Great Plains Daily Devotional for 11/16/2019

Psalm 98 

A psalm.

Sing to the Lord a new song,
    for he has done marvelous things;
his right hand and his holy arm
    have worked salvation for him.
The Lord has made his salvation known
    and revealed his righteousness to the nations.
He has remembered his love
    and his faithfulness to Israel;
all the ends of the earth have seen
    the salvation of our God.

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth,
    burst into jubilant song with music;
make music to the Lord with the harp,
    with the harp and the sound of singing,
with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—
    shout for joy before the Lord, the King.

Let the sea resound, and everything in it,
    the world, and all who live in it.
Let the rivers clap their hands,
    let the mountains sing together for joy;
let them sing before the Lord,
    for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
    and the peoples with equity.

All of the scriptures in today’s readings speak of God wiping away the familiar and rejoicing in a new thing. It reminds me of a discussion in Disciple class about how we really feel about the promise that Jesus will come again. When Christ returns, all that is familiar will be wiped away. Are we really looking forward to that day?

At the last Connecting Council meeting, one of our youth representatives quoted (I’m afraid I don’t remember the source and this quote is approximate) “We are not afraid of change. We are afraid of what we know coming to an end.” As Christians living in the United States, we have led a pretty comfortable life. We can attend church without fear of reprisal and speak about our faith openly. Most of the world doesn’t enjoy that freedom. Most of us have comfortable homes, clean water and plenty of food. Do we really long for Christ’s return or are we afraid of what we know coming to an end?

The same is true of our denomination. Many of us grew up in the United Methodist Church and it’s hard to think of the loss of what is familiar. And yet, all through the scriptures God has wiped away and rebuilt, wiped away and rebuilt. Why would we think we would experience anything different?

In the coming days, I hope we can see the promise of God to make a new thing and we will continue to sing His praises, even as we struggle with the loss of the familiar.

Prayer for Reflection

Isaiah 65:17-25
Isaiah 12
Psalm 118
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
Luke 21:5-19