an undivided life

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, you want all of us, not just a part.  Help us to not live divided lives, but to be completely yours at all times and in all respects.

Scripture: Mark 3:22-30

Journal: How are you living a divided life these days?  How have you compartmentalized it?  What does Jesus want you to do about that?  How is he inviting you to live an undivided life?

Reflection: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” (Mark 3:25) Wise words.  But what, exactly, does it look like to live a divided life?  Because, according to Jesus, that is an endeavor that is destined for failure.  Which means we better pay careful attention to the ways we are compartmentalizing our lives in an effort to keep our “worlds” apart. 

Does our life of faith affect and rule over all the other areas of our lives or is it just a nice little compartment that we pull out when it is most useful and convenient?  Is it something we try our best to keep separated from all the other areas of our life?  Or is our faith, perhaps, our highest priority, but there are certain areas of our lives that we keep away from our life of faith because they are not congruent with it?

I guess the main question is: Am I the same person in every area of my life, or am I a different version of myself depending on who I am around and what I am doing?  For a house divided against itself cannot stand.  Eventually one side or the other must take priority and precedence.

Pray

Closing Prayer: “Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.  I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever.  For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths of the grave.” (Psalm 86:11-13)

he restores my soul

Opening Prayer: Restore my soul, O God, my Shepherd, and fill me with your life and your breath.

Scripture: Psalm 23:1-3

Journal: What is the state of your soul right now?  Why?  What will it take to restore it?  What will it take to fill it with the life and breath of God? 

Reflection: “He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul.” (Psalm 23:2-3) To understand this verse, we must start with the question: What exactly is a soul, anyway?  The Hebrew word for soul is nep̄eš.  It comes from the word for breath (nāp̄aš).  So, in essence, a soul is that which is breathed into by God.  Or, as some of the saints of old have said, “The soul is that part of us that receives the in-breathing of the divine.”  And it is that breath that brings us to life.  Thus, when we inhale that divine breath we are filled with the life and hope and love of the God who breathed us into being.  Which makes us, his people, “the breathed upon.”

The problem is that many of us live our lives in a constant exhale.  And living life in a constant exhale is neither healthy, nor sustainable.  We must make time and space to inhale.  We must give God room to renew and restore that divine breath within us, especially if we ever want to have any hope of him breathing that breath through us to others.  That’s where being made to lie down in green pastures and being led beside still waters come in.  Those are the places and the spaces where God breathes his breath into us.  They are essential for the life and health of our soul.  Neglect them and we do so at our own expense.  Neglect them and we end up in a dark and dangerous place.  Thus, our lives and our ministries depend on us making space and time for God to breathe his divine breath in us.

Pray

Closing Prayer: “Breath on us breath of God.  Fill us with life anew.  That we may love what Thou dost love.  And do what Thou wouldst do.” (Edwin Hatch, 1878)

leaving and following

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, the call to follow you always entails leaving other things behind, which is incredibly hard to do.  Give us a courageous heart and a willing spirit, that we might be willing to go wherever you call us and to do whatever you ask of us.

Scripture: Matthew 4:18-22

Journal: What do you need to leave behind in order to follow Jesus?  Will you?

Reflection: “Immediately they left their nets and followed him. . .. And immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.” (Matthew 4:20, 22) It seems like there’s always a “leaving behind” that’s necessary in order to truly follow Jesus.  For Peter and Andrew, it was their nets, their business, and their livelihood.  And for James and John it also included their boat and their father, Zebedee.  Apparently, we can’t follow Jesus and drag a whole lot of things behind us, just ask the would-be disciples of Jesus in Luke 9:57-62.  There can be no conditions or additions.  There can be no “buts” and no “but firsts.”  There is no room for negotiation.  We leave and we follow.  It’s as simple as that.

What do you need to leave behind in order to truly follow Jesus?  Is it an old habit or a dysfunctional pattern or a self-sufficient way of being?  Is it an unhealthy relationship or an unhealed memory or an unwillingness to forgive?  Is it your own busyness, plans, and agendas?  Is it ambition, success, and achievement?  Or is it a heart of fear and insecurity and anxiety?

Whatever the case, the call of Jesus demands that we leave those things behind so that we can truly follow him.  Sometimes that means leaving behind what I am holding onto and sometimes it means leaving behind what has a hold of me.  He wants us to move at his pace, in pursuit of his purposes, and all of those other things will just drag us down.      

Pray

Closing Prayer: “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19)

 

follow me

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, this very day you say to each of us, “Follow me.”  Help us to know what that looks like in our lives, our families, our jobs, and our ministries in the days and weeks ahead.

Scripture: Mark 1:16-20, Mark 8:31-37, John 21:15-19

Journal: What does the “follow me” of Jesus look like in your life these days?  What is he inviting you into?

Reflection: Walking with God is about one thing—following Jesus.  He is the one who sets the pace, the tone, and the agenda for our lives, not us.  From beginning to end, the constant call of the gospels is simply to “Follow me.”  Thus, it is not a collaboration or a partnership, it is about submission and surrender.  He’s asking for conversion, not cooperation. 

Following Jesus is about paying attention and then being obedient.  Which is key, because “follow me” means different things at different times and in different seasons of our lives.  The “follow me” to a bunch of fishermen cleaning out their nets was a bit different from the “follow me” as the approached Jerusalem and the cross.  And even a little different still from the “follow me” Jesus uttered to Simon Peter on the shore after the resurrection.

Each time Jesus says, “follow me,” he is asking for a deeper life and a deeper commitment and a deeper conversion into the life and love and kingdom of God.  Which begs the question: What does “follow me” look like in your life these days?  What deeper conversion is God calling into.  How is he asking you to come deeper into his heart and his life and his mission in the world?

Pray

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to follow you, wherever you may lead and whatever you may ask.  Help me to hear your call and give me the strength and the courage and the grace to be obedient to it.

conversion

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to hear your call today to “follow me.”  And give me the courage and the strength and the grace to do so.

Scripture: Mark 1:14-20

Journal: What does “follow me” look like for you today?  What kind of conversion is God calling you to?

Reflection: Jesus is not merely looking for cooperation; he’s looking for conversion.  He wants all of us, not just a part.  Thus, conversion is not just something that happens once in our lives, but something that happens over and over again. Each conversion moving us deeper and deeper into the heart and life of God. 

There are all kinds of conversions.  There is the initial conversion from being lost to being found, but that conversion is followed by numerous others as we surrender our lives and our hearts more fully to Jesus.  There is the conversion from fear to love, from competition to compassion, from independence to dependence, from performing to grace, from clenched fists to open hands, and from bondage to freedom, just to name a few.

Conversion happens when we encounter God in an intimate and powerful way.  A threshold is crossed in which we realize that our lives will never be the same.  There is no going back to the way things were before.

That’s what Jesus was inviting Simon and Andrew and James and John into, and there would be plenty more to follow.  And it is what Jesus is inviting us into as well.  What kind of conversion is Jesus inviting you into these days?  What does it look like?  What does it demand of you?  What is it offering you?  What must you leave behind in order to follow him?

Pray

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, you are not asking for my cooperation, but for my conversion.  It is not a question but a calling, and I need to hear it as such.  Help me to encounter you in such a deep and intimate way that it changes everything about me.  Then I cannot not follow you.   

the dance of advent

Opening Prayer: O Lord, during this season of Advent, help me be aware of and attentive to the ways you want to come to me and the new birth you want to conceive in me.  Come, Lord Jesus!

Scripture: Luke 1:26-38

Journal: What new and beautiful thing do you long for God to do within you?  How do you expect that to take place?  How do you think Mary felt when the Holy Spirit came upon her and the Most High overshadowed her?  What do you think that was like for her?  Where and how have you experienced communion with God lately?  What fruit did it produce in you?

Reflection: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the Most High will overshadow you.  So that the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35) Communion, conception, incarnation, it has been the pattern of life with God from the very beginning of the Scriptures.  From the opening verses of Genesis, we see God in communion: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Three persons, one God, living in unspeakable love, unity, and intimacy.  It is communion of the best and deepest kind.  It is from this communion that creation was conceived and then brought into being (incarnation).  God was so full of love that he simply could not contain himself, so he created.  He spoke and things came to be.  His words became flesh, so to speak, ending in the focal point of all creation—man and woman, who were created in his image.  God breathed his divine breath into human beings and invited them into the life and laughter and love of the Trinity.  The whole reason we were created was so that we could experience what the saints and poets and pilgrims have called, “The Great Round Dance of Love.”  Thus, we were created out of communion, by communion, for communion.  Which means that in life with God, everything starts with communion: deep, intimate, encounter with the God who made us for himself.

This pattern comes to life beautifully during the season of Advent, when God sends the angel Gabriel to a teenage girl in Nazareth of Galilee to tell her of how he is finally, after all the years of waiting, going to come into the world to show us how fully and deeply and passionately we are loved.  In fact, Mary is going to be the very channel through with the Son of God will be born.  She is what scholars have called the theotokos, the God Bearer. 

“How will this be,” responds Mary, “since I am a virgin.”  And the angel’s response is priceless: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the Most High will overshadow you.  So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”  Did you hear that?  All of this will start with communion.  The Holy Spirit is going to come upon Mary, and the Most High is going to overshadow her.  The word overshadow in the Greek means to envelop.  It is the same word that is used to describe the intimacy and the power and the glory of what happened to the disciples later on at the Mount of Transfiguration, when the cloud of God descended upon them and the voice of God spoke to them.  Mary was going to be enveloped by the Most High.  He was going to come to her and sweep her up in his divine embrace of love and power and glory.  That’s communion!  An encounter so intimate and so passionate that it would conceive new life inside of her.  “See, I am doing a new thing!” is how Isaiah describes it.  “Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:19) 

You see, where life with God is concerned, communion always leads to conception.  That’s just the way it’s designed to work.  In fact, it’s what ministry is all about.  God draws us into communion that is so deep and so intimate that it creates new life in us.  Then that new life is born into the world.  It worked that way in the creation story, it worked that way at the Annunciation, and it works that way for me and you.  Thus, the beauty of the Advent season is that God wants to conceive something of himself deep within each of us, so that he might be born anew and afresh into the world through us. 

Which begs the question: What is the new and beautiful thing he is conceiving in you these days?  And how does he want that new and beautiful thing to be born into a lost and broken world in a way that will bring new life and new hope?  So, during this season, make time and space for the Holy Spirit to come upon you and the Most High to envelop you.  Allow that encounter to conceive something new and beautiful within you.  And then ask God to show you how and where and when he wants that new and beautiful thing to be born into the world.  “I am the Lord’s servant.  May it be to me as you have said.”  Come, Lord Jesus!

Pray

Closing Prayer: Thank you, O Lord for the beautiful dance of Advent.  Help me to enter into it so that I may be swept up into your loving embrace, transformed by your presence, awakened by your touch of love, and given to the world in some new and beautiful way.

desolations

Opening Prayer: “Come and see the works of the Lord, the desolations he has brought on the earth.”  Thank you, O Lord, that you even use desolations to make us more into the people you desire us to be.

Scripture: Psalm 46:8

Journal: How has God used desolation in your life to grow you into the person he desires you to be?  How is he doing that now?  What is the fruit?

Reflection: “Come and see the works of the Lord, the desolations he has brought on the earth.” (Psalm 46:8) God not only works through consolation, but also through desolation.  At times, he brings us down into the dust so that he can build us up.  He tears us apart so that he can put us back together.  Sometimes desolation accomplishes things in us that consolation cannot.  For instance, as a wise saint once said, “It takes a ton of humiliation to get one ounce of humility.”  But who wants to be humiliated?  Only someone who really wants to be humble.  The desolation of humiliation leads to the acquisition of true humility.

The fact is that it might be easier to “Come and see the works of the Lord” through desolation than it is through consolation.  Maybe we really are refined by fire.  Maybe trial and error, pain and suffering, sorrow and sadness, flaws and frailties, brokenness and neediness, form us into the image of Christ much more than comfort and ease.  The hard things in life are the ones that either make us or break us, or maybe even break us to make us.  To make us real, to make us vulnerable, to make us open, to make us true.

Maybe the thing God really cares about is making us humble and meek.  Maybe he is helping us become poor in spirit.  Maybe he takes us to the bottom in order to help us let go of our constant need to get to the top.  After all, the least are the greatest in the kingdom.  Maybe he’s trying to take us so low that we become unoffendable, holy fools, a non-anxious presence in this world.  Maybe he just wants us to trust him fully, to see that even in the times of desolation he is at work.  Maybe he just wants us to recognize that he both meets us and makes us through the desolations of our lives.

Pray

Closing Prayer: O Lord, thank you for both meeting us and making us through our times of desolation.