O God,you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.[1]
He commands all people everywhere to repent
Acts 17:22-31 NRSV
Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
Warren Wiersbe
[The apostle Paul] presented in his sermon four great truths about God.
He is the Creator – The Greeks believed different theories about creation and even held to a form of evolution. Paul clearly stated that God created everything and did not live in temples made by men. God gives life to all; man can really give nothing to Him.
He is the Governor – He appoints the boundaries of the nations. Through His government of the nations, He seeks to make men seek Him and find Him. Paul even quoted a Greek writer (v. 28) to show that God is the sustainer of life. This does not mean the Greek poet was inspired, but rather that his statement agreed with divine truth. Again, Paul diplomatically pointed out that their temples and images were foolish and ignorant. We need this reminder today!
He is the Savior – Paul wipes away the great Greek culture by calling it “times of ignorance”! With all their wisdom and culture, the Greeks failed to find God. God has commanded men everywhere to repent; and if they repent and believe, He will forgive.
He is the Judge – God has appointed a day of judgment, and the Judge will be His Son, Jesus Christ. God proved this by raising Him from the dead. If we trust Christ today, He will save us; if we reject Him, tomorrow He will judge us.[2]
Augustine
God is ceaselessly at work in the things which he has created. It is not with respect to his substance that we are in him. For instance, it has been said that he has life in himself, but since we are certainly different from him, we are not in him in any other way except that he brings it [our existence] about; and this is his work, whereby he contains all things. And it has been said that his wisdom reaches mightily from one end of the earth to the other and orders all things well. It is through this ordering that in him we live and move and are. Hence, we infer that if he withdrew this work of his from things, we would neither live nor move nor be.[3]
O God of the Open Ear,
Teach me to live by prayer as well as by providence, for myself, soul, body, children, family, church; give me a heart frameable to thy will; so might I live in prayer, and honor thee, being kept from evil, known and unknown.
Help me to see the sin that accompanies all I do, and the good I can distil from everything. Let me know that the work of prayer is to bring m will to thine, and that without this it is folly to pray; when I try to bring thy will to mine it is to command Christ, to be above him, and wise than he: this is m sin and pride.
I can only succeed when I pray according to thy precept and promise, and to be done with as it pleases thee, according to thy sovereign will.
When thou commandest me to pray for pardon, peace, brokenness, it is because thou wilt give me the thing promised, for thy glory, as well as for my good.
Help me not only to desire small things but with holy boldness to desire great things for thy people, for myself, that they and I might live to show thy glory.
Teach me that it is wisdom for me to pray for all I have, out of love, willingly, not of necessity; that I may come to thee at any time to lay open my needs acceptably to thee; that my great sin lies in m not keeping the savor of thy ways; that the remembrance of this truth is one way to the sense of thy presence; that there is no wrath like the wrath of being governed by my own lusts for my own ends. Amen.[4]
Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise
Save us while waking, and defend us while sleeping, that when we awake, we may watch with Christ, and when we sleep, we may rest in peace. Amen.[5]
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Corinthians 4.15).
[1] Collect for the sixth Sunday of Easter. Anglican Book of Common Prayer, 2019.
[2] Warren W. Wiersbe, Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the New Testament (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1992), 324–325.
[3] Ancient Christian Devotional Year A, p. 126.
[4] “Living by Prayer.” The Valley of Vision, p. 266-267.
[5] Ancient Christian Devotional Year A, p. 129.
