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.
SATURDAY, January 9 (Julia Chester Emery)
Colossians 1:24-2:7. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him... abounding in thanksgiving.
In almost every aspect of our lives, needs outweigh blessings in Sudan. You don't expect to encounter lives abounding in thanksgiving, for there is still so little of anything: food, water, education, medicine, safety. Yet here, people begin all their prayers not with pleas for help with their needs, but with thanksgivings for the blessings of their lives. Thank you, Lord, for bringing us safely through the night. Thank you, Lord, for letting us see this new day. Thank you for this food ... this water ... this medicine for my child ... Here, no blessing, no gift, no matter how small, is taken for granted. Even making it through the night--a given to most people in most places--is not presumed here, but is seen as a true blessing from God on high, who loves the people so much that God protects them even in their darkest hours.
It is humbling to live with people who have so little and yet give such great thanks for God's blessings, even the smallest ones.
PRAY for the Diocese of Ahoada (Province of Niger Delta, Nigeria)
Ps 121, 122, 123 * 131, 132; Isaiah 45:14-19; John 8:12-19
View the daily Lectionary Readings at Satucket.com.
Or view the Bible passages at Biblegateway.com.
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