Pentecost - Formed by the Spirit, Sent in Love
This week's devotions grow out of our Pentecost Sunday reflection booklet, "Formed by the Spirit ...Sent in Love" that culminated our sermon series "Our Big Big Story." Each day takes one thread from the booklet's questions, pairs it with a Bible reading, and closes with a short prayer. The week moves from inward formation toward outward sending — arriving at next Sunday for National Reconciliation Week Sunday ready to be the community of reconciliation we are called to be.
Loving God: Making Space
Bible Reading
"Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing."
John 15:4–5 (NRSVue)Reflection
The sermon series "Our Big Big Story" has come to its close on Pentecost Sunday, but the Spirit's work in us is only beginning. This week we turn to the questions from Sunday's reflection booklet — not to answer them quickly, but to sit with them, letting the Spirit form us from the inside out.
Questions for Prayer and Reflection
- What might God be wanting to say to me right now?
- Am I making space to abide with God, or only approaching God when I need something?
- What would it look like for me to love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength this week — and to know that God loves me?
Prayer
Holy Spirit, you are God with us and within us.
Draw me to God. Fix my heart on Jesus.
Today, help me to simply be — not striving, just abiding.
Amen.
Surrender: Releasing What We Cling To
Bible Reading
"For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken."
Psalm 62:5–6 (NRSVue)Reflection
We often come to God carrying things we haven't named — habits of control, identities we've built, securities we trust more than we trust the one who holds all things. The Spirit's invitation today is to open our hands.
Questions for Prayer and Reflection
- What false needs or expectations am I clinging to instead of God?
- What am I relying on for security, identity, or control?
- What would it mean to release these into God's hands today?
- Where is the Spirit inviting me into deeper trust, surrender, or delight in God?
Prayer
I name before you the things I grip tightly.
I confess that I sometimes trust in these more than in you.
Help me today to open my hands —
and to find that you are enough.
Amen.
Receiving Grace: Loved and Welcomed
Bible Reading
"For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, 'Abba! Father!' it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God."
Romans 8:15–16 (NRSVue)Reflection
Before we can love others well, we need to receive what is freely given — not as something earned, but as a gift. The Spirit dwelling in us is the declaration: you are deeply loved.
Questions for Prayer and Reflection
- Do I truly believe that God's Spirit dwells in me — that I am deeply loved and welcomed?
- Where do I need to be more gracious toward myself in light of God's grace?
- Am I striving to prove myself, or resting in being God's beloved?
Prayer
Teach me what it means to be your child.
Where I am hard on myself, soften me with grace.
Where I doubt your love, reassure me by your Spirit.
Let me rest today in belonging to you.
Amen.
Reconciliation: Loving Others Across Difference
Bible Reading
"All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us."
2 Corinthians 5:18–19 (NRSVue)Reflection
As we move toward Aboriginal Reconciliation Week this Sunday, we are invited to reflect on what it means to love others — particularly across lines of difference, history, and hurt. Reconciliation is not a project we manage; it is a calling we inhabit, rooted in how God has treated us in Christ. People are not problems to be solved but image-bearers to be known.
Questions for Prayer and Reflection
- As I sit in God's love, who comes to mind that I need to forgive?
- Is there someone I am holding at a distance instead of loving as Christ has loved me?
- How might receiving God's grace enable me to extend grace to others?
- What would genuine reconciliation look like — not as charity toward others, but as mutual relationship between image-bearers of God?
Prayer
God of reconciliation,
you did not keep your distance from us but drew near in Christ.
Give me courage today to draw near to those I have kept at a distance.
Help me to see them as you see them — made in your image, beloved.
Form in me a heart that seeks reconciliation,
not as a project, but as a practice of love.
Amen.
Being Formed: Fruit of the Spirit
Bible Reading
"By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit."
Galatians 5:22–25 (NRSVue)Reflection
Formation is not something we manufacture — it is something the Spirit grows in us as we stay close to the vine. Today's question is simply: what is God growing in you?
Questions for Prayer and Reflection
- Holy Spirit, what are you forming in me right now?
- What fruit do you want to grow in me — love, joy, patience, courage?
- Where are you inviting me to deeper obedience or trust?
Prayer
Holy Spirit, I cannot produce your fruit by effort alone.
But I can stay close to the vine.
Today I offer you my willingness —
form in me what only you can grow.
Amen.
Sent in Love: Stepping Beyond Comfort
Bible Reading
"Jesus said to them again, 'Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.'"
John 20:21 (NRSVue)Reflection
On the eve of Reconciliation Week and Christian Unity Sunday, we are invited to turn outward. The Spirit forms us not so we remain comfortable, but so we are sent. Tomorrow's service will be an opportunity to practise this sending — to step across lines that divide, in love.
Questions for Prayer and Reflection
- Who is God placing on my heart to love, serve, or reach out to this week?
- Where in my daily life is God already at work — and how can I join in?
- What would it look like for me to be a sign of God's new creation — bringing hope, healing, or reconciliation?
- Am I willing to be sent — to step beyond comfort for the sake of others?
Prayer
Send me.
Not because I am ready, but because you are with me.
Where there is division, let me be a bridge.
Where there is distance, let me draw near.
Form in me the life of Jesus —
and send me now into the world.
Amen.
Gathering Again: The Community of Reconciliation
Bible Reading
"For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us, abolishing the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it."
Ephesians 2:14–16 (NRSVue)Reflection
Today we gather again — on Reconciliation Week Sunday and the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. We come as people who have been praying, surrendering, and being formed all week. We come as bearers of God's image to be with other bearers of God's image. May what the Spirit has been forming in us this week spill out into how we worship, listen, and love today.
Questions for Prayer and Reflection
- How have I been changed this week through prayer and reflection?
- What does it mean to be a community of reconciliation — with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, with Christians of other traditions, and with those near us who feel far off?
- How can I carry the ministry of reconciliation not as a burden but as a gift — because I have first been reconciled to God?
Prayer
Holy Spirit, form in me the life of Jesus.
Teach me to love God with all my heart,
to love others with grace and truth,
and to receive your love for myself.
Send me now into the world
as a sign of your new creation —
to live, to love, and to witness
to the reign of Christ.
Amen.
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVue), © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.