GPS: Grow, Pray & Study

GPS for the week of March 30th, 2025

“I Give Water in the Wilderness, Rivers in the Desert”

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“On the cross God brings an end to the imbalance that sin creates

in our relationships and the guilt we carry for our actions. God

does for us what we cannot do for ourselves… Convinced of

God’s love, we follow the way of Christ joyfully, like children who

feel they will be safe if they follow in their parents’ footsteps…

The gratitude we feel compels us to offer our lives as a gift to God

in return (Tom Berlin, in Restored: Finding Redemption in our

Mess).”

 

Dear Lord, lead us as we give ourselves to you and gratefully

accept the gift of your love and righteousness. Amen.

 

Monday 3.31 “I am about to do a new thing.”

Isaiah 43:16-21

“Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the

mighty waters, who brings out chariot and horse, army and

warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished,

quenched like a wick: Do not remember the former things, or

consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it

springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the

wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild animals will honor

me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the

wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people,

the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare

my praise.” We join all of God’s creation as we give thanks for his

sustaining love.

 

Tuesday 4.1 “Then our mouth was filled with laughter.”

Psalm 126

“A Song of Ascents. When the Lord restored the fortunes of

Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled

with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said

among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’

The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoiced. Restore

our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercourses in the Negeb. May

those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. Those who go

out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with

shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.” Joy and laughter will

surround us as we share God’s love with others.

 

Wednesday 4.2 “These I have come to regard as loss

because of Christ.”

Philippians 3:4b-14

“If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have

more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of

Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to

the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to

righteousness under the law, blameless. Yet whatever gains I

had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More

than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing

value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have

suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in

order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a

righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that

comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based

on faith.” Paul left behind his accomplishments as a zealous

Pharisee when he received the gift of righteousness in Christ

Jesus our Lord.

 

Thursday 4.3 “Forgetting what lies behind and straining

forward to what lies ahead.”

Philippians 3:4b-14

“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the

sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if

somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I

have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I

press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me

his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own;

but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining

forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the

prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” We leave

behind our own ambitions toward righteousness as we come to

know the grace of our Lord.

 

Friday 4.4 “The house was filled with the fragrance of

the perfume.”

John 12:1-8

“Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home

of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave

a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at

the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of

pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair.

The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” The

home was filled with the grateful love of Martha, Mary, and

Lazarus.

 

Saturday 4.5 “You do not always have me.”

John 12:1-8

“But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about

to betray him), said, ‘Why was this perfume not sold for three

hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’ (He said this

not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a

thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put

into it.) Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she

might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor

with you, but you do not always have me.” Mary’s love and

gratefulness was not to be evaluated as a commodity. It was

freely given and freely enjoyed by all in the house who knew the

love and righteousness of Jesus.