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, May 6
Colossians 1:24-2:7. I am completing what is lacking in Christ's afflictions.
Was something lacking in Christ's afflictions? Was his dying on the cross insufficient in some way? And if so, did Paul (as he seems to say here) complete what Christ had merely begun? The Atonement has long baffled me; I don't understand how Christ's suffering saves people. But I have always been able to see his suffering as a sign of God's presence with us when we suffer, which is to say, a sign of God's love. Nothing is lacking in that love, for God has gone the whole way with us. When we weep, when everything is lost or seems lost, our God doesn't send us a greeting card to say he's thinking of us. God is right here with us, in the ditch, weeping alongside us. God knows exactly what we are feeling, having felt it himself.
What is lacking, sometimes, is a love returned. God's giving of himself is often the only giving there is. A one-way gift does not build a relationship, but a relationship is what God longs for and what we need. When we respond in kind and become willing to suffer for others as God suffers for us, we complete that relationship.
PRAY for the Diocese of Oji River (Province II, Nigeria)
Ps 119:49-72 * 49, [53]; Wisdom 4:16-5:8; Luke 6:27-38
View the daily Lectionary Readings at Satucket.com.
Or view the Bible passages at Biblegateway.com.
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