My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ
WEEK 52
LIVING A TRANSFORMED LIFE
JAMES 2:1-13
My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, "You sit here in a good place," and you say to the poor man, "You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool," have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?
Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?
If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. For He who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not commit murder." Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.
ALMIGHTY GOD, we are privileged to call You our Father.
You loved us and saved us and adopted us
into Your own family. You have therefore called us as believers
to love one another with pure hearts fervently.1
That includes not showing partiality,
which is one important way of fulfilling the royal law
of loving our neighbors as ourselves. Help us abound in love,
and keep us from making ungodly distinctions
between one another. May our actions toward one another reflect the perfect love
with which You first loved us.
We take to heart how Christ taught us to pray,
yearning for Your name to be hallowed, Your kingdom to come, and Your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Those are the true desires of our hearts;
forgive us for being so preoccupied with lesser things.
And yet You also invite us to ask You for our temporal needs—
our daily bread and other needs, all of which You richly supply. Always You answer with surpassingly more abundance
than we have faith to ask or think.2
We drink our fill of that abundance;
and You keep it flowing like a river. For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.3
May we never forget how dependent we are
on Your generous bounty; give us truly grateful hearts, and fill our mouths with praise.
How thankful we are for the written Word—
that razor-sharp two-edged sword, which is able to discern our thoughts and intentions4
even more accurately than we can know our own hearts.5
The Word cleanses and sanctifies us.6
It gives understanding to our minds,
wisdom to our thoughts, and light to our path.7
It is perfect, utterly transfiguring our inmost beings.8
May our lives—like the apostles'—
be so evidently transformed by Your truth
that people will take note that we have been with Jesus.9
You, our great Redeemer, have led us out of the desert of sin
into a flourishing place of righteousness. Lead us into a still-wider garden of holiness
so that we can fully enjoy all the hopes, comforts, and responsibilities of our salvation. In that garden Your inspired Word is the seed
that will bring forth good fruit according to its kind.10
May Your Spirit enlighten our minds
so we understand and obey Your Word. May His light shine through us to needy people throughout the world
so that they might recognize and submit to Your divine power. No matter how great or how humble our labors,
help us do them well as a blessing to You and others. These things we ask, Father, in the name of Christ Your Son.
To You be all glory in the church
and in Christ Jesus
to all generations forever and ever.11 Amen.
1. 1 Peter 1:22
2. Ephesians 3:20 3. Psalm 36:8-9 4. Hebrews 4:12 5. Jeremiah 17:9 6. John 15:3 7. Psalm 119:104-5 8. Psalm 19:7 9. Acts 4:13 10. Psalm 1:1-3 11. Ephesians 3:21
APPENDIX: PRAYERS ON HOLY SEASONS
A CHRISTMAS PRAYER: PROCLAIMING CHRIST'S HUMBLE
BIRTH
PHILIPPIANS 2:1-11
Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
OUR GREAT AND GRACIOUS GOD,
no language on earth has words sufficient to give voice to our praise
when we contemplate all that Christ has done for us.
How could we ever thank You enough
for sending Your own dear Son from heaven to earth in the form of a lowly, common-born human baby to be our Redeemer and Substitute? The fullness of His condescension and sacrifice,
His humble obedience to the point of death— even death on a cross— is beyond our mind's grasp. It makes us eager for the time
when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to Your glory, Father.
Heaven awaits a more suitable tribute
than we are now capable of offering, and it will be our joy to fill all eternity with unbounded praise.
Our hearts are humbled and our minds taken captive
by the reality that Christ left the glory of heaven
to enter the world of humanity in so humble a fashion. He was born like us, so that we might become like Him. He made Himself a servant to show us how to lead. He gave His life that we might live. He suffered so that we can share in His glory.
We praise You for the ineffable wisdom of Christ's incarnation. His person deity and humanity
are united in an indivisible unity. Thus He could die on our behalf as one of us, yet remain sinless.1
Now He intercedes for us as both God and man—
the perfect mediator.2
He is Immanuel—God with us.3
He is the living proof that God is for us,
and if our God is for us, we know that no one can prevail against us.4
Make these truths more precious in our sight
than any of the empty pleasures of this world. This world could never give any gift equal to the gift of Christ.
We confess, dear Father, that of all earthly creatures
we are the least worthy to have Christ to become one of us
and sacrifice His life for our redemption. The enormity of our sin is a scandal. The sheer number of our transgressions is staggering. The many deliberate ways we have rebelled are shameful. Our culpability is beyond question. The weight of guilt that we have accumulated is frightful. And yet Christ took the full burden of all our sin and disgrace
and stood in our place to receive the due judgment. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift to us.5
In response we can only offer our highest words of praise—
knowing how utterly feeble our best worship is, compared to the matchless worth of Christ. Give us more suitable expressions of gratitude. Fill us with hope and assurance. Steady our erratic and error-prone walk. Conform us to Christ's likeness and help us to walk in His steps. And may our lives thus honor Him better
than our tongues are able. We ask these things in His blessed name. Amen.
1. Hebrews 2:14 2. 1 Timothy 2:5 3. Matthew 1:18-23
4. Romans 8:31 5. 2 Corinthians 9:15
AN EASTER PRAYER: SHARING IN
CHRIST'S RESURRECTION LIFE
JOHN 20:1-18
Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him."
So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. The two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first; and stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there; but he did not go in. And so Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself.
So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. So the disciples went away again to their own homes. But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus
had been lying. And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?"
She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him." When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?"
Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, "Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away."
Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, "Rabboni!" (which means, Teacher).
Jesus said to her, "Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, 'I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.' "
Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and that He had said these things to her.
PRECIOUS FATHER, we marvel
that You sent Your Son to redeem this fallen world. We are filled with wonder at the thought
that He took on human flesh
and willingly experienced crucifixion, death, and burial. We marvel even more that He rose from the dead. The empty grave calls forth our adoring honor! It is an emblem of assurance for us
and the most vivid earthly symbol of heaven's hope.
We know beyond question that Christ rose bodily
because all four Gospels attest to that fact. Moreover, the apostles and hundreds of other eyewitnesses
all faithfully proclaimed the truth of the resurrection.1
Never was their testimony seriously challenged
by contradictory witnesses, nor has their collective witness ever been refuted. Rather, history vindicates it. The church affirms it. The powerful influence of the gospel proves it conclusively. Our hearts' experience knows it well,
for just as Christ was raised physically from the dead
by Your glory, we too were spiritually resurrected to walk in newness of life.2
The life we now live in the flesh
we live by faith in the Son of God,
who loved us and gave Himself for us.3
We thank You that our old self was crucified4
so that we might live again. May we earnestly seek to live always
in the power of Christ's resurrection.5
May we devote all our energies
to knowing Him who said,
"I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me
will never die."6
Christ's resurrection is the precious truth
that vindicates His atoning work. It is the seal of Your approval on the great sacrifice He offered—
laying down His life for our sakes. He was raised for our justification;7
brought up from the dead as proof our sins were fully forgiven. Thus because of the resurrection we know with settled assurance
that all our transgressions have been removed from us
as far as the east is from the west.8
We thank You for that forgiveness, Father. May we celebrate
not only by worshiping You now on our knees, but also by never wandering from Your perfect will.
May we be both holy and full of joy
as we think about what it means to have life that is eternal
through union with the risen and ever-living Christ! Grant us grace to persevere to the end. May the truth and the power of the resurrection
permeate our thoughts, control every aspect of our living, and extend from us to those who will see
the glorious transformation of resurrection power. We thank You for all You have done for Your people. In the holy name of Christ we pray. Amen.
1. 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 2. Romans 6:4 3. Galatians 2:20 4. Romans 6:5 5. Philippians 3:10 6. John 11:25 7. Romans 4:25 8. Psalm 103:12