Tuesday 9th September

Crisis: Our and Creation’s Brokenness

Reflection:

Genesis 3:14-19:

14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

“Cursed are you above all livestock

and all wild animals!

You will crawl on your belly

and you will eat dust

all the days of your life.

15 And I will put enmity

between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and hers;

he will crush your head,

and you will strike his heel.”

16 To the woman he said,

“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;

with painful labour you will give birth to children.

Your desire will be for your husband,

and he will rule over you.”

17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I

commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;

through painful toil you will eat food from it

all the days of your life.

18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,

and you will eat the plants of the field.

19 By the sweat of your brow

you will eat your food

until you return to the ground,

since from it you were taken;

for dust you are

and to dust you will return.”

 

Spend time meditating on this passage, the extent of the brokenness we see because of human sin in our relationships with God, with one another and with the earth.

Prayers:

Now use this passage in your praying:

  • Grieve over our sins and their impact on ourselves, others, our city and our world.

  • Ask God for his forgiveness for our sins and the way that we have caused our world not to function as he intended.

  • Ask for God’s compassion on those you know who struggle with their mental health.

  • Pray that City Church might be active among the broken places in our city.

 

Listen:

Spend time listening to God for yourself and for City Church.

  • How does God want you to respond in light of the consequences of the Fall?

  • How can you respond with grace and mercy especially to those experiencing acute brokenness and suffering?

  • Where are the areas of relational strife and tension in our city and how is God calling City Church to respond?

Write down what God gives you!

 

Praise:

Praise God that Genesis 3 is not the end of the story but even here God places a seed of hope that he will crush the head of the serpent.

Liz Wilson