Tap here for a meditation on Psalm 109.

Today is Ash Wednesday.

Take the psalmist as your model for prayer. Trust in God gives him space to express rage at injustice in words that even include cursing his enemies and wishing them destruction.

When we are angry with someone, we may feel like harming him or her. Begin to pray when anger surges. Give your thoughts and feelings to the Lord. Anger is best spent in the arena of prayer. You will come to that place of resting in the Spirit where you will move beyond anger at your enemies, to compassion for them, which ignites desires for their salvation.

We come to feel about others by the way in which we think about them. However, if we go further and pray for them, as Jesus teaches us, then our hearts will find peace, and joy will return.

Psalm 109

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More
Example: Be not silent, God of praise. v. 1

We follow a reading of the Psalms in numerical order.
For this week we have drawn from the First Week in Pentecost due to an Easter
one week later than its mid-range dates, April 10 – 16.

For all the Firestarters I recommend the ebook.  You will have the entire program of well over a thousand of these introductions with you on your phone or tablet. Check the menu options at the site for more information

Hold each proverb in the palm of your hand, contemplating every one as you would a precious jewel. Feel the texture, admire the colors, and listen inwardly as each one speaks to your heart. Taste the wisdom offered to your spirit.

Verse 6 is a way of talking about “tough love.” Verse 8 relates to being at home with God and God with you … wherever you are.

There is a prayer in the 1965 Book of Worship for the Methodist Church that incorporates verse 1: “Since we know not what a day may bring forth, but only that the hour for serving thee is always present, may we wake to the instant claims of thy holy will, not waiting for tomorrow, but yielding today. Consecrate with thy presence the way our feet may go; and the humblest work will shine and the roughest places be made plain …” Receive God into your heart, moment by moment.

Proverbs 27

What are Bible Breaths? Learn More…
Example: Human spirit: lamp of God v. 27

Tuesdays are dedicated to the Old Testament books of history
and the Hebrew “Writings.”
In the season of Advent to Epiphany this year, we read Ruth, Esther and Proverbs 7 to 9.

 

For all the Firestarters I recommend the ebook.  You will have the entire program of well over a thousand of these introductions with you on your phone or tablet. Check the menu options at the site for more information