[Sample]
Daily Devotional Materials
for the
Week of the
Tenth Sunday after Trinity
– Monday –
Devotion
Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me. – Psalm 50:15.
What should induce us to pray? What should encourage us poor, miserable sinners, but who, at the same time, are the children of God, to pray, yes, what should give us even a most earnest desire to do so? In the first place, God’s command. God demands it of us. He says: “Call upon Me!” This is not a hard and harsh command, however, but a most kind and gracious one. And we should be glad that God thus commands us to pray, and we should say to Him: “When Thou saidst, Seek ye my face, my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” (Psalm 27:8.) Secondly, God’s promise should induce us to pray. He says: “I will deliver thee.” And Jesus says: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” (Matthew 7:7.) Could He have given a kinder and more assuring promise? Ought we, therefore, not to pray? St. James is right in saying: “Ye have not because ye ask not.” (James 4:2.) Thirdly, our need should induce us to pray. “Call upon Me in the day of trouble,” says God. Our need is so great and manifold. We are in greater need than we know or even faintly imagine. We are in need of divine help over against the devil, the world, and our own flesh. Our body and soul both are in need. We are in need respecting both this present time and eternity. There can be no greater need than that in which we are every day. And we are entirely unable to help ourselves. Therefore God says: “Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.” Should that not induce us to pray?
PRAYER. – I thank and praise Thee, O gracious God, that Thou commandest me to call on Thee in my need and helplessness. And Thou dost promise to deliver me. O God, let me not stand afar off, neither in dread of Thee nor in self-reliance, but through ThyHoly Spirit grant me grace to flee to Thee, seeking help alone with Thee, who are not only almighty, but are also my gracious Father through Jesus Christ, my Savior. Amen.
When in the hour of utmost need
We know not where to look for aid;
When days and nights of anxious thought
Nor help nor counsel yet have brought:
Then this our comfort is alone,
That we may meet before Thy throne,
And cry, O faithful God, to Thee
For rescue from our misery;
That so with all our hearts we may
Once more our glad thanksgivings pay,
And walk obedient to Thy Word,
And now and ever praise Thee, Lord.
Hymn 515, 1. 2. 7. (ELHB)
Bible Readings
MORNING:
Galatians 2:1-21
2:1 Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also.2 And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain. 3 But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised:4 And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:5 To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.6 But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man’s person:) for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me:7 But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter;8 (For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:)9 And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.10 Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.11 But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.12 For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.13 And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.14 But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?15 We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.17 But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.18 For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
EVENING:
1 Kings 9:1-28
9:1 And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished the building of the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all Solomon’s desire which he was pleased to do,2 That the LORD appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon.3 And the LORD said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.4 And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments:5 Then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel.6 But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them:7 Then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people:8 And at this house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and to this house?9 And they shall answer, Because they forsook the LORD their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the LORD brought upon them all this evil.10 And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD, and the king’s house,11 (Now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and with gold, according to all his desire,) that then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.12 And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they pleased him not. 13 And he said, What cities are these which thou hast given me, my brother? And he called them the land of Cabul unto this day. 14 And Hiram sent to the king sixscore talents of gold.15 And this is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised; for to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.16 For Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city, and given it for a present unto his daughter, Solomon’s wife.17 And Solomon built Gezer, and Bethhoron the nether,18 And Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land,19 And all the cities of store that Solomon had, and cities for his chariots, and cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. 20 And all the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which were not of the children of Israel,21 Their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bondservice unto this day.22 But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen: but they were men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and rulers of his chariots, and his horsemen.23 These were the chief of the officers that were over Solomon’s work, five hundred and fifty, which bare rule over the people that wrought in the work.24 But Pharaoh’s daughter came up out of the city of David unto her house which Solomon had built for her: then did he build Millo.25 And three times in a year did Solomon offer burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar which he built unto the LORD, and he burnt incense upon the altar that was before the LORD. So he finished the house. 26 And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Eziongeber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom. 27 And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.28 And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.
Additional Materials
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