Tag: word

Your King Comes to You

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(Zechariah 9:9-10)

Rejoice and shout – two things that weren’t very prominent during the six weeks of the season of Lent. Even with the additional services on Wednesday evenings, the spirit of worship was not so much one of rejoicing and shouting, but rather repenting and sorrow. While this is an appropriate attitude and approach during a season marked by penitence and confession, Zechariah now implores us to turn the frowns upside down and rejoice and shout. And Palm Sunday, marking the start of Holy Week, certainly sets the tone for such exuberance, amidst processions of palms accompanied by shouts of Hosanna. 

Indeed, isn’t it always true that God’s people can rejoice and shout? Whether times are good or bad, the believer has every reason to rejoice and shout, doesn’t he… doesn’t she?

Or not? Is there too much gloom in our lives, clouding our view and keeping us from rejoicing or shouting? Does some past sin with its present consequences still haunt you today? Or does it trouble you that your sins don’t bother you more? Are you right now dealing with something so heavy that it feels like you’re in a fog and life just continues, not slowing down to wait for you to catch up? Is life in general just really putting the squeeze on you right now, so that one thing just seems to keep piling on another?

We often feel like this because we’re not so great at keeping the spiritual at the forefront of our lives. I tell people I have the easiest job in the world, which is true, but at times it’s also the most frustrating, because of how easily overlooked the spiritual side of things is in our lives. I get to listen a lot, so I hear lots of struggles and challenges. And, while I don’t want to diminish the role of pastoral care of discernment, as important as they are, I will say that an awful lot of what I do and say as a pastor is simply asking questions like, “Does the Bible say anything about that?” “Did Jesus provide us with any promises that might apply to that?” So what is the frustrating part? That we sometimes seem to be so incapable as believers of incorporating such questions and considerations into our day-to-day lives. 

Others may be better at looking to their Savior and his Word during such times… and still struggle to find reason to rejoice and shout. When we feel that way, it is probably for one of two reasons: 1) we’re trying too hard, or 2) we’re not trying hard enough.

We’re trying too hard when we imagine that Jesus came to make heaven possible, but that it now depends on us to get there. This can show itself when our own perfectionist tendencies don’t allow us to live in the joy of unconditional grace. We want the both/and of grace and rule following, and procedure, and policy, and consequences, and… etc. What may really get under our skin is our constant observation of others not really measuring up as Christians. “A Christian shouldn’t… a Christian should… that’s not very Christian… etc.” We know the Bible says Jesus did it all, but what that really means in my mind is that he’s now watching to see if I do my part. We’re trying too hard, and insist that the joy of Christianity is not found mostly in what Jesus did, but mostly in what he calls me to do. No wonder such Christians seem to lack joy in their lives!

We’re not trying hard enough when we treat forgiveness as an endless commodity that frees us to be lazy and unconcerned about living good lives. So, rather than allowing grace to spur us on and drive us to live stand-up lives, we’re quick to gloss over our sins with, “It’s OK, we’re forgiven.”

No, it’s not OK! Yes, we are forgiven, but sin is never OK, and never should we be OK with it or even comfortable with it. That’s not at all why God extends his grace to us. And when we try so little in our Christian living, and our effort is so minimal, should we wonder why grace and forgiveness have lost their luster? We no longer stand in awe of how loving and gracious our forgiving God is because we’ve lowered the bar so much in our Christian living. We don’t even realize how much we’re dragging God down and diminishing him when we do that. So why would a believer in that case find reason to rejoice or shout?  

God’s people at the time of Zechariah didn’t see much reason to rejoice or shout, either. They had already been centuries removed from their golden age under King David. Their nation had split in two, with the Northern Kingdom going into exile first, followed by the Southern Kingdom being transplanted to Babylon. Now that a contingent had been allowed to return back to their homeland, it was a far cry from what they had recalled. Not only did their homes need rebuilding, but what was left of the temple, their place of worship, only served as a painful reminder of how far from glory they had fallen. What was there to rejoice about? Why shout anything other than laments and cries of despair? 

Zechariah gave them a good reason to rejoice and shout. “See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (v.9). With remarkable precision, Zechariah brought into focus the blurry image of the future, the time when God’s people would experience a glory that wouldn’t simply rival that of King David, but would surpass it. That time would be when David’s greater Son, the Messiah, would arrive to fight the most important battle ever to be fought – the battle that would determine where souls spend eternity.

Zechariah gives us a good reason to rejoice and shout. Let’s avoid either extreme of trying too hard or not trying hard enough and look with fresh eyes and ears at what the prophet Zechariah is actually telling us. “See, your king comes to you…” (v.9). Pause. Let it sink in. Take note of the careful word choice the Spirit led Zechariah to use. This is not just any king, but “your” king. This is not some foreign superpower coming for conquest, coming to conquer you and subject you to his wrath or oppression; he is your king. 

And he is coming to you. That’s not the way it’s supposed to work! If there is a need or a request, it’s brought to the king. The people of the kingdom go to the king and humbly beg an audience with him to plead their case. They hope their request is not unwarranted or out of order, so that it doesn’t result in punishment or wrath. That’s how the relationship is supposed to work. The king sits atop his throne and hears this case and that as they are brought before him.

But the king Zechariah speaks of comes to us! What does that say about you and me? What does that say about him? How highly the king must think of his people to approach them and not the other way around (as it is with all other religions)!

And, how does he come? Backed by an army to destroy us and make us his subjects? Not at all, but righteous and victorious. To those trying too hard to stake a claim in their salvation by earning it, what is left to earn or work for if the king of righteousness – your king of righteousness – comes for you? He brings his righteousness with him, for you. He has no need of your attempts at righteousness. Ours will never measure up to his anyway. He alone is perfect. Holy. Righteous before God. Stop trying so hard to earn the righteousness he alone has secured and which he alone freely gives. Instead, rejoice! Shout! 

And to you not trying hard enough, can you really go about your life unaffected and unfazed by the victory he came to win for you? Can you treat it so casually and with such indifference that it doesn’t cause you to want to eagerly be his subject and serve and thank him in every way possible? Can we be so unresponsive and uncaring toward our king who came to bring us security and safety by his victory? Can we go through so much of this life without a yearning desire to know this king better and to prioritize our relationship with our victorious and righteous king?

Especially when we know him by name. We have the unique and blessed privilege of seeing Zechariah’s depiction come to life in Matthew’s Gospel. In chapter 21, Matthew tells us the crowds shouted (cf. v.9) and that the whole city was stirred (cf. v.10). Zechariah’s prophecy was unfolding on the first Palm Sunday! Yes, it was Jesus on the first Palm Sunday who entered Jerusalem “lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (v.9). Rejoice! Shout!

We know that Zechariah was talking about Jesus, and we know that Jesus came just as Zechariah said he would. And, we know why Jesus came into Jerusalem. It was to fulfill the rest of what Zechariah promised God’s people. Our king promised, “I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth” (v.10). But for Jesus to proclaim peace, he had to first secure it.

For those in Zechariah’s day, nor even in Jesus’ day, our king didn’t come to us to secure that peace on a battlefield or by some ground-breaking military strategy. It wasn’t a peace from worldly rulers like Pilate. It wasn’t to overthrow Rome. The peace he came to bring would require a cross and a sacrifice – his own.

You sense the crowd’s disappointment over the course of Holy Week as this reality sank in. The king of righteousness and victory rode into Jerusalem to finally restore Israel to its former glory, only to end up in what looked like defeat at the hands of Rome, hoisted up on display like so many others who tried to challenge Rome’s mighty power. 

Little did they know, and little do far too many still today know, he was victorious! He did secure peace! By the very cross that looked like failure, he extended not just his arms to die, but his very life to forgive the sins of all people, bringing reconciliation between rebel sinners and their righteous God. Yes, the events that unfold this Holy Week are why he is – and we are – able to proclaim peace to the nations. Rejoice! Shout!

Let that peace first dwell in your own heart. It will, when you take your foot off the gas and stop trying to manufacture the perfect life/marriage/family. It will, when you stop pretending that what you’re really looking for is on the other side of overspending, over-scheduling, over-working, and over-exerting yourself. You’ll find that peace when you stop looking for it and realize that in Jesus, it has already found you. “See, your king comes to you…” (v.9).

He came to you. He comes to us in baptism. He comes to us with his body and blood. He comes to us through his Word. Peace isn’t found in pretending our own self-righteousness gets you closer to him; it’s found in realizing he brought his righteousness and victory to you. That peace in Jesus, your king, is yours right now. Isn’t it time you started actually living in it? 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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For Focused Worship

Heavenly Father,
Sundays are sacred. Nevertheless, they can also be filled with distractions. On their own, such distractions would pose difficult enough challenges for us, but when coupled with our short attention span and inability to focus, worship requires work! Minimize distractions for us while also sharpening our focus and attention. Let the texts of our songs and hymns touch our hearts. When the Word of God is read and preached, enable us to dial in with both our ears and our minds, giving thought to what you are revealing to us. Draw us into a deeper dialogue with you when praying. Make us mindful of the gifts we bring as offerings to you. Take hold of our hearts this morning in worship, and fill them richly with your divine grace and blessing.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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For the Continued Joy of Easter Worship

Heavenly Father,
Sundays are sacred, and none more so than Easter worship last Sunday. And, just as with other milestone events and holiday highs, sometimes we feel the emotional swing of letdown in the days or weeks that follow. Let it not be so with Easter! The Resurrection isn’t a one-and-done, but an ongoing, eternal reality for us. The tomb is still empty. Jesus still lives, and always will, and so will we. Lead your faithful followers back to fill up churches again this week, to still listen with wonder as the blessings of the Resurrection keep unfolding in Scripture, and to sing aloud the Easter hymns with all the exuberant joy of Easter Sunday. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

Life

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(John 11:17-45)

If you’re familiar with John chapter 11, then you have already stood in awe of the rock-solid faith of both Mary & Martha. Martha professed to Jesus her confidence in the Resurrection when she stated that she knew her brother would be raised on the last day. “Martha answered, ‘I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day’” (v.24). In one beautiful confession, she acknowledged believing both that Jesus would return on the last day and that when he did, all believers would rise again, including her brother. 

Yet her faith was not just a forward-looking faith; in looking backward, it also assured her of how differently her brother’s sickness could have ended. “‘Lord,’ Martha said to Jesus, ‘if you had been here, my brother would not have died’” (v.21). We see Mary demonstrate the exact same confidence. “When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died’” (v.32). Subtle as it might be, notice they don’t express mere optimism that it could have gone differently if Jesus had arrived earlier, saving Lazarus from death, but complete confidence that it would have gone differently because Jesus would have healed him. 

First of all, where does this kind of faith come from? To get the full picture, I think that any time we come across John 11, it should always be read with Luke 10 in mind. That’s where Luke records for us the account of Jesus at the home of Mary and Martha, long before Lazarus had even been sick. At that time, Martha was busying herself tidying up the house and preparing food for Jesus. In her mind, Mary was just sitting around doing nothing while she did all the work.

But Jesus saw it differently. He used that opportunity not to rebuke Martha for her loving service, but to remind her that Mary had made the better choice: to prioritize hearing the Word. Whenever we have the opportunity to listen to Jesus, take it.

Why does that account fit so well with what we have here in John 11? Because it would appear that over the course of time between that visit from Jesus and the death of Lazarus, the sisters took Jesus’ encouragement to heart, prioritized his teachings in their lives, and their faith was strengthened as a result. That would explain the sisters’ beautiful expression of confident faith that Jesus would have healed Lazarus if he had arrived earlier. 

Of course, that kind of faith comes with a catch, doesn’t it? When we know what God can do, it can lead us to struggle when he doesn’t. Some who were present expressed that very struggle when they witnessed all of the grieving and sadness caused by the death of Lazarus. “But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’” (v.37). If he was able to act, then why didn’t he?

As you faced the ugly, gut-wrenching reality of the death of someone close to you, perhaps you’ve had similar questions weigh heavily on you. You’ve wondered it previously: why didn’t Jesus, who reveals in Scripture both that he can heal disease and raise others from the dead, why didn’t he intervene when it came to my father, my mother, my spouse, my loved one? He could have, but instead, he did nothing. Why? Well-intentioned fellow Christians have tried to provide every possible response to appease this frustration, but their answers don’t satisfy us. We still come back to this: “if God could have, then why didn’t he?”

Or, like Martha, you’ve both confessed and struggled with the reality of a Savior who was capable of healing and holding off death, but did not. “But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask” (v.22). Do you hear the confident trust in her words, coupled with the longing of what her heart truly desires? She both expresses confidence that Jesus had the power to save her brother from dying, but also that, “it’s not too late, Lord – and I am optimistic that even now you can choose to grant my heart’s desire and raise my brother from the dead.”

Is it too much to ask of God to somehow have asked even this sort of miracle in the life of my loved one? Why not a miracle? Why not my loved one? Was my loved one not worthy of this type of death-defying miracle that Lazarus received? Am I not worthy of it? 

Before we allow Jesus to address and answer these questions, we want to remember how God himself feels about death. And, like no other account in Scripture, this event provides us with a powerful example.

At the beginning of this whole narrative, we see the risk Jesus was willing to take to deal with death: his disciples were afraid for his own life! When Jesus shared his desire to go to Lazarus, they were shocked. “‘But Rabbi,’ they said, ‘a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?’” (v.8). They realized Jesus was putting himself in danger by going anywhere near Lazarus, where he would be putting himself right back in the thick of those trying to kill him. Is there really any question if Jesus cares about people dying when he’s willing to put his own life on the line to do something about it???

We also experience Lazarus’ death from Jesus’ perspective. “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ‘Where have you laid him?’ he asked. ‘Come and see, Lord,’ they replied. Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ (v.33-36). “Jesus wept!” And it wasn’t just because he missed his friend – the one he was going to raise back to life in just a moment! – but also because he personally witnessed firsthand the devastating effect death has on people in this world. 

How much does God care? Since Jesus came into this broken world, let’s not presume he doesn’t care about death or loss. He’s actually the One person able to do something about it. And he showed it powerfully with Lazarus. “So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.’ When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, ‘Take off the grave clothes and let him go’” (John 11:41-44). Can we question if God really cares about people dying after a miracle like this? Hardly!

But we must go further, because Jesus also knows what happens to those who die physically who are also spiritually dead at the same time: that they are lost forever to hell. God expressed this concern through the prophet Ezekiel, saying, “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11). So yes, God certainly cares about death, and far more than we could imagine, as his heart is concerned not just about the pain of needing to plan a funeral, but the possibility of being lost eternally. 

But we must go further still. Why did Jesus raise Lazarus? Was it simply to dry the tears of mourning loved ones? To undo the sting of death?

He revealed it by his own words when he spoke to his Father, explaining the deeper intent behind this miraculous occasion, “that they may believe you sent me” (v.42). God knows our greatest need: faith in him! God knows there is no hope for anyone who does not believe.

Even before Jesus arrived at the gravesite, he had already said the same thing to his disciples. “[Jesus] told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe” (v.14-15). God knows our greatest need: faith in him! God can do so much more than raise a corpse to be alive again; he can bring dead souls to be spiritually alive, guaranteeing not just an extension of a longer life here on earth for a few more years, but for an eternity! 

And his raising of Lazarus from the dead didn’t just bring Lazarus back for a few years, but rescued souls for eternity. “Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him” (v.45).

Isn’t that how God operates? We have tunnel vision, focusing on the one thing, and all the while God is thinking of the bigger picture. He gave sisters back their dead brother, but he gave who-knows-how-many onlookers the greatest gift of all: saving faith in him. They heard Jesus’ powerful words and saw them in action with their own eyes, and through it, the Holy Spirit gifted them with faith and eternal life. Jesus gave so much more than just life to the dead!

The resurrection of Lazarus was not a promise that God will miraculously raise our loved ones from the dead here and now.

It’s a promise much greater than that.

God WILL raise all those in Christ on the Last Day, and it will be forever. God knows our desire and exceeds what we could ask for by promising not just a few more years together in this short blip of life that barely even registers on the timeline of eternity, but he promises forever together for all who believe in him. 

Lazarus died again. You will die. I will die. We will all have our own John 11 story. But it’s not the dying that sets us apart. We have that in common with all people. Everyone dies.

But what sets us apart, what is uniquely shared among us and all believers, is that we know the One who lived again. We know the One who still lives. We know the One who will live forever. And through faith in him, we know that we, too, will live with him forever, together with all of our loved ones who in faith fall asleep in Jesus. 

Water

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(John 4:5-26)

The Word of God can be a challenging book to read. It can be difficult to see the big picture of how it all fits together. It can be frustrating to wrestle with why God thought certain sections were worth including in Scripture. Remembering where a certain narrative is recorded or which book includes this verse isn’t always so easy. Struggling with doubts about why the Bible is the one religious book we can trust, while all the others are man-made fabrications that lead people astray. It can all be overwhelming.

This is why it is good for us to sit alongside Jesus and the woman at the well. It’s as if we are right there with them, longing for a rest, taking some time to slow down, pause, and recover with the refreshing interaction between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. After all, to make sense of the Bible, to sort it all out, is to see Jesus and spend time with Jesus. Only when we know him do the pieces of the puzzle start to fall into place. Through time spent with Jesus, we get a glimpse into the window of the very heart of God.

We see a Savior packing all of the work of soul-saving and salvation into his short, three-decade-long life, taking time out of his ridiculously busy schedule for just one soul. To see him care so much, to be so invested in one heart, to cast aside all cultural taboos and any faux pas because the eternity of even one soul matters more to him than the opinion of others and how he comes off – this is to know God as he wants to be known. So let us enjoy our time together as quiet bystanders in awe of Jesus’ love for people, for individuals, as he provides exactly what this woman – and we – need. 

First things first, how and why did Jesus get to this point? Our account begins rather abruptly with a “so,” leaving us wondering what preceded. What preceded was an explanation of why Jesus had to be on the move. He had been in an area with a high population of religious leaders. They were starting to take note of Jesus’ influence, which was surpassing that of John the Baptist. It may have been that Jesus didn’t want to draw more of their attention and have to worry about more frequent interactions with religious opposition at this point in his ministry. It may have been that Jesus didn’t want to lend to the perception that he and John the Baptist were rivals. Or, since it wasn’t going to be too long before John the Baptist would find himself in prison, Jesus may have left to avoid a similar fate. 

On top of all of those considerations, geographically speaking, there were other roads Jesus could have traveled to avoid going through the heart of Samaria. Many Jewish people would do just that to avoid the unfavorable shadow of a “purebred” Jewish person having to have anything to do with a “mutt” Samaritan.

But right before this interaction, John records for us, “Now he had to go through Samaria” (John 4:4). “Had to,” didn’t mean there were no alternative roads he could have taken to avoid Samaria, because we know there were. No, “had to” means that this encounter was divinely appointed. It was slated to happen on God’s eternal planner that Jesus would radically impact not just one woman’s life, but, as a result of this very encounter, that many in the whole town would eventually come to call him their Savior by faith.  

She was slow to get it at first, as we all are. But, given the circumstances, it’s understandable that she was not expecting any conversation to unfold with this weary traveler by the well. Not only did the man initiate the conversation with a woman, which was culturally uncoomon on its own, but she recognized, likely by his dialect, that he was a Jew, prompting her shocked response at being asked for a drink. “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) (v.9). No upstanding Jew would have been willing to drink from the bowl or cup of a Samaritan. 

Take note, however, of how Jesus responds – not just to this inquiry, but to each concern the woman expresses. Rather than diving into a treatise on the past and present relations between Jews and Samaritans, Jesus begins to direct the conversation to the one thing that mattered most. She needed to understand and ultimately believe that he came to bring her not what she thought she wanted, but what she needed: eternal salvation. 

Even as Jesus steered the conversation toward the spiritual, referring to the “gift of God,” making mention of who was asking her for a drink, speaking of “living water,” and finally even mentioning “eternal life,” still her reply demonstrated she wasn’t tracking. “The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water’” (v.15). Figuratively speaking, she was still looking down into the well, when Jesus was leading her to look up to the heavens. She was stuck on the physical and temporal, while Jesus longed to turn her attention to the spiritual and eternal. 

You ever have that kind of frustrating conversation? The one where you are gradually trying to ease your way into a tough or challenging discussion that needs to happen, and the other person doesn’t pick up on what you’re really talking about? More often than not, those situations are our own fault, because we’re not speaking clearly and we’re expecting the other person to do the heavy lifting in the conversation. We’re trying to avoid saying what we should actually just come out and say and hoping the other person picks up on it and connects the dots. Then we’re the ones who get angry when they don’t, when it’s really our fault that we aren’t communicating clearly. 

This case, though, was not one of Jesus lacking clarity in his communication; rather, it was an example of the chasm that exists between fallen sinners and a righteous God. If you need a reminder of how wide that chasm is, just look at how thick the Bible is! We’re so obtuse and spiritually clueless that God needed to record one account after another to show us our lost condition. He needed to cover every possible path someone might think they could pursue, only to arrive at a dead end every time.

In its simplest form, God’s law is easily summed up with the word “love.” “Love me,” God says, “and love your neighbor.” That’s it! But for us to see how miserably we fail at it, God records take after take throughout history of people failing at loving him and others perfectly. To our shame and embarrassment, he has to spell out specifically the countless ways we violate his command to love.

Jesus’ next request of the woman shows just that. “He told her, ‘Go, call your husband and come back’” (v.16). In an effort to officially shift the conversation into the spiritual realm, Jesus brings up her current living situation, knowing full well it will raise the issue that needs the most attention: the condition of her heart. That’s what God’s law does. It reveals what we think is hidden. It shows what we think can be covered. It displays what we feel can be tucked safely away unnoticed. And she realized it.

Her reply shows that her awareness has shifted from the physical to the spiritual. “‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem’” (v.19-20).

Some take the view that the woman was attempting to change the topic away from the matter of her adultery. However, it seems just as plausible that she realizes the conversation is a spiritual one, her sin has been exposed, and now she is naturally focused on what to do about it. So she asks about the right way to worship, presuming that must be the way to go about it. She wants to see if this man, who is obviously a prophet, may have insight into the right way to worship. 

By nature, that’s how we operate, isn’t it? In some way or another, when we do wrong, get caught or called out, or just plain feel guilty about it, we naturally resort to thinking about what we must do to make everything right. Indeed, though it may not revolve around a building or a Sunday morning service, for many, that’s really their understanding of worship, isn’t it? Many view worship as the required activity that we have to keep up with to counter all of the ways we’ve violated God’s law of love. We want God to just tell us how to make things right so we can carry on with our lives. 

But Jesus shoots down that idea when he explains to the woman that she’s asking the wrong question, and that worship isn’t about finding the right location, but about something else entirely. He explains that “salvation is from the Jews” (v.22), and as such, what matters far more than location, religious rites, or even right behavior, is worshipping “in Spirit and in truth” (v.22 & 23). In other words, worship that is pleasing to God is not a matter of doing the right thing, but of having the right heart. And Jesus qualifies that by adding that it’s also a matter of truth. Because without the truth, our hearts would only succeed in driving us further away from God. 

So what is the truth? Jesus made it known to the woman with his final big reveal. The Messiah – the Savior – she was waiting for, was the very one to whom she was speaking! He alone could promise to satisfy not just dry lips and a parched throat, but a dehydrated soul, with his living water that wells up to eternal life. Jesus could provide what none of her past or current relationships ever could: a heart cleansed and purified by the living water of salvation. 

Friends, it isn’t easy. We are tired. We are worn out. We are thirsty. But don’t make matters worse by seeking to satisfy your thirst with worldly stuff that will only leave you in a worse condition. Drink up. Guzzle in all the grace you can. It will not run out. It will not fail to quench your thirst. It will not disappoint. It will leave you, too, with a clean conscience and a heart that is whole. Less of what will only leave you thirsty again and more of what will never leave you thirsty. More of Jesus and the living water only he can provide. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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For Palm Sunday Worship

Heavenly Father,
Sundays are sacred. While Christ-centered worship is always edifying, some Sundays of the church year highlight the especially significant events of our Savior’s life and ministry. This morning is one such Sunday, on which we remember and celebrate the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. Thank you for the Son’s humble service and selfless spirit, being willing to arrive in the very city that would sentence him to death. Today marks the first day of the holiest week of the year. Bless Palm Sunday worshippers everywhere who gather today to follow the Savior in faith to the upper room, to the cross, and ultimately to the empty tomb. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Prioritize Growing in My Faith

Holy Spirit,
Prompt me to prioritize my spiritual growth. As with any growth or learning, spiritual growth doesn’t happen accidentally or unintentionally. If I don’t plan for time to read, study, and apply your Word, it’s rather foolish of me to assume I will grow in my faith. Guide me in sorting out my schedule so that I eliminate distractions and hindrances, including anything that may be harmless but not productive. Help me set up boundaries to protect my intentions to deepen my faith. Fill me with the necessary self-discipline to move forward in setting up and establishing these paths for pursuing your righteousness.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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For Christ to Be Exalted Through Places of Worship

Heavenly Father,
Sundays are sacred. When believers gather in church for worship, they experience so much that points to Jesus. The means of grace – the gospel in Word and the sacraments of Holy Communion and Baptism – will always remain front and center. But do not let the richness of liturgical worship or the design and details of the worship space be lost on worshippers, either. Bible stories stained in glass help us fix our thoughts on Jesus. The placement of the baptismal font reassures us that we belong to your family through baptism. The cross and the altar lead us to recall your precious sacrifice for our sins. Christian symbols on display help cement Christian doctrine and teaching. May churches always give thought to the rich variety of ways Christ is proclaimed, and may worshippers always be edified and drawn closer to their Savior through them.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Enrich Prayer Lives Within Marriages

Gracious Father,
When a man and a woman are joined together in marriage, the two become one. This unity, this oneness, is expressed in many different ways between a husband and his wife. One area in which any marriage can grow in expressing that unity is prayer. Strengthen the prayer lives of husbands and wives, not just individually, but together as well. When husbands and wives pray together, and their prayers are directed by your Word, they are brought closer to each other and to you. When they share the concerns that weigh on them and reveal requests from their hearts, they open a window into each other that fosters intimacy and connection. Draw spouses together frequently in prayer, hear their prayers, and enrich their marriages as you bless their prayers with your loving responses.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Keep Christ at the Center of My Faith

Holy Spirit,
The work that you do in bringing people to faith, growing them in their faith, and keeping them in their faith is all carried out in the same way: through Jesus. While all Christians will agree, not all Christians are discerning enough to be aware of how much “Christian” content lacks Christ. The Scriptures have so much to teach us about doctrine and Christian living, but never apart from Jesus. Since the Bible is a testimony about Christ, whatever media and content we consume ought to also point us to Christ. Make us aware of his absence in anything that passes itself off as Christian, and equip us to either correct it or avoid it altogether. Feed and nurture our faith by keeping our faith focused on our faithful Substitute and Savior.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.