When we hear of God’s wrath, we usually think of ‘thunderbolts from heaven, and earthly cataclysms and flaming majesty’. A careful and humble reading of scripture can help us understand that God’s wrath is much quieter. He uses it to draw us back to him. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice in it – somehow. I invite you to get a Bible – in print or electronic – and start working through all or part of the prayers, scripture reading, questions, and devotional reading below. May the Lord bless you as you do so. And may the Spirit of God work in each of us to shape us to be a little more like Jesus, today.

— Praise God with Me: (1)
Loving God, we come to worship you today.
We come to sing, pray, and listen.
You always hear us.
Help us to hear you. Amen.

— Let us read and reflect on Scripture:
A little background: The is the beginning of Paul’s argument in Romans that everyone has a sin problem – no exceptions. He argues that everyone needs a savior, and that savior is Jesus Christ.

Come Holy Spirit, help us to hear your still, small voice as we read your word:
Romans 1:18-32

— Answer these four questions:
What does this passage say about God?
What does this passage say about people?
As a result of this reading, what is one step God is inviting you to take?
Who is one person you will tell about that step today?

— With a Heart of Prayer, Let us Respond: (2)
When we come into the holy presence of God, our own humanity is laid bare.
When we stand in the living presence of truth, our own falsehood is revealed.
Let us acknowledge who we are.
Let us confess our foolishness and sin.
Let us ask our ever-present God to forgive us.
Let us receive the grace he has promised us in Jesus Christ.

— Let’s Gather Wisdom from One Who Walked with Christ before us: (3)
How is God’s wrath revealed?
The first answer to this question is that God’s wrath will be revealed in the future, at the end, in the judgment of the last day… Secondly, there is a present disclosure of God’s wrath through the public administration of justice, to which Paul will come later in his letter. Thirdly, there is another kind of present disclosure of the anger of God, to which the apostle will devote the rest of Romans 1. It is being revealed from heaven now, he says, and he goes on to explain it by his terrible threefold refrain “God gave them over…” (v24, 26, and 28).
When we hear of God’s wrath, we usually think of ‘thunderbolts from heaven, and earthly cataclysms and flaming majesty’, instead of which his anger goes ‘quietly and invisibly’ to work, handing sinners over to themselves. As John Zeisler writes, it ‘operates not by God’s intervention but precisely by his not intervening, by letting men and women go their own way.’ God abandons stubborn sinners to their willful self-centeredness, and the resulting process of moral and spiritual degeneration is to be understood as a judicial act of God. This is the revelation of God’s wrath from heaven.

— Let this glorify God today: (4)
Glory to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Sources:
(1) Original.
(2) The Worship Sourcebook, 2004, Faith Alive Christian Resources with additions and edits.
(3) From The Message of Romans, by John Stott
(4) From The Worship Sourcebook, 2004, Faith Alive Christian Resources, edited.