spaciousness, day 4

Come to Stillness:
Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

Opening Prayer:
Teach me, God to make room for you in all the events and affairs of my days. Then I shall find rest. Then I will be at peace with myself and with you. (Norman Shawchuck in A Guide To Prayer for All Who Seek God)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 18:30-50

Scripture for the Day: Deuteronomy 11:8-32

Reading for Reflection:

In biblical Hebrew, the letters yodh and shin combine to form a root that connotes “space and the freedom and security which is gained by the removal of constriction.”  From this YS root come words like yesha and yeshuah, referring to salvation.  When you think about it, it makes sense that space would be intimately associated with salvation.  Space is freedom: freedom from confinement, from preoccupation, from oppression, from drivenness, and from all the other interior and exterior forces that bind and restrict our spirits.  We need space in the first place simply to recognize how compelled and bound we are.  Then we need space to allow the compulsions to ease and the bonds to loosen.  In the Hebrew sense, our passion needs elbowroom.  To the extent that space is permitted by grace and our own willingness, we discover expanding emptiness in which consecration can happen, room for love to make its home in us. (The Awakened Heart by Gerald G. May)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: How Deep the Father’s Love for Us

 

 

            How deep the Father's love for us

            How vast beyond all measure

            That He would give His only Son

To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss

The Father turns His face away

As wounds which mar the chosen One

Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross

My guilt upon His shoulders

Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice

Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there

Until it was accomplished

His dying breath has brought me life

I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything

No gifts, no power, no wisdom

But I will boast in Jesus Christ

His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?

I cannot give an answer

But this I know with all my heart

His wounds have paid my ransom

Closing Prayer:

O Lord, the house of my soul is too small for you to enter: make it more spacious by your coming.

                                                                                                ~St. Augustine