January 17
Sunday, Day Eight
“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned...so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.”
~Romans 12:3 & 5
Dear God, we pray that you reveal our hidden faults, that you expose and free us from what we do not know or realize that keeps us from one another and from you. We pray that in your Light our darkness is revealed. We pray that we may be free from all that binds us–– racism and all forms of sin–– that that we may sing with Charles Wesley:
Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature’s night.
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
Amen.
adapted from the prayer of Frank Richard Coats
21 Days of Hope, as a devotion, is a journey through scripture, prayer, and resources that can move those of us who are white toward a closer understanding of racism in our country and the experience of our black and brown brothers and sisters.