{"id":17993,"date":"2021-10-26T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-26T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/urc\/urc-daily-devotion-tuesday-26th-october-2021-l1nxwo2ibn"},"modified":"2021-10-26T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-26T05:00:00","slug":"urc-daily-devotion-tuesday-26th-october-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/urc-daily-devotion-tuesday-26th-october-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"URC Daily Devotion Tuesday 26th October 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday October 26, 2021<\/span> <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Proverbs 15: 8-9<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord,<\/span>
    but the prayer of the upright is his delight.<\/span>
The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord,<\/span>
    but he loves the one who pursues righteousness.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reflection<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

We get mixed messages about sacrifices from the Old Testament. The underlying message would seem to be that God really doesn\u2019t want burnt offerings and he does want us to \u2018do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with our God\u2019 (Micah 6:8). Why then would the writer of Proverbs single out the sacrifices of the wicked as those which God particularly dislikes? Is it to enable the poetry of the contrasting phrases to work or is there something more going on here. Proverbs is not designated as \u2018wisdom literature\u2019 for nothing and I think we can be pretty sure there is more to discover from these words.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is this something about honesty and integrity? Sacrifices, supposedly to honour God, made by those who live less than upright lives, are dishonest acts. They deceive those who make them and those who observe their making. We can be sure they do not deceive God.<\/span><\/p>\n

And as for us, we may not be much given to burnt offerings (except occasionally by mistake in our kitchens!) but we do talk about sacrificial giving of time, talents and money. Giving which is costly and a personal response to God\u2019s love. God delights in the prayers of the upright, who sacrifice with honesty and integrity and who truly pursue justice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prayer<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

God of justice,<\/span>
we know how difficult it is<\/span>
to act justly in all circumstances.<\/span>
We pray for wisdom.<\/span>
We know how easy it is<\/span>
to kid ourselves that we are doing all we can.<\/span>
We pray for integrity.<\/span>
We believe that you desire our prayers<\/span>
and so we pray that the prayers we bring<\/span>
and the lives we live<\/span>
may be your delight.  Amen<\/span> <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tuesday October 26, 2021  Proverbs 15: 8-9 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord,    but the prayer of the upright is his delight.The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord,    but he loves the one who pursues righteousness. Reflection We get mixed messages about sacrifices from the Old Testament. The … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “URC Daily Devotion Tuesday 26th October 2021”<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17993\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}