A Prayer about Not Being Offended by Jesus
“And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.’ And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.”
Matthew 13:57-58
Lord Jesus,
In these days leading up to Easter,
draw us to examine our hearts.
As we read of people in your hometown
wanting to throw you off a cliff (Luke 4:29)
because they were so disappointed in you,
we need to ask ourselves,
Do we ever take offense at you?
Do we have expectations
of what you should do,
of who you should be?
Do we sometimes miss out
on your “mighty works…
because of [our] unbelief?” (Matthew 13:58).
Do we know you so well
that we start to take you for granted,
that we fail to honor you?
May it never be!
Lord, show us our unbelief.
Transform our hearts into megaphones
maximizing our praise and honor of you,
our glorious King.
In your saving name. Amen.
Read Matthew 13:53-58.
![Do you know joy is growing in your heart?
Light is sown for the righteous,
And joy for the upright in heart. Psalm 97:11
Glorious God,
We confess,
sometimes the evil in our world
and the darkness in our own hearts
obscures your righteousness and glory.
Psalm 97 reorients the eyes of our hearts
to see how magnificent you are,
and as we see your kingly power
and eternal beauty,
we rejoice:
“The Lord reigns;
let the earth rejoice;
let the many coastlands be glad!” (Ps. 97:1).
May we never doubt for a moment
that you will defeat all evil
on this earth
in your good time:
“Fire goes before him
and burns his adversaries all around” (Ps. 97:3).
Indeed, as we see “The mountains [melting] like wax”
before you, mighty Lord,
we “hear and [are] glad.”
We rejoice!
Not only are you “[preserving] the lives of your saints;
[delivering] us from the hand of the wicked,” (Ps. 97:10),
you are sowing light in our hearts.
Today and every day,
may we see the seeds of light
growing in our hearts,
and may we know that out of those seeds,
you will harvest bright blooms of joy and gladness.
Indeed, as your children made righteous in Christ,
may we “give thanks to [your] holy name!” (Ps. 97:12).
In Jesus’ joy-full name. Amen.
Read Psalm 97.
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