MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2025
Monday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time, Year C
A Word of Introduction
Welcome to The Methodist Daily Office, a daily rhythm of Scripture, prayer, and Wesleyan wisdom designed to form disciples through the church year. For centuries, Christians have ordered their days around fixed-hour prayer, allowing the liturgical seasons to shape their spiritual lives and deepen their walk with Christ. This resource draws you into that ancient pattern, grounding you in God’s Word through the Revised Common Lectionary, connecting you to our Methodist heritage through the writings of John and Charles Wesley and historic Methodist and Wesleyan voices, and guiding you in prayer that touches every dimension of life. These first few entries serve as an introduction to the format and rhythm we’ll follow together. I invite you to join us officially when we begin the church year anew on the First Sunday of Advent, November 30, 2025, as we walk together through Scripture, doctrine, and devotion, forming hearts and minds for faithful discipleship under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
OPENING
Sentence of the Day
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. (James 1:2)
Versicle
O Lord, open our lips.
And our mouths shall proclaim your praise.
In our affliction, we call upon the Lord.
And he hears our cry.
Glory to God
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
THE WORD
Brief Contextual Note
As we journey through Ordinary Time, the long season of growth in grace and discipleship, today’s readings address a reality every believer faces: suffering, trials, and the testing of faith. Psalm 137 recalls Israel’s bitter exile in Babylon. Lamentations mourns Jerusalem’s destruction with raw honesty. Yet James calls us to count these very trials as joy, for they produce endurance and maturity in Christ.
Psalm 137 (ESV)
¹ By the waters of Babylon,
there we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
² On the willows there
we hung up our lyres.
³ For there our captors
required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”⁴ How shall we sing the LORD’s song
in a foreign land?
⁵ If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget its skill!
⁶ Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
above my highest joy!⁷ Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites
the day of Jerusalem,
how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare,
down to its foundations!”
⁸ O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
blessed shall he be who repays you
with what you have done to us!
⁹ Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
and dashes them against the rock!
Lamentations 1:16-22 (ESV)
¹⁶ “For these things I weep;
my eyes flow with tears;
for a comforter is far from me,
one to revive my spirit;
my children are desolate,
for the enemy has prevailed.”¹⁷ Zion stretches out her hands,
but there is none to comfort her;
the LORD has commanded against Jacob
that his neighbors should be his foes;
Jerusalem has become
a filthy thing among them.¹⁸ “The LORD is in the right,
for I have rebelled against his word;
but hear, all you peoples,
and see my suffering;
my young women and my young men
have gone into captivity.¹⁹ “I called to my lovers,
but they deceived me;
my priests and elders
perished in the city,
while they sought food
to revive their strength.²⁰ “Look, O LORD, for I am in distress;
my stomach churns;
my heart is wrung within me,
because I have been very rebellious.
In the street the sword bereaves;
in the house it is like death.²¹ “They heard my groaning,
yet there is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my trouble;
they are glad that you have done it.
You will bring the day you have announced;
let them be as I am.²² “Let all their evildoing come before you,
and deal with them
as you have dealt with me
because of all my transgressions;
for my groans are many,
and my heart is faint.”
James 1:2-11 (ESV)
² Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, ³ for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. ⁴ And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. ⁶ But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. ⁷ For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸ he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
⁹ Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, ¹⁰ and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. ¹¹ For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.
Silence for reflection (1-2 minutes)
WESLEY’S WISDOM
From John Wesley’s Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament, James 1
“The patience of Job” has passed into a proverb, yet we find him deeply afflicted with a sense of his sufferings. But these very afflictions proved that God had not forgotten him, and brought forth that glorious testimony to his integrity which is recorded for our instruction. So it is with all who are exercised by trials: God uses them to refine faith as gold is refined in the fire, that the proof of faith – more precious than gold that perishes – might be found to praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds, not because suffering is pleasant in itself, but because of what God accomplishes through it: steadfastness, maturity, completeness in Christ. The testing of faith is not God’s cruelty but his kindness, not his abandonment but his attentive care.
HYMN
From Charles Wesley, “Jesus, Lover of My Soul” (1740)
Still nigh me, O my Saviour, stand,
And guard in fierce temptation’s hour;
Hide in the hollow of thy hand,
Show forth in me thy saving power:
Still be thy arm my sure defence,
Nor earth nor hell shall pluck me thence.Though in affliction’s furnace tried,
Unhurt on snares and death I’ll tread;
Though sin assail, and hell thrown wide
Pour all its flames upon my head;
By faith I shall the conquest gain,
And trample down the powers of hell.
(May be sung or read meditatively)
THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION
The afflictions of the righteous are among the most mysterious yet merciful workings of divine providence. That a loving God permits his children to suffer trials, losses, and sorrows often perplexes the natural mind. Yet Scripture everywhere testifies that affliction, when sanctified by grace, becomes one of God’s chief instruments for our spiritual formation. The captivity of Israel in Babylon, though grievous and brought about by their own rebellion, served to purge them of idolatry and prepare them for the coming of Messiah. So too, the trials that befall believers are not evidence of God’s indifference but of his fatherly discipline. He chastens those he loves, refining them as silver is refined, burning away the dross of self-sufficiency and worldliness. The apostle James does not minimize the reality of suffering – trials are real, painful, and often prolonged – but he transforms our perspective: we are to count them joy because God uses them to produce steadfastness, maturity, and completeness in Christ. This is not stoic resignation but confident faith in a God who wastes nothing, who works all things together for good for those who love him. The furnace of affliction, far from being God’s abandonment, is often the very place where we experience his nearest presence and most transforming grace.
(Adapted from Richard Watson, Theological Institutes, Volume 2, on Providence and Suffering)
MEDITATION
Do you hear the tension in today’s readings? Israel weeps by Babylon’s rivers, unable to sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land. Jerusalem laments her desolation, crying out for a comforter who seems far away. These are not sanitized, Sunday-school sorrows, this is raw grief, honest anguish, the kind that makes your stomach churn and your heart faint. And into this reality, James says something that sounds almost offensive: “Count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds.” How can we? Because joy is not the same as happiness. Happiness depends on happenings, favorable circumstances, comfort, ease.
But joy is deeper. Joy trusts that God is at work even in the furnace, that he has not forgotten us, that every trial is producing something eternal in us, steadfastness, maturity, Christ-likeness. Charles Wesley knew this. He wrote “Jesus, Lover of My Soul” not from a place of ease but from experience of affliction, and he dared to sing that in the very furnace, God’s arm remains our sure defense. This isn’t mere doctrine to file away, this is Monday morning truth when the diagnosis comes back, when the job is lost, when the relationship fractures, when loneliness feels crushing.
As you examine your heart with the questions below, ask: Am I trusting God’s purposes in my trials, or am I demanding he remove them? Am I growing in steadfastness, or am I collapsing into bitterness? The season of Ordinary Time reminds us that most of our Christian lives aren’t lived on mountaintops but in the daily valleys where faith is tested and proven. Will you let God refine you, or will you resist his work?
PERSONAL REFLECTION
- When trials and afflictions come, is my first instinct to cry out in honest lament to God (like the psalmist and Jeremiah), or do I pretend to be fine and hide my struggles?
- Am I truly counting trials as joy because of what God is producing in me, or do I resent suffering and believe I deserve better?
- Where in my life right now is God using difficulty to produce steadfastness, maturity, or dependence on him, and am I cooperating with his refining work, or resisting it?
PRAYERS
Collect for Trials and Testing
O God, our refuge and strength, you permit trials to come upon your children not to destroy but to refine us, not to abandon but to draw us near. Grant us grace to endure with steadfastness the afflictions you allow, trusting that you are working all things together for our good and your glory. Help us to count it joy when we meet trials of various kinds, knowing that the testing of our faith produces the endurance that makes us mature and complete in Christ. Hide us in the hollow of your hand, and let your strength be made perfect in our weakness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who suffered for us and with us. Amen.
Intercessions
- Pray for the Church, that we may faithfully encourage one another in trials and not grow weary in suffering…
- Pray for the world, especially those who suffer persecution, poverty, illness, or injustice without the comfort of knowing Christ…
- Pray for those in your life who are walking through deep affliction, that they may know God’s nearness in the furnace…
- Pray for yourself, that God would grant you wisdom to discern his purposes in your trials and grace to endure with joy…
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
CLOSING
Blessing
Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. (James 1:12)
Dismissal
Let us go forth in the power of the Spirit to love and serve the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Grace and peace to you in Christ Jesus. May this day’s afflictions produce in you the steadfastness that leads to maturity and the joy that comes from knowing God’s refining purposes.
Soli Deo Gloria.
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