Lent Readings: Thursday 5 April

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LEAVING POWER FOR VULNERABILITY...

Psalm 102 TNIV

A prayer of an afflicted person who has grown weak and pours out a lament before the LORD.

^{[a] 1} Hear my prayer, LORD;
let my cry for help come to you.

² Do not hide your face from me
when I am in distress.
Turn your ear to me;
when I call, answer me quickly.

³ For my days vanish like smoke;
my bones burn like glowing embers.

⁴ My heart is blighted and withered like grass;
I forget to eat my food.

⁵ In my distress I groan aloud
and am reduced to skin and bones.

⁶ I am like a desert owl,
like an owl among the ruins.

⁷ I lie awake; I have become
like a bird alone on a roof.

⁸ All day long my enemies taunt me;
those who rail against me use my name as a curse.

⁹ For I eat ashes as my food
and mingle my drink with tears

¹⁰ because of your great wrath,
for you have taken me up and thrown me aside.

¹¹ My days are like the evening shadow;
I wither away like grass.

¹² But you, LORD, sit enthroned forever;
your renown endures through all generations.

¹³ You will arise and have compassion on Zion,
for it is time to show favor to her;
the appointed time has come.

¹⁴ For her stones are dear to your servants;
her very dust moves them to pity.

¹⁵ The nations will fear the name of the LORD,
all the kings of the earth will revere your glory.

¹⁶ For the LORD will rebuild Zion
and appear in his glory.

¹⁷ He will respond to the prayer of the destitute;
he will not despise their plea.

¹⁸ Let this be written for a future generation,
that a people not yet created may praise the LORD:

¹⁹ "The LORD looked down from his sanctuary on high,
from heaven he viewed the earth,

²⁰ to hear the groans of the prisoners
and release those condemned to death."

²¹ So the name of the LORD will be declared in Zion
and his praise in Jerusalem

²² when the peoples and the kingdoms
assemble to worship the LORD.

²³ In the course of my life ^[b] he broke my strength;
he cut short my days.

²⁴ So I said:
"Do not take me away, my God, in the midst of my days;
your years go on through all generations.

²⁵ In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.

²⁶ They will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
Like clothing you will change them
and they will be discarded.

²⁷ But you remain the same,
and your years will never end.

²⁸ The children of your servants will live in your presence;
their descendants will be established before you."

Jeremiah 20:7-11 TNIV

Jeremiah's Complaint

⁷ You deceived ^[a] me, LORD, and I was deceived ^[b];
you overpowered me and prevailed.
I am ridiculed all day long;
everyone mocks me.

⁸ Whenever I speak, I cry out
proclaiming violence and destruction.
So the word of the LORD has brought me
insult and reproach all day long.

⁹ But if I say, "I will not mention his word
or speak anymore in his name,"
his word is in my heart like a fire,
a fire shut up in my bones.
I am weary of holding it in;
indeed, I cannot.

¹⁰ I hear many whispering,
"Terror on every side!
Denounce him! Let's denounce him!"
All my friends
are waiting for me to slip, saying,
"Perhaps he will be deceived;
then we will prevail over him
and take our revenge on him."

¹¹ But the LORD is with me like a mighty warrior;
so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.
They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced;
their dishonor will never be forgotten.

1 Corinthians 10:14-17 TNIV

Idol Feasts and the Lord's Supper

¹⁴ Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry. ¹⁵ I speak to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say. ¹⁶ Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? ¹⁷ Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.

John 17 TNIV

Jesus Prays to Be Glorified

¹ After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:

"Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. ² For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. ³ Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. ⁴ I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. ⁵ And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

Jesus Prays for His Disciples

⁶ "I have revealed you ^[a] to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. ⁷ Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. ⁸ For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. ⁹ I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. ¹⁰ All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. ¹¹ I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of ^[b] your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. ¹² While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by ^[c] that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

¹³ "I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. ¹⁴ I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. ¹⁵ My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. ¹⁶ They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. ¹⁷ Sanctify them by ^[d] the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

Jesus Prays for All Believers

²⁰ "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— ²³ I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

²⁴ "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

²⁵ "Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. ²⁶ I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."