You are the God who gives abundantly and disproportionately.