Quiet Devotions is a daily devotion based on one of the readings from the Daily Lectionary (as it appears in the back of Evangelical Lutheran Worship, Augsburg Fortress, 2006). All biblical quotes are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) unless otherwise noted. May these devotions help bring you in closer relationship with the Triune God.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Year B, Easter 6, Friday


Inspired by Isaiah 42:5-9

“Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it.”  Isaiah 42:5

In these days of constant noise and twenty-four hour news and entertainment, God can seem like a distant, abstract concept.  The bible was written so long ago and within a context so different from our own, we can wonder why we should bother paying attention to the words of a seemingly absent God from a world long gone.

But God is not absent, and his world is not gone.  Cultures and societies have changed beyond recognition, but this world, our world, is his world.  The Lord God created the heavens and maintains the position of the stars and planets to this day.  He created the earth and continually recreates and renews it, bringing forth new life in vegetation, in the wild, and in humanity.  Every person who lives on the earth does so with the breath of life given by God Almighty.  No one lives apart from God or his creation, and God renews and sustains his creation on a daily basis.

This is the same God whose story we know through ancient texts, and who revealed his will through his prophets and through his Son Jesus Christ.  The world has changed, but it’s still God’s world, and neither God nor his will have changed.  When the God of all life gives his word, it’s worth listening and paying attention to.

Let us pray.  God of all ages, all life exists because of you.  Turn our hearts toward you, that we may hear your word over all the competing noise in our world.  Through Christ our Lord, Amen.

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