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January 29, 2024

God’s Mission—My Priority

Collins E. Ako   |   Read Isaiah 40:21-31

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Lectionary Week
January 29–February 4, 2024
Scripture Overview

The passages for this week emphasize the rewards that come with discovering God’s good purpose for us. We read about how God gives power to the faint and increases the strength of those who wait on him. Psalm 147 presents God as the author of creation and as a very active agent in the restoration of the world. The passages in First Corinthians and Mark warn against distraction from God’s good purpose for all of creation once we come to engage in the missio dei. Mark also invites believers to constantly spend time in the presence of God as they engage in God’s mission.

Questions and Suggestions for Reflection

Read Isaiah 40:21-31. How have you felt God renewing your strength when you have felt weak?
Read Psalm 147:1-11, 20c. With reference to any personal challenges that you might be encountering at this point, what would the hallelujah look like for you?
Read 1 Corinthians 9:16-23. What are some of your personal privileges and how do you use them to serve others and the gospel?
Read Mark 1:29-39. Where and how have you seen God at work during your wilderness moments?

Respond by posting a prayer .

Isaiah 40:21-31

21 Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard? Wasn’t it announced to you from the beginning? Haven’t you understood since the earth was founded? 22 God inhabits the earth’s horizon its inhabitants are like locusts stretches out the skies like a curtain and spreads it out like a tent for dwelling. 23 God makes dignitaries useless and the earth’s judges into nothing. 24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely is their shoot rooted in the earth when God breathes on them, and they dry up; the windstorm carries them off like straw. 25 So to whom will you compare me, and who is my equal? says the holy one. 26 Look up at the sky and consider: Who created these? The one who brings out their attendants one by one, summoning each of them by name. Because of God’s great strength and mighty power, not one is missing. 27 Why do you say, Jacob, and declare, Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, my God ignores my predicament”? 28 Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He doesn’t grow tired or weary. His understanding is beyond human reach, 29 giving power to the tired and reviving the exhausted. 30 Youths will become tired and weary, young men will certainly stumble; 31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength; they will fly up on wings like eagles; they will run and not be tired; they will walk and not be weary.

Unless otherwise indicated, scripture quotations are from the Common English Bible. Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible. Used by permission.

Since June 2018, I have been serving as a Global Ministries missionary in a post-conflict community and church reconstruction context with the East Congo Episcopal Area of The United Methodist Church in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The area I serve is shaped by the scars of war. The...

Great is thy faithfulness, O Lord, and your goodness is forever. Teach me to trust in you. Amen.


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