GPS Guide – July 26, 2019

OUR FATHER

Friday

Read: Psalm 139:7-12

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you. (NIV Psalm 139:7-12)

Study: “Our father who is in HEAVEN.” This phrase of the Lord’s Prayer translated the Greek word ouranos. We typically think of “heaven” as an unspecified location, usually “far, far away” like the galaxy in which Star Wars claimed to have taken place. But ouranos also meant “air,” or “atmosphere.” God is greater than our one little world, but God is also as close to us as the air we breathe, not separated from us by vast galactic distances. What helps you maintain a focus on the God who “isn’t far away from any of us”? In what ways does God’s presence make your life better? 

Prayer: O God, I believe in and trust you as a personal being who loves me and my world. Help me live and act in ways that show that your love has touched my life. Amen.