Living the Lectionary is a weekly devotional tool intended to give you ideas for living out the Word of God that we encounter on Sundays in worship.
ABOUT THE WEEK STARTING May 1st: THE SIXTH WEEK OF EASTER
Ask and it shall be given. Law: Jesus says something striking in the Gospel lesson, “until now you have asked for nothing in My Name.” This may remind us to ask for things in His Name and take faith that those prayers are heard. Gospel: God has promised to hear us and has promised to give us even more than what we can currently imagine.
REFLECTING ON THE READINGS
(readings are linked to text on ESVbible.com – you can read all the readings together here.)
Acts 16:9-15– God’s Switchboard– God makes the connection between human beings and Himself as well as between parties of human beings. We see that here Paul is functioning as the answer to prayer for the Macedonians who need help. How might you function as the answer to someone’s prayer this week? || How might you pray specifically for help, acknowledging that God will send a human being to send you? If you had to ask God to send you a person to help you, what would that person be like?
Psalm 67– Thanks – It is often easy for us to forget that we have prayed for something when we receive what we were praying for. We can use the spiritual discipline of thankfulness to remember what we have, which in turn might make us more sober and serious about what we actually do need when we’re praying. What amount of things that can you list in just one minute of thanksgiving that God has given you? || This Psalm was sung at the harvest time in response to the reception of crops, what reception of things are you still waiting for, and how can you plan to give thanks for them?
Revelation 21:9-14, 21-27 – A City of Gold – The angel shows John a picture of the New Jerusalem, a place of great wealth and opulence – so great in fact, that we probably struggle to truly picture it as a reality. What seems too great about this picture that we are given? What is hard to comprehend? || What is still too great, too incomprehensible to consider as your future? How might you pray to God to give you the vision of what that will look like one day?
John 16:23-33– An Invitation to Pray – Jesus invites His disciples to pray in a new way, this time, praying “in His Name” meaning praying as Him. When you pray this week, how might this effect the way that you pray, praying in the role of Jesus?