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.
WEDNESDAY, August 5
Mark 8:34-9:1. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?
"Too late have I loved Thee," wrote Saint Augustine in the fifth century. He was lamenting the fact that he had ordered his life's priorities mistakenly for too long. It is tempting, and so very easy, to believe that things that have no life will give us life. We are bombarded with messages that equate a fulfilled life with possessions, power, prestige, beauty, and wealth. In the end, none of these last and, even more tragically, the unbridled pursuit of them slowly kills. All too often it takes personal misfortune, or at least a near miss, to cause us to realign our priorities.
"Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee," continued Augustine. Jesus said he came that we might have life and have it abundantly. He lived a life of sacrificial love for all. Such a life will not impress others on the freeway or in the board room. It will probably not turn heads on the street. On the other hand, it will sustain us eternally and give us true joy and fulfillment. The choice is always ours.
Our feet tread the dust, but our heart must expand with all the love of heaven, to love all that God loves, to love God in all, to love with the love which God himself gives, and whereby he makes us one with himself.
-Richard Meux Benson
PRAY for the Diocese of Ruaha (Tanzania)
Ps 119:97-120 * 81, 82; 2 Samuel 9:1-13; Acts 19:1-10
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A Meditation for Pentecost
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I have discovered, like Augustine, later than I would like to admit, that I have squandered a large part of my life on "things" when I could have known and experienced sooner the love that God gives to me and to all so freely and abundantly. I praise God, however, that I still have the rest of my life to live for Him, which is my choice.