Today’s Reflection
“Why Being Fair Is Not Easy
“FAIR” IN JESUS’ TERMS is difficult, because we have a tendency to believe we deserve what we have, that we earn our possessions. We extend this argument to those who have less: they did not earn more and so do not deserve it. The problem with this logic is that we did not start out equal. All people are not born with the same opportunities, the same resources, or the same gifts. We are all different.
As disciples of Jesus we can live responsibly in such a world by being grateful for what we have and sharing with those who have need. Love calls us to determine what we’ve been given and how to use it in service to others.
– Christopher Maricle
The Jesus Priorities
From pages 78-79 of The Jesus Priorities: 8 Essential Habits by Christopher Maricle. Copyright © 2007 by Christopher Maricle. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Upper Room Books. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Question
Today is a good day to be grateful. Express your gratitude to both God and neighbor. Share your thoughts.
Today’s Scripture
There I will cause a horn to sprout up for David; I have prepared a lamp for my anointed one.
Psalm 132:17, NRSV
This Week: Pray for those suffering from mental illness. Submit your prayer to The Upper Room Living Prayer Center or share it in the comment section.
Did You Know?
In need of prayer? The Upper Room Living Prayer Center is an intercessory prayer ministry staffed by Christian volunteers. Submit a prayer request, and our Covenant Prayer Groups will pray for you. Visit The Living Prayer Center website.
This week we remember: Ann Eliza Worchester Robertson (November 19).
Lectionary Readings
(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)
Sponsored by Upper Room Ministries ®. Copyright © 2018 | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA
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PREPARE FOR ADVENT: Explore how nativity sets, Advent wreaths, candles, carols, Christmas cards, and other traditions help prepare our hearts for the God “who bends low to enter our world and our lives.” The Living Nativity, a new book and eCourse by Larry Peacock, is available now.
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Grateful for my students’ good results.
God has blessed me with patience and love to teach those who are slow in learning.
Grateful for all your prayers.
Grateful for patience and love for slow learner’s and their progress.
Blessings!
Two sentences have given me pause this morning, to sink deep into prayer…
1. Expectations are next to entitlement, and gratitude is next to godliness. (Ann Voskamp)
2. Jesus is ecstasy beyond compare and if hardships draw us closer to Him, I’m more than content with it. (Jodi Eareckson Tada – on learning she has cancer again.)
The first statement by Ann Voskamp came on the heals of “No expectations, only gratitude…because all is grace.”
Father – evidence of You in our lives – is utterly pure grace. May there be noticeable evidence of gratitude stemming from us.
Grateful for Upper Room Ministries, for them providing this space for us to gather, to celebrate, to uplift, to pray. Father – to You belongs all the glory.
Thankful that God created me and you and filled us with the Holy Spirit when we accepted Christ as our Redeemer and Savior. Thank You Lord. May you, your family, friends, neighbors, and all the people of God’s creation be blessed and accept the gift God has given us. Thank You, Lord. Amen.
This us my first Thanksgiving with snow on the ground and frigid temperatures. It’s 1 degree now going to 8 and then to 0. I pray you are warm
May each of your needs be met and may you be blessed by the One who keeps us from falling as you give thanks today.
Prayers for those with mental illness. Lord, You can cure them.
Have a blessed day dear UR family.
Grateful to God for all that he has given me – I pray that I may use the resources he has given me to be more generous with others. I sometimes worry about finances but God always sees a way and I pray that He will help me to follow His will and be generous to others in all of my actions.
I’m so grateful to God for my children who all will be with me today- I pray for peace in my own family and for other families who gather together today. I pray for those who are alone on this day – especially those with no homes or adequate shelter and food. God has richly blessed me and my family. We are never alone with God by our side. I’m thankful today for all of you- prayers for you all today and every day.
I am blessed beyond measure. Family, health, freedom to worship, home and food on the table: these are just a few of the things we can enjoy because of God’s Grace. Hoping all my friends here can gather with family and/or friends this day to offer our thanksgiving for all our blessings we have this day and everyday.
My daughter is here with us; my son and his sweet expectant wife will be coming in today. Traveling mercies to all who must be on the road today.
We are celebrating with almost all of our family at the table today. After many years apart through work/locations, what a joy it will be to be for my sister and our families to be together!! I hope we can all be together at the table at least some time during next year, I am planning for that now.
Grateful for our UR Family who is together everyday, may we all feel virtual hugs as we join here to post or read. I count this as a blessing every morning. Holding you all in my thoughts and prayers.
I wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving and God’s abundant blessings.
I am fixing ham, sweet potatoes, peas and carrots, Sweet Hawaiian Crescents, and pumpkin pie and whipped cream
for the two of us.
I always take our pumpkin, cut off the top, mix up the seeds and pumpkin meat and fill with peanuts for the squirrels. They are already enjoying their Thanksgiving Treat!
Thankful for:
This day.
Feeling somewhat better.
Everyone sharing here by posting and reading.
I am thankful for safe travel yesterday, family both biological and here at the UR. Celebrating with family.
My prayers for you and prayers of thankfulness for each and everyone of you.
Thankful for all God’s blessings, for my husband and family, for being a grandparent, for my dear UR friends and old and new friends, for a walk yesterday by myself on a path around a lake, for the lovely, expressive trees I see from our bedroom window.
May the mentally ill and the homeless be assisted by God’s servants. May they receive warm shelter, food and compassion.
May you all have a blessed Thanksgiving.
Thanks be to God for this day and every day! Thank You, Father, for Your Son, Jesus Christ our Savior and the Holy Spirit, Who connects us to You and one another with the words we cannot express! Thank You, our Creator, for Loving all of us, Your children!
I am beyond thankful for you, my loving UR siblings and friends, my family. I am grateful for our church and our Pastors and our congregation. Prayers for my sister on this Thanksgiving Day, that she may be sober and thoughtful, mindful of God. I am so very full of thanksgiving this day, to be buried in the word of God through scripture. I am grateful for Lucy, my dear little kitty, a roof over our heads and food on the table.
My heart is full of Love for all gathered together with family and friends today, Thanksgiving Day, dear Julie and Megan (Chai and Tazzie); Mary and Molly and their parents; Jill and Becky and their parents, Gloria and Larry (Roger); Robert and Erich and their loved ones (Pearl); Andrea and Lowell, and Andrea’s daughter, son-in-law and grandson; Lou and her children; Betsy and her family; April and her family; Connie and her family (and praise God you are feeling better, Connie); and all the UR family. Happy Thanksgiving to Pam and family, Rusty and K, Ami, Gerri, Louise, Gail, Francesca Carol and Robin, Jean, Joan and all who visit the UR Reflections site!
And these three remain: Faith, Hope and Love, and the greatest of these is LOVE! Sending prayers and Love to all!
I have arrived at my brother’s house for Thanksgiving. Please pray for me.
Hope all went well, dear Andrea.
Why it’s difficult for me to praise God?I always complaining about everything in me and life?people call me Mrs complainer. Infacat my childhood life was not good and May be it will be a reason. Please pray for me. I need peace of mind
You can never get if you have no money while in the jackpot and you can’t carry money there without having to be hostile sometimes.
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