daily reading 11.2 (Romans 6:13–14)

5-days-a-week through Romans and the letters Paul wrote from Rome in 2024

Our opening prayer for this week:

        Lord, I ask you to be gentle,

        Not to cause me undue strain,

        For your hand lies heavy on me

        And your arrows bring me pain!

        How the weight of guilt I bear

        Drives me headlong to despair!

        When the friends whom I have trusted

        Seem to turn on me with scorn,

        When my heart is crushed with numbness

        Until all day long I mourn,

        Grief is mine no words can tell,

        Anguish I cannot dispel.

        So afraid my feet are slipping,

        All to you I now confess:

        Is my own sin not a factor

        In the roots of my distress?

        Savior, mercy! Hear me cry —

        Lord, I wait for your reply.

        But I cannot keep on waiting —

        Pain too fierce, too strong my foes —

        Be my God, and do not leave me. 

        Send, I beg, in all my woes,

        Lord, whatever you allow.

        LORD, my rescue, help me. Now! Amen.

  

Romans 6:13–14

• And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness.
• ¹⁴ For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.

Helpful notes on Romans 6:13–14 

For yourself pray:

• That you have peace and energy in Christ, into whom you were baptized, for you are not under law, but under grace

For others pray:

• That God glorifies his holy name by spreading the good news of the kingdom of the Son he loves in Belgium

A psalm to listen to and ponder, as time allows:

• Psalm 40 (YouTube, duet, "I take joy in doing your will, my God")