Forward Movement is an official, non-profit agency of the Episcopal Church whose mission is to create compelling content for Christian living. Since 1935 we have published the quarterly devotional Forward Day by Day, as well as pamphlets, booklets, and books that encourage and nourish people in their lives of prayer and faith.
FRIDAY, January 27
Genesis 17:15-27. Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?
Abraham is having a hard time believing God. His wife Sarah is ninety, and God claims she will have a child. After years of trying to conceive, Abraham and Sarah had accepted that they would be childless. Their friends all had great-great-grandchildren by now. Pregnant at ninety? I had children in my late thirties and sometimes felt I was too old! God made an unlikely choice.
Bob Geldof is the rock singer who organized “Live Aid” in 1985, a multicontinent rock concert that raised funds and awareness for hunger in Africa. In his memoir Is That It?, he quotes a Life magazine journalist who captured the unlikeliness of him—a foul-mouthed, sacrilegious rock singer—being the one to spearhead this movement: “God had come down from heaven to find someone to undertake the task of alerting the world to the holocaust which was sweeping the continent of Africa. But…knocked at the wrong door. It was answered by Bob Geldof. ‘Who the hell is he?’ thought God. ‘Oh, never mind, he’ll do.’ ”
Out of a barren womb comes a child. Even with unlikely choices—sometimes like you and me—God’s purposes are worked out.
PRAY for the Diocese of Amichi (Nigeria)
Ps 40, 54 * 51; Hebrews 10:11-25; John 6:1-15
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Almighty and eternal God, so draw my heart to you, so guide my mind, so fill my imagination, so control my will, that I may be wholly yours, utterly dedicated to you; and then use me, I pray, as you will, and always, to your glory and the welfare of your people; through my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.