Week: Justice and Righteousness
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
Lord God, we look forward to discovering more of Your wisdom in the Old Testament. Show us the way You want us to live, and help us to walk in it today.
We REJOICE and celebrate God’s goodness with this week’s memory verse:
Read by Eli
Philippians 4:8
Brothers and sisters, think about the things that are good and worthy of praise. Think about the things that are true and honourable and right and pure and beautiful and respected.
Philippians 4:8 (NCV)
God, help us to remember Your Word.
Today, we’re REFLECTING on warnings given by a shepherd called Amos, who had been chosen by God to confront the Israelites about the wrong things they had been doing.
Read by Eli
Amos 5:21-24
The Lord says, ‘I hate and reject your feasts;
I cannot stand your religious meetings.
If you offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I won’t accept them.
You bring your best fellowship offerings of fattened cattle,
but I will ignore them.
Take the noise of your songs away from me!
I won’t listen to the music of your harps.
But let justice flow like a river,
and let goodness flow like a never-ending stream.
Amos 5:21-24 (NCV)
It seems like the people of Israel had been doing a lot of things for ‘show’ – showing off what they had and what they had achieved. But God says that He isn’t interested in them looking or sounding good if they aren’t being good and pursuing justice. These are the things that really matter. God isn’t interested in us just looking good, he wants goodness and justice to flow from our lives and our churches like a river.
Let’s press pause and talk about today’s question, which will require a bit of creative thinking. We use the acronym P.R.A.Y to help us pray on Lectio for Families. Using the acronym F.L.O.W, what words can we think of that could remind us to let goodness and justice ‘flow’ through our lives and our churches?
And now, let’s ASK God to help us and others.
Loving Lord, we are grateful for the churches and communities that we belong to. We ASK You to help us serve You wholeheartedly, letting good, right, fair and loving things flow from our lives together.
There are lots of places around the world where people are not being treated fairly. In some places this has been going on for such a long time that it can feel like the river of justice has run dry, like change is almost impossible. Perhaps we can think of an example?
Mighty God, as we think of these places we ASK that the river of your goodness and justice would start to flow once more. Holy Spirit, bring justice and fairness into these places.
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.
Amos 5:21-24
The Lord says, ‘I hate and reject your feasts;
I cannot stand your religious meetings.
If you offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I won’t accept them.
You bring your best fellowship offerings of fattened cattle,
but I will ignore them.
Take the noise of your songs away from me!
I won’t listen to the music of your harps.
But let justice flow like a river,
and let goodness flow like a never-ending stream.
Amos 5:21-24 (NCV)
What word or phrase stood out from today’s Bible verses?
And now, let’s say YES to God together.
Creator God, thank you for the wisdom that we’ve heard from Your Word today. We say YES to walking the way that You want us to. And we say YES to Your goodness and justice flowing through us wherever we are today.
After enjoying this time with God and each other, let’s see if we can remember our memory verse and say it together:
Philippians 4:8
Brothers and sisters, think about the things that are good and worthy of praise. Think about the things that are true and honourable and right and pure and beautiful and respected.
Philippians 4:8 (NCV)
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.
Unathi lives in Johannesburg, South Africa, with her husband and 5 kids; and has a passion for seeing families thriving.
You’ll most likely find her homeschooling the tribe, reading, writing, or dreaming about the next DIY project.
She also loves good coffee, dark chocolate and hiking.
Eli is 11 and lives in Melbourne, Victoria with his mum, dad and two younger sisters. He enjoys music, reading, riding his skateboard and playing soccer.
