Community · 7 days
A Week with Your Church
One step a day, in step with your church.
Who it’s for
A devotional for each day of the week, following the theme of that day’s gathering.
- Grow in faith — Prayer, the Word and consecration, one day at a time.
What you’ll grow in
How the journey is organized
- Day 1Coming back closeLuke 15:20
- Day 2Faithful with what is in your handsColossians 3:23Available in the app
- Day 3The outstretched handMark 5:34Available in the app
- Day 4Hearing and doingJames 1:22Available in the app
- Day 5The love that stays1 Corinthians 13:4Available in the app
- Day 6Free indeedJohn 8:36Available in the app
- Day 7When there is no way outMark 9:24Available in the app
Day 1 · Coming back close
Today’s reading: Luke 15:11-24
11He said, “A certain man had two sons. 12The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ So he divided his livelihood between them. 13Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living. 14When he had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need. 15He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16He wanted to fill his belly with the pods that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any. 17But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger! 18I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. 19I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.”’ 20“He arose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him. 21The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let’s eat and celebrate; 24for this, my son, was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.’ Then they began to celebrate.
Luke 15:11-24 · World English Bible
He arose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him.
Context
Luke 15 gathers three parables Jesus told when Pharisees and scribes were grumbling because he welcomed sinners and ate with them: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. In the culture of the time, asking for your inheritance while your father was still alive was almost like wishing him dead, and an older man running in public was considered undignified. Jesus tells the story this way on purpose: the running father reveals how God receives those who come back.
Sunday is a day for starting over. The week hasn’t really begun yet, the demands haven’t arrived, and many people go to church today with the same longing, sometimes without being able to put it into words: I want to be close to God again. This plan begins here, because everything in the days ahead depends on that encounter.
Jesus told the story of a son who asked for his inheritance, went far away, and spent it all. When hunger hit, he came to his senses and decided to go back. But notice that he goes back with a rehearsed speech: he will say he is no longer worthy to be called a son and ask to be treated as a hired servant. He thinks he will have to negotiate a place in the house. That is how many of us come to God: afraid of not being accepted, thinking we have to make up for the distance with promises.
The father doesn’t wait for the speech. While the son was still far off, the father saw him, was moved with compassion, ran, and embraced him. Coming back to the Father doesn’t begin when you arrive with everything in order; it begins when you get up and take the first step home. He was already watching the road.
Maybe you haven’t gone as far as that son. Maybe you have simply grown cold: prayer got put off, the Bible stayed closed, faith became a routine without warmth. Sometimes we don’t even notice when it happened. That is distance too. And God’s answer is the same: he doesn’t require you to prove anything before you are received. He embraces first.
Worship is responding to that embrace. It isn’t only singing or being present at a service, though that is precious. It is recognizing who God is, thanking him for what he has done, and placing yourself before him with an open heart. Isaiah invites us: seek the Lord while he may be found. Today is a day to seek him.
Before thinking about work, health, family, or the struggles this week will bring, begin with what matters most: being with him. If you are going to church today, go as someone coming home. If you can’t go, stop for a few minutes wherever you are. The Father who runs to meet his son is the same one who is near you now. Don’t bring a prepared speech. Bring yourself.
To reflect onThe Father runs to meet whoever comes back. From what distance, great or small, do you need to come back today?
To live it today
- Write down three reasons for gratitude from the past week and read them aloud as a prayer.
- If you’re going to a service at your church today, take this request with you: to be closer to God this week.
More questions
- In what area of your life do you feel you have grown cold or drifted away from God?
- Who do you know who is far away and needs to know that the Father is still watching the road? Pray for that person today.
Prayer
Praise
Father, you are good and full of compassion. You don’t wait for me to arrive perfect before you receive me. I praise you because your embrace comes before my explanations.
Surrender
I hand over to you this whole week: the workdays, the worries about health, my home, and the struggles I don’t even know about yet. I want to begin with you, not on my own.
Petition
Rekindle in me the desire to be close to you. Where my faith has grown cold, warm it. Teach me to live this week as someone who has come home.
To memorize
Seek Yahweh while he may be found. Call on him while he is near.
Read also: Isaiah 55:1-9 · Psalms 95:1-7 · James 4:8 · 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Continue in the app: days 2 to 7
Each day brings a reading, a devotional, a guided prayer, a journal question and a verse to memorize. Pick up where you left off.
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For your everyday
Scripture on this page: World English Bible (public domain). How we write the journeys