Hello, and welcome to Grace for All, a daily devotional podcast produced by members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. I’m Grace Jonas, the reader and writer of today’s devotional, which I’ve entitled “Let Heaven and Nature Sing”. Thank you so much for joining me today!

When I was younger, I remember a song from either Vacation Bible School or a Children’s Play containing the lyrics “I’m not gonna let the rocks cry out for me” and “I’m not gonna let the hills bow down for me” in reference to praising God. I remember as a child, these lyrics seemed silly to me, which, even as an adult, they still seem a bit silly. But, not for the reasons you may think.

After all, the lyrics to the well-loved hymn “Joy to the World” contain the lyrics “let every heart prepare Him room, and Heaven and nature sing.” And refers to fields, floods, rocks, hills and plains repeating the sounding joy.

When I was young, I could not put a finger on why I thought the lyrics to that children’s song sounded silly to me, but now analyzing the lyrics to this hymn and this verse hand in hand, I know why that is: there are several hymns and church songs referring to creation singing of God’s love, but specifically in this context when we refer to creation, we refer to beings such as rocks, oceans, and other landmarks. In my mind, I feel this goes to show that while, yes, we shouldn’t let the rocks cry out for us or the hills bow down for us, we should fill the Earth with songs of worship and let all features of God’s wondrous Earth be alive with praise in harmony with our own.

Dear God, while we may believe the only things that can sing your praises are the beings with voices, help us be reminded that there is a beautiful Earth surrounding us that you painstakingly created that we should rejoice and be worship in harmony with. May we always love and appreciate the Earth you have created and fill it with the songs of your praise. In your name, amen.

This devotional was written and read by Grace Jonas.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org.

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.

Have you ever said those words, “Why God is this happening to me?”

I have.

At those moments I must be feeling much like the people to whom Isaiah was talking. They felt that God was ignoring the predicament they were in. Or maybe that God didn’t care or that God had grown tired of trying to fix the messes that they had gotten themselves into. You know the list when we are playing the blame game and wanting to lay all that is happening at God’s feet and proclaim that if God cared then none of this would have happened.

Isaiah’s response was to remind them, and us, that God is the creator. If God created all the world then God would never grow tired or weary. God’s power and understanding is limitless. And God is willing to share that hope and strength with us. But we have a part to play. We must believe it. We must put our faith and hope in God. When we do we will gain strength. We still have to deal with the situation that we are in. But we know again we are not alone, God is aware of what we are going through. Our misery is not hidden from God. And in good time, with God’s love, this powerful creative God will help us to soar again with the eagles.

I recall a woman I got to know when I was a teenager. Blanch lost her eyesight when she was about 75. For the longest time she was in a great big pity party, to use her words. She kept asking God, “Why Me?” Finally she started to ask God a different question. “How can you use me?” She became a prayer warrior. Her daughter would keep a list of all the people who asked her to pray for them. She would read Blanch a few every so often and then Blanch would pray for them. She spent hours a day in prayer. It lifted her spirits and moved her back into the world. She had been staying home afraid and embittered. Now she was back to church and her women’s group and full of life. She had begun to soar. Her blindness was not cured, but her attitude was transformed. She realized this all powerful God loved her and had a use for her. She made a tremendous impact on me as a young man and I am sure she did on others who admired her ability to enjoy life even when it was hard.

Loving God, when we feel like you do not care, remind us that you never grow weary in loving us and caring us. Help us to put our trust in you knowing that we will get through this difficult time, we will gain strength and yes, might even soar again like an eagle. AMEN.

This devotion was written by Bill Green and read by Donn King.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United...

The advice we receive throughout our lives follows a pattern of stay strong, be independent, be resilient, fix your problems, and be proud of your accomplishments. The advice in scripture in dozens and dozens of places throughout the old and new testaments is to be meek. In the modern world, we rarely hear people advise us to be humble. We strut and brag. We go around pointing out what is wrong with others. We want more, and we are taught to go out and get it out.

But how does one really show strength and feel a sense of peace in a world so full of turmoil?

It does not take strength to hate, and it does not take strength to yell. It takes strength to show restraint, to accept that we do not know the truth, to look around and realize we have what we need, to put everything in the hands and heart of the Lord, and to follow the path that Jesus showed us.

The Earth is the Lord’s, and we are the children of God. What greater joy is there in childhood than to have a hurt, a fear, or a worry and to run to the arms of our mother for consolation. The peace we find in that moment is to rest in the strength of those that love and protect us. The need to be strong, to be right, to be better, and to belong is so strong that it causes us to kick and scream like children in a tantrum. If only we would stop and embrace the grace that surrounds us.

Let us seek silence, humility, and be meek. Let us turn the other cheek, accept censure, take the harder path, the Way, that is straight but an uphill climb in the world that surrounds us. Let us not cocoon ourselves in our own dignity like a blanket of self-righteousness.

Peace is to be found not in proving we are right, seeking more, or telling others how to act but in acting with grace towards all God’s beloved children. In humility, may our actions be meek because we quietly listen to the Holy Spirit as our actions are guided to listen not provoke, to assist not demand, to hold hands not to yell, to forgive not retaliate, and to trust that God holds us so that we may have all the peace of grace and love in the universe.

This devotion was written by Jill Pope and read by Judy Wilson.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org.

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.

Let's listen to that verse again from The Voice – “I looked again and could hardly believe my eyes. Everything above me was new. Everything below me was new. Everything around me was new, because the heaven and the earth that had been, passed away and the sea was gone completely.”

Some days the news of the world is so filled with sadness, pain, heartache, destruction, and hateful rhetoric, that I want to leave it all behind. So, I turn off the noise of the world by shutting off all the electronics and all the social media sources and I go into my quiet place to pray.

This quiet place is just an easy chair, in the corner of a room with no TV, no computer, no phone. This quiet place was claimed and designated several years ago, as my Prayer Chair. When I go there and sit in quiet solitude it is easy to find God’s peaceful presence and He covers me with His loving arms, calming my fears, and leading me beside the still waters.

And there, with Him, in the quiet, I see the new heaven and the new earth, filled with God’s LOVE and peace. I rest there as long as I need. Then, refreshed and full of his LOVE, I return to my busy day. But I take the feeling with me and with my refreshed spirit I see new possibilities, new hope, and God’s LOVE everywhere I look.

I see the potential for that new Heaven and that new Earth. And I feel peace, hope, and LOVE, washing away the old earth inside my heart and mind. The short journey to my Prayer Chair was not easy when I first claimed it as my refuge. It took courage and determination to shut out the world’s noise, just by sitting quietly in one plain armchair.

But as time passed in this special place, the chair became a place of respite and hope, a sacred quiet place, where God is always waiting for me. Simply sitting in that chair seems to “plug me in” to God.

Now the chair itself is absolutely nothing unique, but its purpose has come alive over time. She has become a portal, a place to quickly plug into God, shutting out the noise of the world. There is physically no new heaven and no new earth, outside of that chair…yet, sitting here in my Prayer Chair, I can see the promised New Earth clearly – the New Earth ruled by LOVE!

Friends, if you need a respite from the worries and pain of things of this old world, I highly recommend claiming your own Sacred Chair, or Spot, or Closet. Go there physically or mentally, whenever you need to be closer to God and to see the hope, the LOVE, and the new possibilities of God’s new earth, ruled by LOVE.

Lead us, Lord, to our sacred place close to You, where we can find LOVE and peace in Your New Heaven and New Earth, as we work to make this old one better through your LOVE. In Jesus’ name we pray. AMEN!

This devotion was written and read by Bernice Howard.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org.

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our...

Welcome to the Saturday episode of the Grace for All podcast. Thank you for joining us today. Saturday is a special time when we take a few moments to review the scriptures that we have cited in the episodes this week.

If you missed any of those episodes, you might want to consider listening to them today. And even if you heard them all, there may be one that you might want to listen to again. We hope that each of these scriptures and podcasts will bring you a full measure of joy, peace, and love.

Now, let's listen to the scriptures that have been on our hearts this week.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org.

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.

The creek had been buried by overgrown brush and debris for fifty years until the neighborhood coalition worked to “daylight” it. Now children gather at its restored banks, learning the names of native plants from elders who remember when fish were plentiful. “This creek carries stories,” explains Rita, who helped lead the restoration. “When we heal the water, we heal the connections between people and place.”

The psalmist imagines nature itself celebrating divine shalom – rivers clapping, mountains singing. To modern ears, this might sound like mere poetry. But what if these ancient words point toward a deeper truth: that environmental healing and social shalom flow together like converging streams?

In this restored creek, we glimpse such possibility. Where careless neglect once constrained life, native plants now filter runoff. Where once-divided neighborhoods now share garden paths. Where children once saw only an eyesore, they now watch water fowl swim in clear water. This is creation care – not just preserving what remains but restoring what was lost. Not just sustainability, but regeneration.

As climate challenges mount, such small acts of restoration matter more than ever. They remind us that peace with creation isn’t achieved through grand gestures alone, but through countless local acts of attention and love. Every creek restored, every garden planted, every community gathered around healing places joins the ancient song of clapping rivers and singing mountains praising God.

Dear Lord, show us places and people who need to be restore. Show us the acts of environmental healing that we could do today. Amen.

This devotional was written by Chuck Warnock and read by Jim Stovall.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org.

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.

When I look around, when I listen to the myriad voices speaking most fervently–and most loudly–in our world today, I confess that I do not see hope in abundance. What I see, what I hear, looks and sounds a lot more like decay–the earth depleted, the social fabric torn, a people demoralized. And where, pray tell, is hope? Who is holding it? Who is offering it?

In this moment of history, hope eludes us, doesn’t it?

The apostle Paul probably knew a thing or two about the elusive nature of hope. By the time he writes this letter to the Romans, he has traveled for years as a missionary, been imprisoned for his preaching, and dealt with all kinds of conflict within the early church. Here, he spells out his theology of hope. Listen to the contrasting language in this passage: suffering, waits, frustration, slavery, decay, and groaning compared with coming glory, breathless anticipation, set free, glorious freedom, and first crop of the harvest. Paul contrasts what is seen with what is unseen, what is temporary with what is eternal. What is seen is suffering and frustration, but suffering and frustration serve the hope of what is unseen–freedom, glory, and adoption into God’s family, into “the glorious freedom of God’s children.” Paul emphasizes the importance of hope in gospel theology when he says, “Who hopes for what they already see? But if we hope for what we don’t see, we wait for it with patience.”

The hope of creation is that present sufferings are always the labor pains of being birthed into new life in the Spirit, and that they are incomparable to the glorious freedom that is found in Christ. But we are not only passive participants in this transformation. Elsewhere in Romans, Paul tells the church that we participate in this birth process when we choose not to conform to the patterns of the world, but instead to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. In other words, we have to be willing to be changed, willing to do the hard work of hope, and that involves waiting, and trusting, and praying, and sometimes groaning in pain and despair.

God of hope, you have called us to be in the world, but not of the world, and Lord, honestly, sometimes that is so very hard. We get weary, and discouraged, and it becomes so difficult to wait with patience, to hope for what we cannot and do not see. In these moments, give us your strength. Give us your eyes. Help us to see with hope, that we might strengthen and encourage one another. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.

This devotional was written and read by Greta Smith.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United...

I am sure we have all been in this situation. You had a dream, a plan that you wanted to accomplish, and then you hear a resounding “NO!” For a variety of reasons you come to realize that this dream will never happen. What has been your response at these moments in your life?

If I am honest I have to admit to feeling disappointment and even anger. I am angry about all the reasons why this plan will not proceed, about the people who have blocked its fulfillment, and, even worse, I admit that at times I have been angry with God. In frustration, I have prayed something like this: “God, you know why I think this plan is important, why I think it will be good for me and others. Why have you said “no?!”

Even though these responses are normal, King David shows us a different path. This is the last speech we have recorded from David. His life is coming to an end and soon his son Solomon would succeed him as king. David had seen many successes as king, but he still had unfulfilled plans. Chief among them, David wanted to build a temple to help the people worship God. To this plan, he was told no by God. How did David respond?

Instead of being angry David first focused on the future. He collected materials for the temple and had plans drawn up. The temple would get built even if David was gone. But even more, David focused his attention on celebrating God who had been and would continue to be with the people. David celebrates the goodness, the power, and glory of God. I believe this was David’s focus because he wanted the people to feel safe and secure in this time of change. David was about to die; Solomon was to soon reign. But ultimately God was in charge.

Hearing no, being in times of transition, is a scary and upsetting time. Instead of being angry or frustrated with life and perhaps with God, David’s prayer reminds us to be still, to find within ourselves the strength to accept what is instead of lamenting what might have been. Focusing on God who is always with us, who is great, and whose Glory fills our lives reminds us that God, not us, is in charge. In that knowledge we sometimes find that that plan we wanted to occur was better not happening because God had something better in store. And if the plan is good but we, like David, come to understand that we wont be a part of its fulfillment, we can do all we can to nurture it, even if we might never see the results.

Loving God, it is sometimes so hard to hear your “no” to our plans, to our dream, to our prayers. In those times help us to remember that you are with us, your love and your power surrounds us. Help us to accept the “no” and turn our lives to the future, knowing you are with us and will be with us in these times of change. AMEN.

This devotional was written by Bill Green and read by Jim Stovall.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is:...