Friday, October 9, 2026

If you are new to our Mid-Week Worship devotional, learn more about it here.

Songs used in the Mid-Week Worship devotional are added each week to a Spotify playlist.
You can follow it here.

Time of Preparation

Begin by taking inventory of your surroundings. Are things in your vicinity conducive to a time of personal worship? Are there any changes or adjustments (turning off tech, making yourself comfortable) you need to make before you begin?

When you are ready, take some time to sit in silence and prepare your heart for worship. Ask God to clear away any distractions that might keep you from being truly present in this moment.

Commission

In this final movement, we are encouraged and equipped for the work God would have us do.

“For God alone my soul waits in silence,
    for my hope is from him.”
—Psalm 62:5 (NRSVUE)

My senior year at seminary I signed up to preach at one of the school’s daily chapel services, which surprised most of my friends because I had made it clear I had no plans to ever be a preacher (side note—if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans).

For my sermon I collated all of the syllabi and assignment sheets I had been given in 3 years of studying and figured out, on average, how many pages of books we had been assigned to read. I then examined a bunch of our textbooks to come up with an average number of words per page, and used both numbers to come up with an approximate number of words the average seminary student might read in three years of degree work.

I shared these findings at the beginning of my sermon in chapel, and then said this: “So the truth is, you’re already inundated with words. You don’t need mine of top of those. So instead, we’re going to take the time usually allocated for the sermon and we’re going to sit in silence.”

So we did. We sat in silence for 10 minutes. During that time we were invited to talk to God, to listen to God, to wait on God, or simply to rest in God. After the chapel service I heard from many students how meaningful it had been and how God had met them in that silent place.

In a world that is chaotic and loud and filled with so many noises and voices, silence is often a forgotten discipline, one that we’re going to embrace today. Rather than listen to a worship song, you’re invited to sit in silence for four minutes. As the Psalmist tells us, this is a moment where our souls can wait for God. It is an opportunity to meditate on his hope. Don’t rush it. Don’t “fill” the space. Simply sit…breathe…listen…and be in the presence of the One who knows you best and loves you most.

SONG OF COMMISSION: 4 Minutes of Silence

Thursday, October 8, 2026

If you are new to our Mid-Week Worship devotional, learn more about it here.

Songs used in the Mid-Week Worship devotional are added each week to a Spotify playlist.
You can follow it here.

Time of Preparation

Begin by taking inventory of your surroundings. Are things in your vicinity conducive to a time of personal worship? Are there any changes or adjustments (turning off tech, making yourself comfortable) you need to make before you begin?

When you are ready, take some time to sit in silence and prepare your heart for worship. Ask God to clear away any distractions that might keep you from being truly present in this moment.

Assurance

In this third movement, we receive the good news of the gospel: we are forgiven.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.”
—Luke 15:20 (NIV)

One of my favourite paintings is Rembrandt’s “Return of the Prodigal Son.” Take a moment or two to sit with this powerful depiction of the climactic moment of Jesus’ parable.

If there is a stronger image we can sit with to meditate on the love of God, I’m hard pressed to think of one. This is an image of welcoming grace, of complete forgiveness, and deep mercy.

One of the most popular worship songs in recent years has attempted to capture this radical love by calling it “reckless.” That’s caused a lot of controversy in churches, because it’s a word we often link to being irresponsible and foolish. But when I hear this song I’m reminded of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians:

“For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”
—1 Corinthians 1:25 (NRSVUE)

God’s love is “reckless” in terms of our human understanding. It continues to pursue us despite our rebellion and our constant refusal to dwell in it. And yet…it is not irresponsible. It is not careless or ill-advised. In the eyes of the world it seems foolish because at its very core it makes no sense: why does God forgive us? Why does he show us mercy? What kind of God would do that? What kind of love does that demonstrate?

Love that makes no sense to us. But makes perfect sense to the One who is love.

SONG OF ASSURANCE: Reckless Love (lyrics here)

Wednesday, October 7, 2026

If you are new to our Mid-Week Worship devotional, learn more about it here.

Songs used in the Mid-Week Worship devotional are added each week to a Spotify playlist.
You can follow it here.

Time of Preparation

Begin by taking inventory of your surroundings. Are things in your vicinity conducive to a time of personal worship? Are there any changes or adjustments (turning off tech, making yourself comfortable) you need to make before you begin?

When you are ready, take some time to sit in silence and prepare your heart for worship. Ask God to clear away any distractions that might keep you from being truly present in this moment.

Confession

In this second movement, we simply see ourselves for who we are: people who need God.

“But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.”
—Titus 3:4-7 (NIV)

When we meditate on the subject of repentance, it is important that we do not let our image of God go askew. The call to repent is not meant to inspire fear of judgment or cause us to withdraw from an image of God as an angry and vengeful deity, one who is eager to catch us in our sin and make us feel despised. That is not what repentance is about. The call to confess our sin is rooted in God’s love, mercy, and grace shown supremely in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

Without a proper view of God’s love, shame can fester in our souls and become toxic, which can then further distort our image of God. It whispers horrible lies to us, saying, “You can’t go to God with this. You’ve disappointed him too many times. He has given up on you.” As our image of God becomes distorted, we can grow even more afraid of coming to him openly and honestly. It is a vicious downward spiral, feeding on itself in a frenzy of self-hatred and fear.

As you confess your sin, always remember that his heart is filled with love for you. As one anonymous 19th century preacher put it, he is “the fountain of all gentleness, all kindness, and all good.”

All gentleness…all kindness…all good…this is the one who invites you to bring everything to him.

SONG OF CONFESSION: Jesus Strong and Kind (lyrics here)

Tuesday, October 6, 2026

If you are new to our Mid-Week Worship devotional, learn more about it here.

Songs used in the Mid-Week Worship devotional are added each week to a Spotify playlist.
You can follow it here.

Time of Preparation

Begin by taking inventory of your surroundings. Are things in your vicinity conducive to a time of personal worship? Are there any changes or adjustments (turning off tech, making yourself comfortable) you need to make before you begin?

When you are ready, take some time to sit in silence and prepare your heart for worship. Ask God to clear away any distractions that might keep you from being truly present in this moment.

Encounter With God

In this first movement, we simply seek to see God for who He is: the One worthy of worship.

“But I, by your great love,
    can come into your house;
in reverence I bow down
    toward your holy temple.”
—Psalm 5:7 (NIV)

Worship, by its very nature, exists in a space where God is both knowable and unknowable.

He is knowable because, by his grace, he has revealed himself to us: in creation, in community, by his word, by his Spirit, and most supremely in the person and work of Jesus.

But even as we are invited to draw near to him, we can’t fully escape the truth that we are in the presence of the mighty God of the universe, the source of all creation. Our mortal hearts and minds can’t fully comprehend the One we encounter, for he is “beautiful beyond description, too marvelous for words,” as one popular worship song puts it.

So what is our response to this tension? The Psalmist offers us the perfect posture—in his presence, we bow down. By his great love we come into his house, and in reverence we bow down. We embrace both knowing and mystery as we worship the God who is so far beyond us…yet draws us near.

TRADITIONAL SONG OF ENCOUNTER: We Bow Down (lyrics here)

Monday, October 5, 2026

If you are new to our Mid-Week Worship devotional, learn more about it here.

Songs used in the Mid-Week Worship devotional are added each week to a Spotify playlist.
You can follow it here.

Time of Preparation

Begin by taking inventory of your surroundings. Are things in your vicinity conducive to a time of personal worship? Are there any changes or adjustments (turning off tech, making yourself comfortable) you need to make before you begin?

When you are ready, take some time to sit in silence and prepare your heart for worship. Ask God to clear away any distractions that might keep you from being truly present in this moment.

A Call To Worship

On Mondays we use the Hebrew Psalter to focus in on the invitation to approach God in worship.

Read through the Psalm slowly and prayerfully, either silently or out loud. Pay attention to the movement of your soul and the longings of your heart as you read. How does it stir you to worship? What focus might you find from this Psalm for this coming week?

Psalm 131

A song of ascents. Of David.

My heart is not proud, Lord,
    my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
    or things too wonderful for me.
But I have calmed and quieted myself,
    I am like a weaned child with its mother;
    like a weaned child I am content.

Israel, put your hope in the Lord
    both now and forevermore.

CALL TO WORSHIP: Like A Child With Its Mother (lyrics here)

Saturday & Sunday, October 3/4, 2026

If you are new to our Mid-Week Worship devotional, learn more about it here.

Songs used in the Mid-Week Worship devotional are added each week to a Spotify playlist.
You can follow it here.

Benediction

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
—John 14:27 (NIV)

Today’s musical benediction is a Gaelic blessing of peace that first appeared in an 1895 novel, but was then adapted and expanded by English composer John Rutter in 1978.

Deep peace of the running wave to you
Deep peace of the flowing air to you
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you
Deep peace of the shining stars to you
Deep peace of the gentle night to you

Moon and stars pour their healing light on you
Deep peace of Christ the light of the world to you

SONG OF BENEDICTION: Gaelic Blessing

Friday, October 2, 2026

If you are new to our Mid-Week Worship devotional, learn more about it here.

Songs used in the Mid-Week Worship devotional are added each week to a Spotify playlist.
You can follow it here.

Time of Preparation

Begin by taking inventory of your surroundings. Are things in your vicinity conducive to a time of personal worship? Are there any changes or adjustments (turning off tech, making yourself comfortable) you need to make before you begin?

When you are ready, take some time to sit in silence and prepare your heart for worship. Ask God to clear away any distractions that might keep you from being truly present in this moment.

Commission

In this final movement, we are encouraged and equipped for the work God would have us do.

“And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.”
—Romans 8:28 (BSB)

If you were to ask me, “Which verse in the Bible has been misunderstood and misused more often than any other?” I would definitely consider Romans 8:28 to be in the running. It has become one of those cliché coffee mug verses, plastered on all sorts of Christian tchotchkes for as long as I can remember. The net result is that it becomes little more than a slogan: a spiritual band-aid to plaster over those times of life that don’t make sense, a go-to saying that can enable us to avoid dealing with the pain of a difficult moment if we’re not careful. In its modern usage it often has more in common with Pollyanna than the Apostle Paul.

And it’s a shame, really, because this is really quite a beautiful verse. It speaks, not to a “pie-in-the-sky” theology that dismisses our struggles, but instead to a good and wonderful God who is able to use even our most painful seasons of life for his glory. The verse doesn’t say “God makes all things good,” it says he “works good in all things,” and there is a big difference. Pain is still pain, suffering is still suffering. God doesn’t make them inert, but he does make them redemptive.

Here in Scotland there is a popular saying: “What’s for ye’ll no go by ye.” While I resist the determinism that can be read into that, I do take from it an understanding that what God has for me in any given moment is available to me, even when that moment is confusing and hard and painful. If I open myself to his purposes, if I cling tight to my love for him and his love for me, he can work those moments for good.

And what is good brings him glory.

SONG OF COMMISSION: His Glory And My Good (lyrics here)

Thursday, October 1, 2026

If you are new to our Mid-Week Worship devotional, learn more about it here.

Songs used in the Mid-Week Worship devotional are added each week to a Spotify playlist.
You can follow it here.

Time of Preparation

Begin by taking inventory of your surroundings. Are things in your vicinity conducive to a time of personal worship? Are there any changes or adjustments (turning off tech, making yourself comfortable) you need to make before you begin?

When you are ready, take some time to sit in silence and prepare your heart for worship. Ask God to clear away any distractions that might keep you from being truly present in this moment.

Assurance

In this third movement, we receive the good news of the gospel: we are forgiven.

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”
—Ephesians 2:4-7 (NIV)

The 14th century mystic Julian of Norwich, in chapter 61 of Revelations of Divine Love, reflects on God’s mercy in these words:

“By the assay of this falling we shall have an high marvelous knowing of love in God, without end. For strong and marvellous is that love that may not and will not be broken for trespass.”

Most of us treat our sins and stumbles as the places where God's love runs thin. We expect that when we fall, God grows a little more distant, a little more disappointed. Julian sees it the other way round. The "assay," the testing we go through when we fall, is where we learn how deep God's love really is.

Julian is not saying that sin doesn't matter. She knew very well that it wounds us and others. What she saw is that God's love for us is not a fragile thing that we could break. It "may not and will not be broken for trespass." It cannot be broken, not even by our sin. God will not let it be broken. In fact, he reveals his love to us in that place of brokenness—it is there that we have such “marvelous knowing.”

Incomparable riches of grace, indeed.

SONG OF ASSURANCE: I Stand Amazed (lyrics here)

Wednesday, September 30, 2026

If you are new to our Mid-Week Worship devotional, learn more about it here.

Songs used in the Mid-Week Worship devotional are added each week to a Spotify playlist.
You can follow it here.

Time of Preparation

Begin by taking inventory of your surroundings. Are things in your vicinity conducive to a time of personal worship? Are there any changes or adjustments (turning off tech, making yourself comfortable) you need to make before you begin?

When you are ready, take some time to sit in silence and prepare your heart for worship. Ask God to clear away any distractions that might keep you from being truly present in this moment.

Confession

In this second movement, we simply see ourselves for who we are: people who need God.

“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father.”
—Luke 15:17-20 (NIV)

There are a lot of images we could use to describe repentance, but one we perhaps don’t think about as often as we should is this image from the parable of the lost son: the image of coming home. To repent, to confess our sin to God, is to take a step back in the direction of where we’re meant to be and who we’re meant to be.

I love this image of repentance because the focus is not on guilt or shame, but on returning. The invitation to bring our sin to God is not rooted in his displeasure, but in his desire for us to be whole, to come home.

Spend some time in prayer today and ask God to show you what it would mean for you to take a step towards the home we find in his grace and mercy. What would he call you to leave behind? To what might he call you to return?

SONG OF CONFESSION: Softly and Tenderly (lyrics here)

Tuesday, September 29, 2026

If you are new to our Mid-Week Worship devotional, learn more about it here.

Songs used in the Mid-Week Worship devotional are added each week to a Spotify playlist.
You can follow it here.

Time of Preparation

Begin by taking inventory of your surroundings. Are things in your vicinity conducive to a time of personal worship? Are there any changes or adjustments (turning off tech, making yourself comfortable) you need to make before you begin?

When you are ready, take some time to sit in silence and prepare your heart for worship. Ask God to clear away any distractions that might keep you from being truly present in this moment.

Encounter With God

In this first movement, we simply seek to see God for who He is: the One worthy of worship.

“All the earth worships you;
    they sing praises to you,
    sing praises to your name.”
—Psalm 66:4 (NRSVUE)

An anonymous ancient Irish poems begins with this memorable line:

“Only a fool would fail to praise God in his might,
when the tiny mindless birds praise him in their flight.”

The idea that creation praises God is woven all through Scripture. We are reminded in both the Old and New Testaments that the created order itself exists to worship the Creator. Jesus himself said that the rocks would cry out in praise if we don’t.

But how does that happen? What does it mean to say that “all the earth worships you?” What I love about the Irish verse is its suggestion that birds, for example, simply praise God “in their flight.” In other words, they worship God simply by doing what they were created to do. That’s a wonderful thought for us to sit with—that the act of simply being who we were made to be is a worshipful act.

I once heard a pastor call creation a “symphony of praise.” What a powerful truth that it’s a symphony of being rather than a symphony of striving. The sounds of worship that are raised are not forced, they do not require anything in creation to be anything other than what they are. The simple truth that they exist and function as they should is enough to be considered “praise.”

What might that mean for us?

TRADITIONAL SONG OF ENCOUNTER: All Creatures of Our God and King (lyrics here)