{"id":22599,"date":"2024-11-06T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-06T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailchi.mp\/urc\/urc-daily-devotion-6-november-2024"},"modified":"2024-11-06T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-11-06T06:00:00","slug":"urc-daily-devotion-6-november-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/urc-daily-devotion-6-november-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"URC Daily Devotion 6 November 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n
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inspiration in your inbox<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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Wednesday 6 November 2024<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

James 4: 13 – 17<\/strong>
Come now, you who say, \u2018Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.\u2019 Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  Instead you ought to say, \u2018If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.\u2019  As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.  Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.<\/p>\n

Reflection<\/strong>
Ever since I can remember I have been aware that any arrangements I make about tomorrow, next week, next month (or even later today) must, in one sense, be tentative. Though I suspect, if I am honest, my expectations often have more to do with human failings than my acknowledgement of God\u2019s wishes.<\/p>\n

As I was growing up the work ethic was strong in my family and included an acknowledgement that time was a precious gift not to be squandered. The answer to how best to honour that gift needs us to do some good planning so that the time available is utilised as productively as possible. Such planning requires an element of having some confidence in the future.<\/p>\n

But of course, this passage from The Letter of James is about far more than how we plan and manage our time. It addresses our tendency to arrogance, a false confidence in our own abilities and our attitude to all that we have and all that we own.<\/p>\n

We can imagine that these verses could be the result of a conversation between James and one of the many travelling merchants or tradespeople of the day. In which the traveller was boasting about his expectations for the coming months. Where would be a profitable place to settle for a while? whom he could influence? and who might introduce him to \u2018useful\u2019 contacts? If he was a successful businessman his enthusiasm would be likely to take over in his day to day decision making. Any recognition of God\u2019s place in his life would fall way down the order of priorities.<\/p>\n

And our response? Perhaps these words \u2018let our ordered lives confess the beauty of thy peace\u2019 from the hymn, Dear Lord and Father of mankind \u2013 best express the lives we should be aspiring to.<\/p>\n

Prayer<\/strong>
Drop thy still dews of quietness,
till all our strivings cease;
take from our souls the strain and stress,
and let our ordered lives confess
the beauty of thy peace.
 
Breathe through the heats of our desire
thy coolness and thy balm;
let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice of calm!
 
J.G.Whittier (1807-1892)<\/p>\n

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Today’s writer<\/span><\/h2>\n

Val Morrison, Elder and Assembly Accredited Lay Preacher, URC in Doncaster<\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright \u00a9 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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inspiration in your inbox Wednesday 6 November 2024 James 4: 13 – 17Come now, you who say, \u2018Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.\u2019 Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “URC Daily Devotion 6 November 2024”<\/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-22599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22599","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=22599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22599\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trinitywimbledon.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}