Devotion for the Eighth and Ninth Days of Lent (LCMS Daily Lectionary)

Above:  The Separation of Abraham and Lot

Genesis and Mark, Part IX:  Trust and Distrust in God

MARCH 2 and 3, 2023

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Blessed Lord, who caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ;

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

–The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236

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The Assigned Readings:

Genesis 11:27-12:20 (8th Day of Lent)

Genesis 13:1-18 (9th Day of Lent)

Psalm 38 (Morning–8th Day of Lent)

Psalm 22 (Morning–9th Day of Lent)

Psalms 126 and 102 (Evening–8th Day of Lent)

Psalms 107 and 130 (Evening–9th Day of Lent)

Mark 4:1-21 (8th Day of Lent)

Mark 5:1-20 (9th Day of Lent)

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Some Related Posts:

Prayers:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/01/25/prayer-for-thursday-of-the-first-week-of-lent/

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/01/25/prayer-for-friday-of-the-first-week-of-lent/

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Abram trusted God when he moved his household away from all that he had known.  Yet he did not trust God in Egypt.  Ironically, Abram did not pay the price for that distrust; others did.  Likewise, the Apostles feared for their lives during the storm.  May we refrain from being too critical; the actions of Abram and the Apostles were predictable.  Any of us, in such a circumstance, might have done the same.

Yet we ought to draw useful spiritual lessons from these stories.  I will be brief today, for I have covered similar material recently:  Survival is in God alone.  Trusting in God can be difficult, but is possible via grace.  And I do not presume to have mastered this trust.

The struggle to trust God continues, but with the understanding that what God has in mind is better than what we or others imagine as being best for ourselves.  We read in Genesis 13 that

Lot chose for himself (verse 11, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures).

God directed Abram where to go.  And the Gereasene demoniac’s neighbors did not rejoice in his new wholeness.  We are like that:  selfish, at least some of the time.

May we seek the best for each other in the context of the common good while trusting in God.  There will be plenty for everybody to have enough.  And our identities will depend on whose we are–God’s–not who we are not–in this case, the Gerasene demoniac.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MAY 12, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF DUNCAN MONTGOMERY GRAY, SR., EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF MISSISSIPPI

THE FEAST OF SAINT GREGORY OF OSTIA, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT, CARDINAL, AND LEGATE; AND SAINT DOMINIC OF THE CAUSEWAY, ROMAN CATHOLIC HERMIT

THE FEAST OF SAMUEL MARSDEN, ANGLICAN MISSIONARY IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/genesis-and-mark-part-ix-trust-and-distrust-in-god/

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