SCRIPTURE: Num. 19-20; Ps. 28; Mark 5

Psalm 28:1
1 Don’t turn a deaf ear when I call you, God.
If all I get from you is deafening silence,
I’d be better off in the Black Hole.

OBSERVATION: No answer when I pray selfishly. No answer when I pray to fix those around me without acknowledging the footprints of my own stealth-sin. No wide-flung arms of Christ to receive me when I pretend I don’t need him.

APPLICATION: Remember, daily, the depth of my need for God’s mercy. Remember, moment by moment, that it was my sins that helped drive the need for Christ’s death. Remember, always, that I am a sinner saved by grace, a saint by the forgiveness and power of God, and a sheep of his own choosing.

PRAYER: Forgiving God, forgive my cheapening of your gifts by pretending that they aren’t needed. Thank you for the cross that eradicated my many sins. Thank you for your Son’s resurrection, which provides me with life abundant. Loving God, return me to a place of service with the reminder that I am merely a beggar seeking out others to tell them where I have found bread. I am not the baker. I am not the farmer. I am not the miller. I am not the source of that which I have found. I am the same as those who wander in search of the nameless loss in their lives. The difference is that I am found. Send me to find others, and to bring them to the one whom they seek. In His name, and for His sake I pray, Amen.