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.
MONDAY, January 31
Psalm 57. My heart is firmly fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and make melody.
There is a faculty called attention, which we ought to use more than we do. It is the fixing of our minds on some one thing.
What you look at, what you are interested in, what you pay attention to, is what molds your character. Every teacher knows this. But this fact is even more important for the spiritual life than for education.
The trouble with some of us is that we haven’t been paying attention to the things of the soul, not giving much thought to God. We have been putting our minds on other things. We have neglected the things that would have reminded us of God—worship in church, reading the Bible, the life of prayer and service.
If we choose, we can attend to God. This would seem to have been Christ’s great object—to fix our attention on him, to make us grow intensely interested in him. Conversion takes place only when someone takes an entire and intense interest in Jesus Christ, and the Christian life consists in paying constant attention to him. (1941)
PRAY for the Diocese of Lweru (Tanzania)
Ps 56, 57, [58] * 64, 65; Isaiah 51:17-23; Galatians 4:1-11; Mark 7:24-37
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A Meditation for Pentecost
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