Daily Scripture Reflection & Prayer: August 31, 2024

Date: Saturday of the 21st Week in Ordinary Time

Scripture Text:  1 Corinthians 1:26-31

Consider your own calling, brothers and sisters. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God. It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, so that, as it is written, Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord.

Breaking the text open – background and summary:

The first reading for today from Paul’s 1st Letter to the Corinthians reminds us that none of us should boast because it is not of our doing that we have life and surely it is not of our doing that we have been saved. Instead, we “should boast in the LORD” in “whom we live and move and have our being.”

Meditating on the text with personal questions:

Do I allow my selfish desires to override the LORD’s divine design and will for me and others? Do I possess and exhibit the rightful humility of one who acknowledges I am only because of the LORD?

Praying:

LORD, Almighty Father, Most Precious Son, Most Holy Spirit, I come to You this day in all humility recognizing with every fiber of my being that it only from You, through You, and in You that I have life. I pray that You will guide me so that I might use my life to come to know You, to daily serve You and bring You glory, and to love You with my whole being, body, mind and spirit. Guide me daily home to life in You in abundance. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.