Use this devo as you are able, in whole or in part. Don’t feel compelled to read it all. Simply read and meditate upon whatever catches your attention. The goal is enjoying time with God through His Word and in prayer. Questions about the devotional elements?

Call to Prayer

Prayer of Confession

Faithful Savior, teach me what it means to have you as my portion, finding my deepest satisfaction in you. Show me the way to find in you my only comfort in life—whatever it brings—and in death. Lead me to hope in you and know what it is for my soul to be well in all things. Amen. (Prayer based on the Heidelberg Catechism, Question 1)

*Prayer borrowed from Philip Reinders’ Seeking God’s Face: Praying with the Bible through the Year

Reading Plan

This reading plan will help you to develop the habit of being in God’s Word each morning and evening. Come to this time with expectation. Expect God to reveal himself to you. Expect that he delights in you being there, even when you’ve wandered away. Growing a spiritual habit is a slow, patient process. So be kind to yourself as you grow! 

Readings are hyperlinked. Simply hover over the passage or click Morning/Evening Reading (email version).

Morning Readings:

Pray Psalm 50 | Read Luke 20

• Praying the Psalms: Read slowly. Take note of words and phrases. Bring them before the Lord in prayer and personalize the passage as you pray.
• NT Context: Luke is a most vigorous champion of the outsider. An outsider himself, the only Gentile in an all-Jewish cast of New Testament writers, he shows how Jesus includes those who typically were treated as outsiders by the religious establishment of the day: women, common laborers (sheepherders), the racially different (Samaritans), the poor. He will not countenance religion as a club. As Luke tells the story, all of us who have found ourselves on the outside looking in on life with no hope of gaining entrance (and who of us hasn’t felt it?) now find the doors wide open, found and welcomed by God in Jesus. Meditate on the passage, noting a few words or a phrase that stood out. Take them to God in prayer.

Evening Readings:

Pray Psalm 51 | Read 2 Kings 9

• OT Context: “Sovereignty, God’s sovereignty, is one of the most difficult things for people of faith to live out in everyday routines…This story makes it clear that it was not God’s idea that the Hebrews have a king, but since they insisted, he let them have their way. But God never abdicated his sovereignty to any of the Hebrew kings; the idea was that they would represent his sovereignty, not that he would delegate his sovereignty to them. Reflect on the passage. Who was the original audience, and what was their situation? How is that relevant to you today?

Sermon Devo

This Fall our sermon series is in Jonah. Follow along here as we explore this work of literary genius (it is really multilayered and complex) and theological profundity (we discover much about the nature of God, humans, and redemption in just 4 chapters)

READ: Jonah 2:8-10

Our three verses this week have been replete with insights into God’s character and grace. Today we make one final observation. It will be short but I hope that our time spent reflecting upon it will make it rich. 

Jonah begins by literally saying that those who “cling to their empty breath” forfeit the hesed (mercy that they have no right expecting but is given anyway). But notice how he concludes “…salvation belongs to Yahweh.” 

Hebrew poetry rhymes in a number of ways but especially in parallelisms. And that’s just what we have here. Jonah sets up a contrast. On the one hand, there are people who cling to hopes and desires that promise to breathe fresh air (salvation) into your soul, but leave you spiritually starved for oxygen. We typically translate these as idols. On the other hand, there are those people who come to see that the only real source of salvation is Yahweh. 

We tend to cling to anything that we think will save us from feeling unwanted, under-appreciated, unnoticed, and unloved. But what Jonah now sees is that the hopes he had been clinging to have actually eaten up all the oxygen in the room. There’s no life to be had in them! He returns his hope and trust to Yahweh, and that’s when he’s spit back onto dry land! He’s rescued from the fish’s belly, yes, but his relationship with God has also been rescued! He’s moving deeper into the reality of God’s grace though, as we will see, he has a long way to go!

REFLECT: Where do you tend to “cling to empty breath” hopes and desires? How has God shown you that true salvation belongs to and comes from him alone?

Evening Prayer of Examen

• Where did you move with or feel close to Jesus today?
• Where did you resist or feel far from Jesus today?
• Where is Jesus leading you tomorrow? Ask for joy as you follow him.

Benediction