What is your heart telling you today? Culture tells us to trust our hearts. The Bible warns us that our hearts can be deceptive. We want to feel things are right in our heart. If we feel the tension, if our hearts are restless, we struggle and seek to put our hearts at peace. What can we do to get our hearts right? This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Get a Bible and work through 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)
God of light and truth, you are beyond our grasp or conceiving.
Before the brightness of your presence the angels veil their faces.
With lowly reverence and adoring love
we acclaim your glory and sing your praise,
for you have shown us your truth and love
in Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen

— Let us read and reflect on Scripture:
A little background: Most of us know that Jesus taught us love our neighbors. Moreover, he told his disciples to love one another as he had love them, as he loves us. But how? This section of John’s first letter contrasts the way of the world with the way of Jesus, and gets very practical: It calls us to laying down our life beginning with humble generosity.

Come Holy Spirit, help us to accept who we are. Remind us who you are!
I John 3:11-24

— 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)
God, shape us to be faithful stewards of the time, talents, and money you’ve given us.
Make us thankful, that we might give in gratitude and joy,
Make us prayerful, that we might serve in sacrifice and love,
Make us hopeful, that we want grow weary.
Through Christ our example we pray, Amen.

— Let’s Gather Wisdom from One Who Walked with Christ before us: (3)
The work of God begins while we are asleep and without our help. He continues to work through the day in our worship and obedience. A sacrifice is the material means of assembling a life before God in order to let God work with it. Sacrifice isn’t something we do for God, but simply setting out the stuff of life for him to do something with. On the altar the sacrificial offering is changed into what is pleasing and acceptable to God. In the act of offering we give up ownership and control, and watch to see what God will do with it. With a deep awareness that the God who speaks life into us also listens when we speak, we put into words the difficulties and delights that we foresee in the hours ahead. We assemble fears and hopes, apprehensions and anticipations, and place them on the altar as an offering: “I prepare a sacrifice, and watch”. (Psalm 5:3b).

— Let us surrender this day to God who blesses us and calls us to be a blessing: (4)
God of all creation, your love endures forever.
You bring forth bread from the earth and fruit from the vine.
Nourish us with these gifts, that we might live in the light of your love and
be in this world signs of your gracious presence in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Sources:
(1) From The Worship Sourcebook, 2004, Faith Alive Christian Resources, edited.
(2) From The Worship Sourcebook, 2004, Faith Alive Christian Resources, edited.
(3) From “Sacrifice” in Answering God by Eugene Peterson
(4) From The Worship Sourcebook, 2004, Faith Alive Christian Resources.