Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Daily Devotional Thought--From the Old Testament

Collect of the Week (Proper 15-C)
Merciful Lord, cleanse and defend Your Church by the sacrifice of Christ. United with Him in Holy Baptism, give us grace to receive with thanksgiving the fruits of His redeeming work and daily follow in His way; through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Proverbs 3:11-12
11 My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline or be weary of his reproof,  12 for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

Catechism: The Fourth
What is the Fourth Commandment?
            Honor your father and your mother.
What does this mean?
            We should fear and love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them.

Devotion
In the name of T Jesus.

Love is the motivation for God’s actions toward us whenever He chastens or corrects us. Undeserved love is also the motivation for a father who disciplines and corrects a son. Solomon uses the relationship of a father to his son to highlight the intimate relationship of love that God has with us, and how our relationship to our children is patterned after God the Father’s relationship with His Son.

Just as Jesus our sin bearer endured chastening upon the cross as the beloved Son whom the Father loved, so also it is necessary for us to be chastened and disciplined when we sin by the parents who love us. Solomon refers to God by use of the name “LORD”—the divine name given at the burning bush—which highlights the fact that He is “the eternal God of the promise of salvation,” who is always motivated by love for His wayward children, even when He is compelled to discipline them.

His promise of love to us in the Gospel is the cause of everything He does for us as His children. The LORD delights in His children, even though they have gone astray and need correction, precisely because they are His children who have been begotten by Him in love through His Word of promise.

In the same way, parents love their children, not because they have no sin and make no mistakes, but because they are their children conceived in love. Discipline and correction are intended to bring us to repentance for sin, to teach us the way that leads to life and loving serve to others, and to save us from the self-centered ways that lead to death and destruction.  Our fathers’ love for us is seen precisely in the fact that they are willing to discipline and correct us.  And so we honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them (Lutheran Catechesis, p. 50c).

In the name of T Jesus.

Prayer
Visit, O Lord, the homes in which Your people dwell, and keep all harm and danger far from them. Grant that we may dwell together in peace under the protection of You holy angels, sharing eternally in Your blessings; through Jesus Christ, our Lord (#239).

Daily Prayer (For Wednesday)
We pray…for marriage and family, that husbands and wives, parents and children live in ordered harmony according to the Word of God; for parents who must raise children alone; for our communities and neighborhoods.

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