NorthStar Community Daily Devotional

January 4

Scripture focus: It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows. For everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then? My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit. Then you won't feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don't you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence? It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. This isn't the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's kingdom. Galatians 5:13-21, The Message

In the Old Testament, the Hebrews believed several distinctive things about prayer.

(1). There is one God, Yahweh – pray to him.

(2). The Hebrews knew they could approach God in prayer because he was their God – they were part of God’s community. As the history of their relationship was passed down through the generations, one important truth was evident: when it comes to commitment, faithfulness, and connection – God goes first. They didn’t live in a community with an impersonal God - they were his chosen people. The Hebrew people had a great awareness of the communal aspect of prayer and petition, God and his people, living and loving in a covenantal relationship.

(3). The Old Testament consistently reminded the Hebrews that history revealed God’s faithfulness, and he could be trusted both the present and the future.

These three firmly held beliefs didn’t mean that the Jewish people never wrestled with what it means to pray. They believed that a prayer heard by God was answered, but sometimes they wondered – did God hear?

Sometimes I wonder what happens to my prayers. I have a big fat prayer notebook, filled with the names of people I live with in community. Each morning I take time to work down the names, lifting up a few names at a time, until I run out of time or inclination, mark my place and move on to another spiritual discipline. I pray for things like freedom, protection, healing and an awareness of sin. I pray for restoration and rejuvenation. I pray for financial provision and changes of heart. I pray for grace and mercy. I pray for blessing. I pray for fixed cars and food for the table. I pray for joy. I pray for justice – and beg that it be delivered as gently as possible. I pray that our babies are born with sturdy arms and legs, ten fingers, ten toes and wonderful parents.

Like the Hebrew community of old, I believe that prayer encompasses all areas of life. I figure it’s hard to come to know God on an empty belly or if an earthly parent regularly beats the crud out of you. And although God works in mysterious ways, and sometimes heartbreak and “defects” are woven into the tapestry of our God stories, I will continue to pray for good news.

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