Think back over your week. Was there something that happened that made you really happy and joyful? The writer of our call to worship this week tells us about finding joy and refuge in Christ.
Psalm 16:1 Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. 11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Do you know what it means to take refuge? You can think about taking refuge as finding safety and shelter. David is calling out to God in a hard time in his life. As he reflects on God’s goodness to him and to his people, he ends this Psalm in praise, rejoicing that we find fullness of joy in Jesus and look forward to a world made new.
As you open your time of reflection, think about how God has promised to be our shelter and our joy. Take some time to thank God for his faithfulness to you.
Pray: Father, you are our only hope in a broken world. In you we find rest, joy, peace, and purpose. Comfort our hearts this week as we seek to love you, love others, and love the place you have put us. Give us joy and confidence in the knowledge that you are making all things new. We look forward to the day when all will be made right and we will dwell with you forever.
We were reminded this week that love conquers. 1 Corinthians 13 challenges us, crushes us, and changes us. Paul wrote this letter to the church in Corinth, where many people valued their specific gifts and talents above Jesus and the Gospel. Paul reminds them that their gifts do not define their relationship to Christ:
1 Corinthians 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
We confessed together this week that, just like the church in Corinth, ‘we believe that we are defined by our giftedness. We trust in our intellect, hard work, and persuasiveness as the best way to live our lives. We even convince ourselves that we are generous when really we just want others to see our generosity.’
1 Corinthians 13 challenges our motives and calls out our self-centeredness. Can you think about some ways you are tempted to bring glory to yourself rather than Christ?
Our gifts and talents are not enough. But Paul pushes us to find hope in what is yet to come. We are changed and shaped by the promise of restoration:
1 Corinthians 13:8b As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
What do you think Paul means by “the perfect” and “the partial?” What are we looking forward to?
How does the promise of restoration shape the way we see the world now? How we approach relationships or work?
As we prepare for our series in Revelation, one of the things we are thinking about is that there are things we know and things we don’t know. One thing that Paul makes clear in this chapter is that our only hope is in Jesus, who perfectly embodies the love Pauls describes here:
1 Corinthians 13:4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8a Love never ends.
Pray: Jesus, your love for us changes and shapes us. We confess we often try to use our gifts to satisfy our own desires or give ourselves worth. Holy Spirit, reveal and challenge our motives so that we see our need for Jesus. Help us to live in light of Jesus’ love for us displayed on the cross. We long for the day when perfection comes; when we see you face to face; when we will know fully as we have been fully known.
As you look forward to next week, take some time to read the verses below, praying that we would make much of Christ as we come together for worship.
Hebrews 2:14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Colossians 2:13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.