Monday
Romans 11.33-36 “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them? For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever!”
Sometimes prayer is to feel the breath-taking wonder of who God is. Truly, God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, and in the end we simply bow before the glory of God, trusting wisdom unsearchable and love beyond the furthest reaches of our thought. Doxology is what happens when we stand in the radiant light of God’s mercy, and lift our heads in grateful praise. “To God be the glory, great things he has done!” Yes indeed! “Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Let the earth hear his voice.”
Tuesday
Romans 15.13 “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
All the big words are here – hope, joy, peace, trust, power, and all them embedded in the love of God in Christ from which nothing whatsoever can separate; and each of them sustained by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is as comprehensive as a prayer of blessing can be. “Blessed assurance! All is at rest, I in my Saviour am happy and blessed.” I often insert someone’s name in this Benediction, turning it into a brief but powerful prayer of intercession for someone in need of such assurance.
Wednesday
2 Corinthians13.14 “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
The irony is that “The Grace” is the closing sentence in one of Paul’s most upsetting, tension-laden and emotionally intense exchanges with any church. The Corinthian Christians gave Paul many a headache and serial disappointments. He writes to them out of his hurt, his anger, his daily anxiety for them; he leans over backwards to bring about reconciliation; he doesn’t hide the hurt he feels. Then, at the end, he writes the Grace! What finally and ultimately underpins Christian fellowship is the grace of Christ, the love of God, the communion of the Holy Spirit. We exist as Christians only as we are drawn into the life of the Triune God of grace, love and communion.
Thursday
Ephesians 3.20-21 “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen”
Each one of us is a work in progress, and it is God who is at work. In ways we can never fully understand, we are being transformed by the inner working of God in our mind and hearts, and in our inward and outward lives. That’s also true of each Christian community – in even the smallest faithful and faith-filled church, God can do immeasurably more than our boldest prayers. Remember. God is able, and God is at work, within us and amongst us, in ways we don’t always perceive.
Friday
Philippians 4.20, 23 “My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.”
Paul’s closing words are quite confident about where the necessary resources come from that enable us to live in faithful and loving obedience to God. This letter is prompted by the generosity of the Philippian church – it’s a letter of thank you for gifts of money and for sending the valued and beloved Epaphroditus. Paul is saying, nothing we give is ever given away; however generous we are, God is more generous still. The glorious riches in Christ Jesus contain everything necessary to sustain our faith, deepen our love, strengthen our peace, kindle our joy, and nurture our hope.
Saturday
1 Thessalonians 5.23-24 “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.”
God has called us to holiness, and it is God himself who makes us holy, “through and through.” The whole of who we are, thought and motive, word and action, desire and choices, the God of peace is at work in us as we grow into the “measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”. And all of this looks forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, when all that God has promised in Christ comes to full fruition in a people found blameless in Him. And if all that seems a bit far-fetched, Paul has an answer to that as well – “The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.”
Sunday
2 Thessalonians 3.16 “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.”
This is a wish prayer. This is what Paul wants for these young converts, new Christians still finding their way in a culture hostile to these followers of a strange religion. Paul prays for them a comprehensive peace “at all times and in every way.” Inner peace can be elusive. We all have our anxieties, times of sadness, the friction of worry. Paul’s wish prayer is for us too. This is a good Benediction to say to each other at the close of a worship service – and then to say The Grace!
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