Psalm 27, Psalm 147:12-20, Habakkuk 3 (effectively all), John 17:1-8, Philippians 3:12-21 (KJV)
Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.
Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample.
(For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
Devotion
These passages are a reminder of the differences in tone of the Old and New Testaments. The psalms and the passage from Habakkuk draw mostly on responses to and language of war and disagreement, pleading to God for victory over enemies and preservation of Israel.
The writer of Philippians, Timothy or Paul, takes a more uplifting approach, asking fellow Christians to walk the good walk toward the “high calling” of God. Jesus’ talk with God in the John passage includes His hope that His message to mankind gets through with the help of His heavenly Father.
So His hope should be our direction in moving from Sunday to Monday morning. The metaphor in Psalm 102:6 (“I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert”) strikes me as instructive on that journey. We are all at times feeling like a misplaced pelican or owl on Monday after the comfort of church on Sunday, as Annamarie reminded us on February 9. We must keep our heads up toward the high calling.
Prayer
Dear God, give us the strength and perseverance to do both well and good on our Monday mornings, as your constant followers.
Jim Edmondson