Today’s prayer for peace comes from the Jesuit Podcast, Pray-as-you-go’ s September 24th meditation on Psalm 122. I LOVE this resource!
The format:
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Is perfect for a quick trip to the grocery store or my morning bike ride. Tomorrow when I go back to the orchard, I’ll be sure to download a couple to help me mediate on Scripture and connect with Jesus.
You can click the Scripture to be taken to the Cast-roller website where you’ll have the option to listen online or download for later.
I rejoiced with those who said to me,
“Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
2 Our feet are standing
in your gates, Jerusalem.
3 Jerusalem is built like a city
that is closely compacted together.
4 That is where the tribes go up—
the tribes of the Lord—
to praise the name of the Lord
according to the statute given to Israel.
5 There stand the thrones for judgment,
the thrones of the house of David.
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
“May those who love you be secure.
7 May there be peace within your walls
and security within your citadels.”
8 For the sake of my family and friends,
I will say, “Peace be within you.”
9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
I will seek your prosperity.
This Scripture reminds me that I’m part of a larger community of believers.
The narrator of the podcast asks us to meditate on gratitude and our thankfulness to God. This is an interesting take on Psalm 122, but is incredibly helpful when we think of diversity, unity, and the Body of Christ. Gratitude alters my perspective from pride to humility, anxiety to hope, certainty to confidence. Unity grows in that rich soil, so I’m going to thank God for all the diversity of colors, thought, culture, and age in the Body of Christ.
I love what Ann Voskamp says of practicing thanksgiving:
“Eucharisteo—thanksgiving—always precedes the miracle.”
In a Real Housewives, Bridezilla, Gossip Girl culture that’s teeming with strife, it feels like graceful unity is nothing short of a miracle, doesn’t it?
So today I’m thankful for the “other woman”.
I’m thankful for the tribes that affirm a blueprint theology because they model an unrelenting faith in the face of confusion.
I’m thankful for the tribes of women that choose to stay and minister in the suburbs instead of radically moving into the city because they radically model blooming where you’re planted.
I’m thankful for the tribes that teach passionately on wifely submission to good and godly men, they reflect the Spirit empowered humility of Christ that submitted to Father.
What “other women” are you thankful for? Praise God for the ways they reveal his character to you, even though you may disagree with them on significant points.
God can use our gratitude to usher in his miracle of peace.
So join me today in praying for peace, praying in gratitude, and rejoicing that we’re a part of a loud, colorful, interesting family of God.
Thankful for both the other woman and my tribe,
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