Prayer: Lord, we give you are thanks and praise. We love you. Thank you for your endless grace and mercy. We praise you for your goodness, and may all we do, be done to bring you glory. In your holy name we pray, Amen.
Reading: Psalm 116: 1-4, 12-19 (Click to read text) Stop and GROW: After reading the text, discuss/ponder the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Book of Faith questions, which are part of Camp Mount Luther's GROW Time with campers. QUESTION 1: What scares, confuses, challenges, or doesn’t make sense to me in this text? QUESTION 2: What delights me in this text or is my favorite part of the story? QUESTION 3: What stories or memories does this text stir in me? QUESTION 4: What is God up to in this text? Reflection: As I reflected on today’s passage, I focused on questions 1 and 3 from the Stop and GROW questions listed above. “I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy” (verse 1) When I read question 3 (what memories does this stir in me?), I thought about this verse. How God hears my cries for mercy. It reminds me of the times I run to him in prayer, and feverishly write my prayerful thoughts in my journal as I try to process a particularly stressful or troubling event. And later when I look back at my prayers and see his provision in my life, I know he heard my voice. “I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the Lord.” (verse 17) When I read question 1 (what confuses me?), I thought about sacrificing thank offerings. This is something that was done in the Old Testament to temporarily blot out your sins, and now under the New Covenant we don’t need to, because Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. I was confused about how I should view this now in the light of Jesus. And I think thanks and praises are how this can take on a new meaning. Perhaps it might go like this: I will offer my thanks and praise to the Lord, I will call upon and worship the Lord in all that I do. --Anne Harshbarger
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