Wrestling to Do the Right--Feb. 21, 2020

When you search me, O Christ, you know my heart,

you know that I wrestle about doing what is right,

even about loving all of your other children.

Then I feel as if I am not one of your children,

but at other times, by your grace, I know

that if am.

For then I remember your works,

and that you are in the Father,

and that the Father is in you.

Lectionary Readings

Ps. 130; 148; 32; 139

Gen. 32:22-33:17

1 John 3:1-10

John 10:31-42

Selected Verses

Ps. 139:23-24

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
          test me and know my thoughts.
See if there is any wicked way in me,
          and lead me in the way everlasting.

Gen. 32:24

Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.

1 John 3:1a, 10

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.  … The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters.

John 10:37-38

“…If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me.  But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”  [Jesus, to his detractors]