Sustained by a Word

From our congregational Lenten project, Devoted.

Wednesday, April 1

Lowell Hennigs

Wednesday in Holy Week

Read Isaiah 50:4-9a

SUSTAINED BY A WORD

“The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.” (Verse 4a)

Have you been sustained by the words you find here?  I hope so.  We are blessed with many fine teachers in these pages.  They have been willing to share their lives, their faith, their questions and their words to sustain you and me in this Lenten journey.

Sometimes we may forget that our Lord Jesus was sustained as well by the power of God’s Word.  He knew the Hebrew scriptures intimately and charted his earthly course based on God’s word—especially in the Psalms and the prophet Isaiah.

For example, when he suffered violence and torture, he knew that this was the fate of an honest prophet of the word.  He understood that his course would take him from the safety of the Galilean hills to the hands of the executioner in Jerusalem.  He knew that this was the path of the Suffering Servant, the real Messiah, who would bring peace and life to a warring and dying world.

He read those Scriptures.  He prayed over them and through them.  And then he embodied and enacted the mission contained there.  Those around him did not understand what was happening.  But he was fulfilling Israel’s vocation as the Suffering Servant for the sake of all.

We too can be sustained by the Word.  Regular and careful study will shape and nourish our faith.  Daily prayer and reflection will make that word a part of our breath and our thought.  Weekly worship will reconnect us with the Word and with the community formed by that Word.

I pray that these meditations have fed you well on your Lenten journey.  I pray even more that they leave you hungering—hungering for daily devotions when Lent is over.

If you need more devotional resources to carry on after Lent, please contact your church office.  They will be glad to help.

Let’s pray.  Thank you, God, for sustaining us with your Word in the midst of trials and troubles.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Christ In Our Home devotional resources, click here.

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