When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen. – Luke 19:37

Today's Scripture Reading (January 29, 2024): Luke 19

A few years ago, I talked a little about prayer to my community. Some of them have been swearing at me ever since. My purpose wasn't that I wanted them to have trouble praying, but I wanted them to think about what they were saying, really think about it.

Consider this. We serve the God who created the universe; He is the one who sets everything in motion. In science, he is known as the prime mover; he is the one who sets the natural laws in place that govern how our world runs. But he is also the God who loves us so much that he sent his one and only Son to die on the cross for the things that we have done wrong.

This is the God who we serve. Yet, the best we can sometimes come up with is, "Thank you for this day; bless me, my food, my meeting, my dog, and my dog's aunt. Be with us. Watch over and protect us. Forgive us for our many sins (because we are way too busy to start listing them to you). Amen (which we translate into "Okay, I don't know what to say next, so I will go now. Peace Out, God, I will try to catch up with you later). We serve a God who loves and created us as well as everything around us, and that is often the best we can do in conversation with him.

Luke seems to describe something different. As Jesus approached Jerusalem, a spontaneous song of praise erupted from his followers. No one was worried about how elegant the words might be or weren't. The words weren't rehearsed or something that had been said before. They weren't written by a professional poet who had weighed every word. They came out of the mouths of this group of disciples, arising from the center of their beings, because of what God was busy doing in their lives.

Many years ago, I heard Louie Giglio preach a series of prayer messages. That night, Louie preached on a passage about being blessed. He told the story of a lady who sold him food at a kiosk. Giglio said if you asked her how she was doing, she always said she was blessed. And Louie loved to hear that response. So he sought her out; it reminded him that he didn't need God to bless him; he was already blessed.

It is a response that should spontaneously flow out of us. We are blessed, although I recognize that too often, we don't feel that way. Maybe we just feel more Christian when we are persecuted. But regardless of what might be happening outside, God's work inside us means that we truly are blessed. My prayer for all of us is that God's spontaneous song will flow out of me, as well as out of you, in everything that we do.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: John 12