Week: Justice - living the right way
Each day we will simply pray (P.R.A.Y.) together.
P: PAUSING to be still.
R: REJOICING with a Memory Verse and REFLECTING on some verses from the Bible.
A: ASKING God to help us and others.
Y: saying YES to God’s ways.
We start by pausing and taking a deep breath:
In and out.
In and out.
We remember that God is here, and so together we prepare ourselves to be with God.
Pause
Mighty God, open our eyes, stir our hearts and teach us how, ‘To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly’ with You today. (Micah 6:8)
We REJOICE and celebrate God’s goodness with this week’s memory verse:
Read by Zoë
Jeremiah 9:24
[The Lord says] What I like best is showing kindness, justice, and mercy to everyone on earth.
Jeremiah 9:24b (CEV)
God, help us to remember Your Word.
Today, we are REFLECTING on what James says about putting God’s ways into practice.
Read by Zoë
James 1:22-25
Do what God’s teaching says; when you only listen and do nothing, you are fooling yourselves. Those who hear God’s teaching and do nothing are like people who look at themselves in a mirror. They see their faces and then go away and quickly forget what they looked like. But the truly happy people are those who carefully study God’s perfect law that makes people free, and they continue to study it. They do not forget what they heard, but they obey what God’s teaching says. Those who do this will be made happy.
James 1:22-25 (NCV)
James uses a funny illustration to help us understand what it’s like when we only hear God’s teaching but don’t actually do anything about it. He says it’s like studying our face in a mirror and then completely forgetting what we look like as soon as we turn away.
It’s like James is saying, ‘You can’t just listen to God’s teaching, and it’s not enough to study it either, you have to do it, you have to put it into practice.’ It’s not enough to know about God’s love and justice, we need to live lives of love and justice too.
Let’s press pause and talk about today’s question, which is: How often do we look in a mirror every day? Lets try to count up how many times we looked in a mirror yesterday? (Who looks in a mirror the most in our household?)
It’s not easy to live God’s way – to live lives of love and justice. Sometimes we don’t get things right, but James reminds us that it’s worth trying, and trying again.
Loving God, we ASK You to help us to remember what we learn from the Bible, and the things that You say to us, and to put them into practice – to live lives of love and justice.
In today’s Bible verses, James says that God sets people free. Let’s pray for those who need God to set them free in some way.
Lord Jesus, You said that You came to set people free. We especially ASK You to free those who feel trapped because of fear or worry or by other things that affect their minds and their hearts. We ASK that Your love would set them free today.
As we read the Bible again, let’s listen for a word or a phrase that the Holy Spirit might want to say to us from today’s verses.
James 1:22-25
Do what God’s teaching says; when you only listen and do nothing, you are fooling yourselves. Those who hear God’s teaching and do nothing are like people who look at themselves in a mirror. They see their faces and then go away and quickly forget what they looked like. But the truly happy people are those who carefully study God’s perfect law that makes people free, and they continue to study it. They do not forget what they heard, but they obey what God’s teaching says. Those who do this will be made happy.
James 1:22-25 (NCV)
What word or phrase stood out from today’s Bible verses?
And now, let’s say YES to God together.
Loving God, we say YES to learning and studying the things that You want to teach us, and we say YES to doing them too – to living lives of love and justice.
After enjoying this time with God and each other, let’s say our memory verse together:
Jeremiah 9:24
[The Lord says] What I like best is showing kindness, justice, and mercy to everyone on earth.
Jeremiah 9:24b (CEV)
Let’s put a hand on our heart.
Father God, fill us with Your love. Help us to love You, and everything that You’ve made.
Let’s point to our eyes.
Lord Jesus, help us to see You, and to see others the way that You see them too.
Let’s point to our ears.
Holy Spirit, help us to hear You, and give us courage to do what You say.
Phil lives close to a beach in the north of England with his wife, his daughters and his dogs. Phil works for 24-7 Prayer, mostly doing Lectio stuff, and helping to run Prayer Spaces in Schools. He runs a lot, usually for long distances. He likes curry, mountains, reading books and he still plays Pokemon Go.
Zoë Thandeka (Thandi) is 13 and she lives in Guildford, in the UK, with her family. She loves football (her favourite football team is Liverpool FC), Top Gear and car-spotting. When she’s older, Zoë wants to be a photographer or work with animals in some way.
