Daily Prayer: a resource of Forward Movement

The Forward Day by Day Meditation for December 31, 1969

We post a Forward Day by Day Meditation for every day of the year - and we invite you to consider them and talk about them here. If you'd like to comment, you can log in to Disqus with your Facebook, Twitter, or Google account; just click "Login," or the appropriate logo below. Or, you can sign up for a Disqus account; just use the entry form below, or click the "D" logo to start the process. You can find the past week's Meditations in the box at right (or below, for mobile users), or search for previous entries on the Archives page. You can also listen to the Forward Day by Day podcast anywhere you find podcasts!

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TUESDAY, July 6 [Eva Lee Matthews]

1 Samuel 15:29 Moreover the Glory of Israel will not recant or change his mind; for he is not a mortal, that he should change his mind.

When God plans to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham argues for the righteous people living among the wicked. He asks God to spare the city if there are 50, then 45, 40, 30, 20, and finally just 10 righteous people living there. Each time God relents and agrees to Abraham’s request.

Later, God wants to destroy the Israelites in the desert because of their disobedience, but Moses intercedes and God changes course. In the book of Ezekiel, the Lord looks for someone to stand in the gap between him and the land so that he would not destroy it but “found no one” (22:30). It sounds like God would have done differently had someone stepped up.

When I look at the brokenness and wickedness in the world, I too am grieved, just as Samuel was for Saul. What would it look like to put myself in the gap?

God is not mortal, but he is in favor of mercy. Is God more likely to change his mind about a situation than I am?

MOVING FORWARD: How can you stand in the gap? For God? For others?

PRAY for the Diocese of Dallas (USA)

Ps 5, 6 * 10, 11 | 1 Samuel 15:24-35 | Acts 9:32-43 | Luke 23:56b—24:11