St. Paul says: “Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.” (Act 20:32 NIV)
Wherever God’s word is present, there he is with his grace too. Wherever one of his promises is present even if only in a few words, there he himself is too, there his helping hand is available, his eyes to lead and guide. Perceive what an immense fill of his presence is put right there in your hand. He opens his most gracious lips. Fall down and praise him: “Speak, o Lord, your servant is listening!” Is it not so that it is very pleasant if someone speaks such weighty promises of life and salvation and simultaneously he is truly eternal, his words matter come what may and they hold fast and true even when yours are silenced? He has certified life insurance for you that remains valid and in power even beyond death and the limits of your earthly life. Yes, his words and firm promises of life and salvation are truly a pillow to rest safely and securely on. They are the caring hands that close our eyes at the end, the grave clothes initiated for us by his resurrection, the trombones and cornucopia at the end of time and this world. So by his grace and merciful promise I know more about him and the fruits of his death for my life with him in eternity than I know about this very present life I am going through here on earth.
O Lord Jesus Christ, grant that we keep your holy word as our most precious treasure in all poverty of this life, that we preserve it as dear and close as the most endurable comfort in all sinful distress, as firm guarantee of our eternal salvation and redemption. We ask this of you, the true and dependable word, the perfect light and most lucid clarity, worthy of praise and adoration and worship in eternity. Amen. (Hermann von Bezzel, 1861-1917)
Your Word, o Lord is mild dew for souls in need of comfort; do not allow just one little plant growing in your garden lack this heavenly nourishment. Rather let it revive those in need that each will flourish and blossom and in your time and future bear blessed fruit and seed aplenty.
Your Word, o Lord is a flaming sword, lightning that shatters rock, fire that consumes hearts and enters the very marrow of our bones. O let your word continue to destroy the power of sin and evil, purifying all hearts and lives.
Your Word, o Lord is the true guiding star on our pilgrimage; it even leads fools heavenward and makes wise the simple. Do not extinguish your heavenly light for us, but rather enlighten each soul, that nobody might miss you. (Karl Bernhard Grave, 1763-1841. The translation is rather literal and neither poetic nor hymnal)
(Translation of Wilhelm Löhe’s devotion for Saturday after the 6th Sunday after Epiphany as found on Pg. 95 in Lob sei Dir ewig, o Jesu! (Eternal Praise to you o Jesus!) edited by A. Schuster and puplished in the Freimund Verlag, Neuendettelsau 1949.)
