Daily The Bible is Not a Sex Manual

Dear God of Love and Justice,

The earth is Yours, and everything in it — including these bodies You shaped from dust and breathed life into. Psalm 24:1 reminds us that nothing we carry is outside Your care, not even the questions the church has been afraid to ask out loud.

For too long, we have treated Your Word like a rulebook for the bedroom instead of a love letter to the whole person. But You, Lord, who formed us in the secret place, who knit muscle and nerve and longing into our very frame — You never flinched at our humanity. You called it good. The Black Church has always known that bodies matter. We sang spirituals with our whole chests, clapped until our palms stung, swayed until the pews shook — because we understood that worship is not just a mind exercise. It is flesh and spirit together, reaching for the Holy.

So teach us, Lord, to bring that same honesty to every conversation we have avoided. Give us the courage of the grandmother who pulls her granddaughter close and speaks truth with tenderness rather than silence. Give us pastors brave enough to teach that purity is not shame dressed in Sunday clothes, but wholeness — the kind of wholeness that comes from knowing we belong to You, every part of us.