Monday, March 7, 2011

Evening Devotion


“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” – Matthew 10:34 (NIV)

Be not mistaken, for as long as this world exists evil shall always struggle against good, tyranny shall always stand in a headlong battle against justice, and inhumanity shall always seek to rob the innocence and the hope of life. To understand this is to understand message of the Prince of Peace as He tells to us that He came to bring a sword.

Dear brothers and sisters, the Christian life is not a simple one, nor is it an easy one, regardless of the beautiful simplicity of the fundamental tenants of it. Though ultimately the core message is one of peace, a wondrous peace that blooms from love, it often comes through challenge and adversity, a constant labour whose effort is born in the hardships and the difficulties of this temporal existence. The faithful follower of our blessed Saviour is then a perpetual warrior who takes up the cause that others may abide in a love that is found through hope.

Fearless and unflinching, then the steadfast duty of the disciple is to do that which is right. With courage and charity written in their hearts, lead by the undaunted force of the Spirit of the Lord, they look to the world and, in considering the hardship of others, extend the full measure of that abundant grace to ease suffering, to end injustice, to stop slavery and to break captivity. In testimony to the salvation that freed them, they stand with the righteous sword of truth for liberty that none shall remain in dark bondage and hopeless estate.

Look then to the world as it sits, and to your life as it stands, and consider for yourself the force of your witness and let your life speak to the love by which you have been saved. Follow in the path of our blessed Saviour that peace, though it may seem far off, may be obtainable through the sword of the Lord’s truth wielded in your hand for the lives of others.

Then shall the road to true and lasting hope, the hope that is unmistakable in the wondrous message of our Saviour, shall be achieved.

Let us pray:

You, to the poor and the oppressed, are a stronghold O Lord, a fortress for the persecuted and the subjugated. A sword of truth Your Word is the weapon of freedom to which no chains may withstand as it shatters bondage and slavery.

In hope show forth Your cause, in love let it testify to the majesty of Your glory through Your call to Your people. Then shall we stand with steadfast devotion to Your cause that we may, with unyielding and unrelenting courage, look upon the plight of those who live in poor and grim estate, bound to hopelessness, held by darkness as our own struggle, knowing that, so long as adversity exists it is our adversary, a challenge to the soul.

Send Your light and Your faithful care blessed Lord, that the downcast shall be uplifted. Bring them to graces end that they may find peace where it once eluded them and show, in their lives, the path to freedom so that, by Your glory, that light may shine forth in their souls. Be the wondrous hope of their abiding presence, and, by Your blessed Spirit, lead them to those places where they may dwell in the harmony of your perfect peace and Your blessed love.

Upon You then rests all of our praise as we lift Your name on high, O Lord of our Hope, for, in the cause of those who struggle in the most meager of estates and in the darkest of days, You are the majestic presence of their guiding beacon, steadfast as the refuge of their salvation.

In the name of Your Son, our Lord and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You in the Kingdom, one God, world without end, Amen.

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