Voice: Jennifer
Today is Tuesday, 13th of January. Let us take a moment to be still in His presence. May you hear the Lord or encounter Him anew in this new day that the Lord has made.
We read Psalm 9:1-8
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;
I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
2 I will be glad and exult in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
3 When my enemies turn back,
they stumble and perish before your presence.
4 For you have maintained my just cause;
you have sat on the throne, giving righteous judgment.
5 You have rebuked the nations; you have made the wicked perish;
you have blotted out their name forever and ever.
6 The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins;
their cities you rooted out;
the very memory of them has perished.
7 But the Lord sits enthroned forever;
he has established his throne for justice,
8 and he judges the world with righteousness;
he judges the peoples with uprightness.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit:
as It was in the beginning, is
now, and shall be forever. Amen.
Genesis 1:26-31
26Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
28And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
Imago Dei
We are made in the image of God — or in Latin, imago Dei.
This is a foundational Christian truth, one you would have encountered in Baptism preparation or follow-up teaching. To be made in the imago Dei means that every human person is endowed with capacities that reflect God: the ability to reason, to create, to make moral choices, and to live in relationship. We bear a God-given dignity and worth, created for communion with God and with one another. This dignity is not earned. It is given.
As we begin the day, one truth we can draw from the doctrine of the imago Dei is this: we are created for relationship with God. We are made for communion with Him.
St Augustine captured this beautifully when he wrote,
“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
This restlessness for God is not a sign of brokenness but of design. It reveals what we were created for. When we become Christians, we are invited into this restored relationship. We are able to call God “Abba.” To be a child of God lies at the very heart of the Christian faith.
So treasure this gift. The pressures and pleasures of life can easily draw us away from God’s presence — a reality we will reflect on more deeply as we come to the account of the Fall in Genesis.
But for today, will you speak with your heavenly Father? If something stands in the way of your communion with Him, let His grace meet you there.
Finding God’s presence and learning to hear His voice is sometimes a journey rather than an instant experience. As Jeremiah 29:13 reminds us,
“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”
The longing and seeking are not obstacles; they are often part of God’s gentle work in us, drawing us away from distractions and disordered desires. God is not playing hard to get. Rather, He is teaching us to desire, recognise, and dwell in His presence in the midst of our daily lives.
We end with this ancient Celtic prayer:
Creator of the cosmos,
of eternity and time:
Be with us in this time
Saviour of the world,
healer of the nations:
Be with us in this place
Breath of all that lives,
of people near and far
Stir within our lives
Maker-Spirit-Son
God of here and now:
Be present in our worship,
that we may find new ways
to be present in your world.
Amen.
Be blessed by this Hymn, O Love that will never let me go
1. O love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
2. O Light that follows all my way,
I yield my flick’ring torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.
3. O Joy that seekest me thru’ pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow thru’ the rain
And feel the promise is not vain
That morn shall tearless be.
4. O cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.
Link to today’s Morning Office
About This Daily Devotion
This weekday devotion is drawn from the Morning Office and is part of a project initiated by Revd Canon Terry Wong, with contributions from clergy and members across various parishes. Each entry includes selected readings from the appointed Psalm and another Scripture passage, accompanied by a reflection and prayer. An audio option is also available, often ending with a hymn or song. We encourage you to both read and listen.
Our aim is to help Anglicans engage more deeply with our rich liturgical tradition, while meeting the devotional needs of today’s believers. This project began on Ash Wednesday 2025 and is offered on weekdays only.
For feedback, please write to us at terrywong@anglican.org.sg
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