Category Archives: Daily Bread Devotional

Come in the Name of the Lord
David Anderson, president of High Priest Quorum

The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you. Sing praises to the Lord, who dwells in Zion. Declare his deeds among the peoples.  -Psalm 9:9-11

If you notice my name and know my height, you could guess that today’s scripture from 1 Samuel, which describes the encounter between David and Goliath, is one of my favorites in the Hebrew Scriptures. David, the shepherd-short in stature and the underdog-triumphs against Goliath, the large, strong, military Philistine champion and warrior.

David chooses not to fight like Saul or Goliath. Rather, he shrewdly uses his mobility, giftedness, and experience with the sling to claim a comparative advantage to Goliath’s military tactics with a large sword and heavy armor. As our scripture indicates, David’s faith and confidence allow him to accomplish his task in the name of the Lord.

Often, I reflect on whether I, like David, have such faith and confidence in God to “come in the name of the Lord.” There have been times in my ministry when I gave all I could, yet I felt it was insufficient. I have felt unprepared and tired-sometimes exhausted. Yet, I have found during those times that if I walked forward with God’s love and “in the name of the Lord,” the Spirit has powerfully provided understanding, blessing, and ministry to those around me.

On one occasion, I was asked to teach teenagers at a week-long reunion. Although I did my best in preparation, I felt my effort might not be enough to provide the ministry those young people needed and deserved. I was stressed and uncertain. However, during that week and in the classes, the Holy Spirit touched the lives of those young people-and my life, too. As I look back at my lifelong ministry, that class ranks one of the highest in the response of people. It was a situation of high stress. Yet, the Spirit took over and blessed us!

Similar situations have occurred in my life. Like David, when I have prepared and walked forward, trusting God’s love and presence, God has delivered. May we do so every day of our lives!

Prayer Phrase

“Led by the Holy Spirit, we work with God and others to restore peace (shalom) to creation” (https://www.cofchrist.org/enduring-principles).

Spiritual Practice

Embodying God’s Shalom

Find a way to express and embody God’s shalom. Begin by prayerfully listening to your longing for peace and wholeness. Become silent and imagine you can hear the groaning of the Earth’s people, nations, and creatures. Prayerfully open yourself to God’s yearning for peace and the divine vision of shalom.

What images, feelings, and words come to you? What prayer for peace comes to you from your time of listening? Speak or write this prayer. What act of justice, kindness, healing, or peacemaking does God invite you to consider this day?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

Invocation Not Necessary…
Lu Mountenay

(Reprinted from archives)

So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God. -Ephesians 2:17-22

You say, “Come, Holy Spirit, Come.”
I hear your invitation.
You welcome me…yet you don’t see.
I am already here.

Am I invisible? Then listen!
Am I so silent you do not hear me?
Do you feel me? Do you reveal me?
Do you know me, or have you closed your heart?

Evidence of me is all around-
that which my fingers have made,
that to which my breath has given life.
That which was once hidden, I now trace for your eyes.

When my Spirit touches you…touch me back.
If you cannot find me
grasp the holy hem, the fiber at my feet-
find Christ…it is here we meet.

In the soil, the water, the air-I am there.
So don’t invite me…Invite others to me.
I am present, attentive, waiting, rapt.
I am home…in you. Be home in me.

Prayer Phrase

“Led by the Holy Spirit, we work with God and others to restore peace (shalom) to creation” (https://www.cofchrist.org/enduring-principles).

Spiritual Practice

Embodying God’s Shalom

Find a way to express and embody God’s shalom. Begin by prayerfully listening to your longing for peace and wholeness. Become silent and imagine you can hear the groaning of the Earth’s people, nations, and creatures. Prayerfully open yourself to God’s yearning for peace and the divine vision of shalom.

What images, feelings, and words come to you? What prayer for peace comes to you from your time of listening? Speak or write this prayer. What act of justice, kindness, healing, or peacemaking does God invite you to consider this day?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

My God Is So Big
Katie Harmon-McLaughlin, Spiritual Formation Ministries

Wisdom cries out in the street;
  in the squares she raises her voice.
At the busiest corner she cries out;
  at the entrance of the city gates she speaks… -Proverbs 1:20-21

The best part of every day is singing my daughter to sleep. Growing up in Community of Christ, I am blessed with a rich and deep repertoire to draw from-campfire songs, hymns, Taize chants.

Some of the songs I sang with gusto in my youth I have let go because of images of God or theological implications I can no longer embrace. This is why I was surprised when an old song spontaneously surfaced in my singing one night. I remembered as a child singing “My God Is So Big” and feeling the protective power of an Almighty Father God who could swoop down to save us from harm. It was a reassuring image to a young child, but also reinforced a patriarchal image of God as masculine and aloof from daily life. It sounded like a song of dominion and ownership, almost braggy, one that as I grew older became increasingly uncomfortable.

When the melody came to my lips in the sleepiness of snuggles and lullabies, I made a pronoun change and gasped in awe at how the entire meaning of the song changed with it. “My God is so big, so strong and so mighty there’s nothing that SHE cannot do…. the mountains are hers; the rivers are hers; the stars are her handiwork too…”

I wanted my daughter to know that she is created in the image of a God who is gender-inclusive and diverse. Suddenly “big” meant vast and unfathomable. I imagined strength not as domination, but as power to transform and create change, to summon the courage of the human heart. I imagined the divine feminine, Sophia, Wisdom, Mother embracing the whole cosmos in loving care, creativity, and interdependence-the mountains, the rivers, the stars, and a young girl and her mother humming lullabies that I pray will turn into dreams.

Each time I sang “she” for God, I felt the unraveling of toxic narratives, assumptions, and expectations. I felt the liberating possibility that my daughter might grow up hearing the width of inclusion as her norm and understand powerfully her own strength, capacity, and calling in this vision.

Prayer Phrase

“Led by the Holy Spirit, we work with God and others to restore peace (shalom) to creation” (https://www.cofchrist.org/enduring-principles).

Spiritual Practice

Embodying God’s Shalom

Find a way to express and embody God’s shalom. Begin by prayerfully listening to your longing for peace and wholeness. Become silent and imagine you can hear the groaning of the Earth’s people, nations, and creatures. Prayerfully open yourself to God’s yearning for peace and the divine vision of shalom.

What images, feelings, and words come to you? What prayer for peace comes to you from your time of listening? Speak or write this prayer. What act of justice, kindness, healing, or peacemaking does God invite you to consider this day?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

Justice for the Hungry
Michael S. Clarke of Clay Cross, England, UK

I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever. I will thank you forever, because of what you have done. In the presence of the faithful I will proclaim your name, for it is good. -Psalm 52:8b-9

In Matthew 14, we read about Jesus feeding the 5,000 on a mountainside. We can imagine there were people on that mountainside going through bad times-impoverished, sick, struggling with everyday life. It is the same for us today. Britain has high unemployment, and people find it hard to buy food.

In Clay Cross, our church started a food bank. This ministry recognizes the Worth of All Persons and seeks to Abolish Poverty, End Suffering. It is a great way to help the community, and it brings churches of different denominations together. We collect food from supermarkets and families. We store it in a warehouse we call “The Hub.”

Our food bank is open two times a week: one night at the local Church of England and on Friday afternoon at Community of Christ. When people come to the food bank, we talk to them, listen to their stories, and if they would like, we pray with them.

In the low times in our lives, we may keep concerns bottled up. I learned it is better to talk to someone and share. So, as part of our ministry, we listen. When the food is ready, it is gratifying to see how our personal attention gives our clients a sense of worth.

I pray with people from other denominations at the food bank. We are all committed to the ministry of Jesus Christ. The people at the food bank are like family now. It is wonderful to be in a team of great people who care about people in their community. I needed similar help in the past.

I think Jesus would be happy with the food bank, because when we feed the poor, we feed him. Set the table for justice.

Prayer Phrase

“Led by the Holy Spirit, we work with God and others to restore peace (shalom) to creation” (https://www.cofchrist.org/enduring-principles).

Spiritual Practice

Embodying God’s Shalom

Find a way to express and embody God’s shalom. Begin by prayerfully listening to your longing for peace and wholeness. Become silent and imagine you can hear the groaning of the Earth’s people, nations, and creatures. Prayerfully open yourself to God’s yearning for peace and the divine vision of shalom.

What images, feelings, and words come to you? What prayer for peace comes to you from your time of listening? Speak or write this prayer. What act of justice, kindness, healing, or peacemaking does God invite you to consider this day?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

Affirmations
Wendy Ballard of Forster, New South Wales, Australia

No good tree bears bad fruit; nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. -Luke 6:43-45

I was doing one of those dreaded household chores, sorting piles of papers. I came across a bunch of “affirmations” written for me at a youth camp a few years earlier. As part of our worship and community building at camps, we often write affirmations praising one another. For instance, we may tell how a person “lets their light shine.” We may name the qualities we see in them or how we see the Christ reflected in them.

This day had been a blue day for me. I felt sorry for myself. I carried concerns for my loved ones. Reading these affirmations was a gift. They lifted my spirits in many ways. I finished my task singing, “Let all the world in every corner sing, My God and King!” (George Herbert).

On that same day I received an e-mail from a camper. He had just found in his wallet an affirmation I had written to him at a kids’ camp a few years before. He said it made his day, and he wanted to tell me he knows God loves him, and that God loves me, too. It was a God moment, of this I am sure!

This reminds me how important it is to take time to tell people what they mean to us. We can tell them how we see their light shine and the positive discipleship we see in them. We can let them know we see the Christ reflected in them. Taking those opportunities may lead to other opportunities for sharing. I try to take those opportunities in my life.

Prayer Phrase

“Led by the Holy Spirit, we work with God and others to restore peace (shalom) to creation” (https://www.cofchrist.org/enduring-principles).

Spiritual Practice

Embodying God’s Shalom

Find a way to express and embody God’s shalom. Begin by prayerfully listening to your longing for peace and wholeness. Become silent and imagine you can hear the groaning of the Earth’s people, nations, and creatures. Prayerfully open yourself to God’s yearning for peace and the divine vision of shalom.

What images, feelings, and words come to you? What prayer for peace comes to you from your time of listening? Speak or write this prayer. What act of justice, kindness, healing, or peacemaking does God invite you to consider this day?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

From Competitive to Contemplative
Michalina Bartlett of Gainesville, FL, USA

Collectively and individually, you are loved with an everlasting love that delights in each faithful step taken. God yearns to draw you close so that wounds may be healed, emptiness filled, and hope strengthened. Do not turn away in pride, fear, or guilt from the One who seeks only the best for you and your loved ones. Come before your Eternal Creator with open minds and hearts and discover the blessings of the gospel anew. Be vulnerable to divine grace. -Doctrine and Covenants 163:10

After bounding from its crouch, the cat streaks into the chase with its gaze intent on the terrified mouse. The teeth of the mouse have a viselike clamp on the cheese. Nothing is more intimidating than the focus of a predator, and nothing more fear-driven than the escape of the hunted. And, between the two, there is nothing more narrow in vision than this interplay of pursuit and escape.

Myself, I want out of this mad race and into the peaceful contemplation of the Divine. Pondering the image of cat and mouse, I can see how much time I waste in competitive living. In the end, it succeeds in nothing but a selfish result. By being the winner, and perhaps being right-or the loser, and perhaps being wrong-both lose. Both are egoistic and shortsighted.

Why involve ourselves in this struggle at all? Hindered by the blinders a shortsighted goal creates for us, we can’t see anything beyond what is before our faces: the need to control, be right, and win.

I would rather know I am reconciled to God and divine truth. This is a more expansive and creative way to live. I would choose to live without the blinders that ego pursuit and pride create. What would happen then? The more I consider the alternative, the more I see myself choosing Christ’s peace. There are no losers in the pursuit of what matters most. There are only winners in Christ’s mission of evangelism, compassionate ministries, and justice and peacemaking.

Prayer Phrase

“Led by the Holy Spirit, we work with God and others to restore peace (shalom) to creation” (https://www.cofchrist.org/enduring-principles).

Spiritual Practice

Embodying God’s Shalom

Find a way to express and embody God’s shalom. Begin by prayerfully listening to your longing for peace and wholeness. Become silent and imagine you can hear the groaning of the Earth’s people, nations, and creatures. Prayerfully open yourself to God’s yearning for peace and the divine vision of shalom.

What images, feelings, and words come to you? What prayer for peace comes to you from your time of listening? Speak or write this prayer. What act of justice, kindness, healing, or peacemaking does God invite you to consider this day?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

Listen with an Open Heart
Dan Gregory of Bend, OR, USA

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. -Numbers 6:24-26

One of the most challenging and important lessons I’m learning is to avoid defensiveness when someone points out I am wrong or I have hurt them. My default stance was that good or even neutral intentions couldn’t possibly have a negative impact. I was a good person. As long as I was mindful not to be intentionally cruel, callous, or dismissive, I couldn’t be faulted if they were hurt.

Similarly, as a well-versed student of history, culture, science, literature, politics, human behavior, and relationships, I appreciated new information but felt little could (should?) adjust my basic framework. I could speak theoretically on behalf of others, confident that my own experience could represent theirs. My mind was made up on just about any subject, with a smidge of wiggle room for good measure.

And then people near and dear to me would say, “Actually, Dan, have you considered…?” and “Dan, that really hurt when you…” My defensiveness would rear up and I’d try to rationalize. I didn’t like feeling imperfect or unaware or uncaring.

But I had a choice. Each time, I could plug my ears, cross my arms and find a way to deflect, undermine, or paper over. Or I could pause and say, “What am I being asked to hear in this moment?”

Pausing long enough to receive new insight or simply listen in a different way led to lots of hard questions and self-searching. It’s uncomfortable and sometimes disorienting. It can make things awkward as I try to fumble through complexity. I often want to fix things or say, “Yeah, but…” to absolve myself. But when I live out my deepest values of centering relationship and growing as a person, it’s ultimately worth it.

I don’t have this all figured out. I still fail spectacularly from time to time-and in smaller ways a lot of the time. Defensiveness still rises up, and yes, I do like to think that my opinions and approaches are well-grounded and are becoming more synthesized as I go. But here’s what I’m beginning to know: I’m better when I listen with an open heart. And I’m better when I let that listening change my action.

Prayer Phrase

“Led by the Holy Spirit, we work with God and others to restore peace (shalom) to creation” (https://www.cofchrist.org/enduring-principles).

Spiritual Practice

Embodying God’s Shalom

Find a way to express and embody God’s shalom. Begin by prayerfully listening to your longing for peace and wholeness. Become silent and imagine you can hear the groaning of the Earth’s people, nations, and creatures. Prayerfully open yourself to God’s yearning for peace and the divine vision of shalom.

What images, feelings, and words come to you? What prayer for peace comes to you from your time of listening? Speak or write this prayer. What act of justice, kindness, healing, or peacemaking does God invite you to consider this day?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

Discern God’s Call
Charmaine Chvala-Smith, Spiritual Formation Ministries

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! -2 Corinthians 5:17

Arriving to church early, we were invited into the children/youth class (a rare treat), to talk about priesthood offices. The teacher had described the offices while explaining that we’re all called to bring ministry. We talked about people they knew in various priesthood offices.

I asked, “Who’s your favorite minister?” Some answers were predictable-ordained members who exemplified kindness or interesting preaching. One answer reduced the group to giggles. A teenager claimed Nicholas was her favorite minister. “Why the giggles?” I asked. She replied, “It’s probably because Nicholas is 6 years old. He plays his violin some Sundays, and he’s not very good. But you can’t help but see how much he loves offering his gift!”

In today’s scripture Samuel, a much-beloved and respected prophet of Israel, is troubled. King Saul has let his hunger for peoples’ praise deafen him to God’s commands, and Samuel knows Saul soon will be replaced. God asks Samuel to find and anoint the new king. Samuel and the entire kingdom know Saul is unstable emotionally. If Saul discovers what Samuel is doing, the prophet, the new king, and anyone near them will be in grave danger!

Samuel trusts; God helps him avoid Saul’s attention and eventually reveals the future king. But Samuel hadn’t expected to anoint a teenager as king! Samuel discerns God’s call and responds, but he can’t explain why this youth was called or see what God sees. It isn’t his to decide if this young man is enough for the task.

The young man, David, was not enough-if you expect perfection. David broke a lot of commandments! God’s call to serve doesn’t assume we’ll do it flawlessly or have all the correct answers. God just asks for our “Yes.” That is enough. Whether we are David or Nicholas, the call is to offer our strengths and weaknesses to God’s creative work for the world. Like Nicholas, we sometimes will be off-key and out of tune. But also like him, as we respond to God’s call, God’s presence comes through. After all, isn’t the heart of ministry to point to the One who loves and calls us all?

Prayer Phrase

“Led by the Holy Spirit, we work with God and others to restore peace (shalom) to creation” (https://www.cofchrist.org/enduring-principles).

Spiritual Practice

Embodying God’s Shalom

Find a way to express and embody God’s shalom. Begin by prayerfully listening to your longing for peace and wholeness. Become silent and imagine you can hear the groaning of the Earth’s people, nations, and creatures. Prayerfully open yourself to God’s yearning for peace and the divine vision of shalom.

What images, feelings, and words come to you? What prayer for peace comes to you from your time of listening? Speak or write this prayer. What act of justice, kindness, healing, or peacemaking does God invite you to consider this day?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

Stopping for God’s Creation
Jannis Urena of Puyallup, WA, USA

These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another, render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace. -Zechariah 8:16

Several ponds are in our neighborhood. Toward the end of summer we see the geese fly south in classic V-formation. Some stop in these miniature lakes to nest and raise chicks.

Last week I was amused to see a bright-yellow sports car ahead of me come to a full stop in the road. Oncoming traffic stopped, as well. We all waited as a mother goose authoritatively guided her fluffy babies from one side of the road to the other.

All the horsepower and sleek creativity of Detroit-brought to a standstill by the power of our small, feathered friends.

Somehow, we tend to forget that God often invites us to stop and “smell the roses” or watch the goslings. How wondrous is the diversity of God’s creation-our very human souls draw us to observe Creation with awe. Even amid the traffic.

Prayer Phrase

“Led by the Holy Spirit, we work with God and others to restore peace (shalom) to creation” (https://www.cofchrist.org/enduring-principles).

Spiritual Practice

Embodying God’s Shalom

Find a way to express and embody God’s shalom. Begin by prayerfully listening to your longing for peace and wholeness. Become silent and imagine you can hear the groaning of the Earth’s people, nations, and creatures. Prayerfully open yourself to God’s yearning for peace and the divine vision of shalom.

What images, feelings, and words come to you? What prayer for peace comes to you from your time of listening? Speak or write this prayer. What act of justice, kindness, healing, or peacemaking does God invite you to consider this day?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

God Will Be with You
John Rawson of Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia

These are portentous times. The lives of many are being sacrificed unnecessarily to the gods of war, greed, and avarice. The land is being desecrated by the thoughtless waste of vital resources. You must obey my commandments and be in the forefront of those who would mediate this needless destruction while there is yet day. -Doctrine and Covenants 150:7

The eight months following my wife’s death were a time of “learning” for me-learning I would rather not have had to endure without Margaret. During this time, I felt deep doubt, insecurity, and an indescribable aloneness. I saw love in the eyes of my friends and my family. I felt it in the warmth of their hands and the hugs I received. But that loneliness had a life of its own.

Margaret and I shared everything. We had no secrets from each other. If we were preparing for ministry, we would always talk to each other about “what does this mean to you?” Then we would go away and prepare. Now I no longer had this certainty, this security, with me.

My low state of mind and physical illness stretched my emotions beyond anything I had known. Then in the wee hours of morning, a song awakened me, an old hymn by Fanny Crosby, “God Will Take Care of You.” One stanza tells us, “God will take care of you, be not afraid. He is your safeguard thro’ sunshine and shade: Tenderly watching and keeping his own, He will not leave you to wander alone.”

I sang the whole hymn, “word perfect,” even though I had not sung this hymn, heard it, or thought of it in over 50 years. I don’t believe this hymn just happened into my mind. I believe it was a blessing of God’s presence. It serves as a reminder that no matter what we endure, God is there before us. God’s Spirit is waiting for us with rich blessing.

The same moment I was experiencing this, I became aware the message of hope was also for another family of friends. They were on a journey no parent should have to endure. They watched as a much-loved daughter died of the ravages of cancer.

This message of hope is not for me or my friends only. It is for all who have need. God will be with you, be not afraid.

Prayer Phrase

“Led by the Holy Spirit, we work with God and others to restore peace (shalom) to creation” (https://www.cofchrist.org/enduring-principles).

Spiritual Practice

Embodying God’s Shalom

Find a way to express and embody God’s shalom. Begin by prayerfully listening to your longing for peace and wholeness. Become silent and imagine you can hear the groaning of the Earth’s people, nations, and creatures. Prayerfully open yourself to God’s yearning for peace and the divine vision of shalom.

What images, feelings, and words come to you? What prayer for peace comes to you from your time of listening? Speak or write this prayer. What act of justice, kindness, healing, or peacemaking does God invite you to consider this day?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.