Friday - February 1st!

Prayer:  God Almighty,  Great is Your Faithfulness to all people.    You never change.  You always remain the same.  You love us beyond all measure.    Each new day,  we see Your new mercies.    Each new day,  You provide for all our needs.   Great is Your Faithfulness, Almighty God.   Great is Your name to be praised.  Amen.

Read  St. Luke 7: 1 – 10

When we read this story,  we love to gallop to the end and hear those awesome words from Jesus,  “I tell you,  I have not found such great faith even in Israel”.    We all love stories about people of great faith.  These shared life experiences give us great reassurance and hope.   

Yet,  we need to begin at the beginning of this story as there is so much happening that we miss if we gallop too quickly to the end.

Luke writes that Jesus heads to Capernaum after he finished teaching all the people.  Capernaum seems to have been Jesus’ “headquarters” when he was in Galilee.    We aren’t told at whose house he stayed but it was a house of the follower of Jesus.  Perhaps the house of Peter or Andrew,  or James or John.

Many Ministers and Sunday School teachers can tell you that at the end of each Sunday,  they are exhausted from teaching (and preaching) the Good News of Jesus.   (except for those of us who are extraverts and delight in preaching/teaching and gain enthusiasm from the Word of God and can’t figure out why everyone else has to have an afternoon snooze to regain their energy…. but that is a topic for another time)   Jesus too would have been tired from teaching the Disciples and crowd and from travelling on foot to Capernaum.   And perhaps Jesus was a bit discouraged that the disciples and crowd didn’t quite understand his teachings.     How many Minister’s  have preached a sermon only to have people say, “What were you preaching about this Sunday??” 

St Luke states that Jesus had finished his teaching.  Jesus had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people.       Now it is the responsibility of the people to put into practice what they have heard.

Today,  after meditating upon this portion of scripture,  how will you put the teachings of Jesus into practice?

Prayer:  Great God of all compassion,   help us this day to put into practice the teachings of Jesus.    You are our hope and our joy.    You are our shelter from the stormy blasts of life.   You are our eternal home.  Whatever we do today,  may we live our lives in Your great joy.   This we ask in Jesus’ name.  Amen.