66. Friday after First Sunday after Epiphany.
Lord Jesus, give us
thy love and obedience. Amen.
John 4, 30-34. Then they went out of the city, and came unto him. In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat. But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought him ought to eat? Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
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“Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” Thus spoke Jesus in the temple, and thereby wrote, as it were, the superscription over his whole life. The words of the Father were his delight; obedience to the Father was his life. In our scripture text for today he says: “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.” He is so entirely resigned, and even devoted, to the will of his Father for the salvation of sinners, that his body, also, is refreshed and revived when he fulfills this purpose, and souls hereby are rescued from death. Hungry and thirsty he sits at the well of Sychar; but to save the Samaritans with the word of life is his meat and drink. The work which his Father had given him was to be accomplished through the most bitter suffering and the keenest agony of death; yet his Father’s will was his meat. How unspeakably great, how entirely complete is his loving obedience to the Father, and his loving desire to save us! He goes to his death with such willingness, that he says concerning this will of his Father: It is my meat; it refreshes me, and gives me strength.
What a wealth of life there is for us herein! How full and complete is the righteousness in which we stand clothed before the Father; and what a shining example has been given us for our guidance!
Lord Jesus, we thank thee for all that thou hast done; but we feel that our thanks are nothing as compared with thy boundless love. Thou blessed and glorious God; praise be to thee for thy precious name Jesus, and for all the salvation for us which is contained in that name. Give us thy righteousness, and let thy mind be in us. Give us this grace, that thy will may more and more be our meat, our delight, and our strength, so that we willingly, yea gladly, take up the cross and carry it after thee. Amen.*
My God, my Father, while I stray
Far from my home, on life’s rough way,
O teach me from my heart to say,
Thy will be done!
Though dark my path and sad my lot,
Let me be still and murmur not,
Or breathe the prayer divinely taught,
Thy will be done!
* Here the head of the family says a short morning or evening prayer in his own words, and closes with the Lord’s Prayer and the Benediction. This is to be done every day. If the stanzas are not sung, they may be read in their proper place before the impromptu petition and the Lord’s Prayer.