Is there breath in your nostrils?

Verse for the week:  Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.  Zech 9.9

Prayer for the 1st week of Advent: “Almighty God and Lord, come to us with all your power and help us who are anxious and troubled.  Send us the Savior, that he may enter our hearts, and with your light illumine our night, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.” (K.B. Ritter, Gebete fur das Jahr der Kirche, 1^st ed.  Kassel: Barenreiter Verlag, 1933, p.35.)

Bible reading for the day:  Isaiah 2 (note: Chapters 1-39 were proclaimed first to the people in Judah and Jerusalem from 742-701 B.C. The ox knows its owner and even the donkey its master’s crib, but God’s own people have rejected him.)

The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

² It shall come to pass in the latter days
    that the mountain of the house of the Lord
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
    and shall be lifted up above the hills;
and all the nations shall flow to it,
³     and many peoples shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
    to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
    and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
    and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
⁴ He shall judge between the nations,
    and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
    and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
    neither shall they learn war anymore.

 ⁵ O house of Jacob,
    come, let us walk
    in the light of the Lord.

 ⁶ For you have rejected your people,
    the house of Jacob,
because they are full of things from the east
    and of fortune-tellers like the Philistines,
    and they strike hands with the children of foreigners.
⁷ Their land is filled with silver and gold,
    and there is no end to their treasures;
their land is filled with horses,
    and there is no end to their chariots.
⁸ Their land is filled with idols;
    they bow down to the work of their hands,
    to what their own fingers have made.
⁹ So man is humbled,
    and each one is brought low—
    do not forgive them!
¹⁰ Enter into the rock
    and hide in the dust
from before the terror of the Lord,
    and from the splendor of his majesty.
¹¹ The haughty looks of man shall be brought low,
    and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled,
and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

 

¹² For the Lord of hosts has a day
    against all that is proud and lofty,
    against all that is lifted up—and it shall be brought low;
¹³ against all the cedars of Lebanon,
    lofty and lifted up;
    and against all the oaks of Bashan;
¹⁴ against all the lofty mountains,
    and against all the uplifted hills;
¹⁵ against every high tower,
    and against every fortified wall;
¹⁶ against all the ships of Tarshish,
    and against all the beautiful craft.
¹⁷ And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled,
    and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low,
    and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.
¹⁸ And the idols shall utterly pass away.
¹⁹ And people shall enter the caves of the rocks
    and the holes of the ground,
from before the terror of the Lord,
    and from the splendor of his majesty,
    when he rises to terrify the earth.

 

²⁰ In that day mankind will cast away
    their idols of silver and their idols of gold,
which they made for themselves to worship,
    to the moles and to the bats,
²¹ to enter the caverns of the rocks
    and the clefts of the cliffs,
from before the terror of the Lord,
    and from the splendor of his majesty,
    when he rises to terrify the earth.
²² Stop regarding man
    in whose nostrils is breath,
    for of what account is he?

Prayer (based on T.R.I.P. method*): Gracious and almighty Father, thank you: in Christ you have judged all of us and rescued us from the chastisement we deserve. Thank you. The only way we have breath in our nostrils is from you, O Lord. While we wait for Christ’s return, make us repent of our lofty pride, our chariots and swords, our treasures and idols, our alliances, the work of our own hands… the lies of fortune-tellers and philosophers. Humble us, O Lord, that we may walk in your light rather than recline in our own. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Music: follow this link to an excerpt from Handel’s “Messiah” which gives profoundly beautiful voice to today’s conversation with the Lord: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v7cs2mHnFg

Benediction: And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you this day.  To him be the power forever and ever.  Amen. (1 Pet 5:10) 

*The T.R.I.P. approach to prayer is based on the way Martin Luther prayed and taught others to pray.  It was later developed by Walter and Ingrid Trobisch and then adapted by Mount Carmel Ministries (Alexandria, MN).  The method is founded on scripture and easy to remember:
T: thanksgiving
R: regret (repentance)
I: intercession (asking God to take a specific action)
P: plan or purpose
Reading a biblical text and then applying this method gives one a sound, simple way to form one’s prayers...not to mention that it helps one learn how to faithfully reflect on God’s Word and talk to God.