Lectio Divina: Love and Compassion
Date: April 14, 2025
Scripture: Lamentations 3:22-24

Steve Hildebrand

Part 1: Inward Focus 

Thanks for taking this time to engage God’s Word prayerfully. Let’s prepare ourselves physically by taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly.  Let’s do that 2 more times.

Our theme for April is love and compassion. It is important for us to experience God’s Love and Compassion in our own lives so that we can extend it to the youth that we work with. Today, we’ll be reading Lamentations 3:22-24. As I read this Scripture, turn your thoughts quietly toward the Lord, asking him to open your heart to this word.

The faithful love of the Lord never ends!

His mercies never cease.

Great is his faithfulness;

his mercies begin afresh each morning.

I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance;

therefore, I will hope in him!”

Does “Great is his faithfulness” ring true for you? 

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Do you feel like his mercies begin afresh each morning? If yes, give thanks. If no, talk with him about your feeling.

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Part 2: Outward Focus

I will reread this passage, as you listen, think of our youth and the world they are growing up in.

The faithful love of the Lord never ends!

His mercies never cease.

Great is his faithfulness;

his mercies begin afresh each morning.

I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance;

therefore, I will hope in him!”

Pray for your youth to know the faithfulness of God

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Pray that your youth will experience God’s mercies afresh each morning.

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How has this exercise changed your perspective today?

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Part 3: John Wesley’s Covenant Prayer

I am no longer my own, but yours. 

Put me to what you will, place me with whom you will. 

Put me to doing, put me to suffering. 

Let me be put to work for you or set aside for you, praised for you or criticized for you. 

Let me be full, let me be empty. 

Let me have all things, let me have nothing. 

I freely and fully surrender all things To your glory and service. 

And now, O wonderful and holy God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, You are mine, and I am yours. 

So be it. 

And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it also be made in heaven.

Amen.

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