shaped by the word, day 4

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

Opening Prayer:
Saving God, you set your heart on us and made us your own.  May we listen with the ear of our hearts to the many ways your Word and your love will be present to us and formed in us this day.  We ask this through Jesus, the Word made flesh.  Amen.  (The Work of God)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 1

Scripture for the Day: Hebrews 4:12-13

Reading for Reflection:

We listen to the Word, to the silence of prayer, and to the poem of our own lives, for in all these God is speaking.  And if God is speaking, then nothing else matters but listening.
     When it comes to listening to God speak, we must always begin with the Word of God, His clearest and most authoritative voice.  But, as in all listening, we must learn to allow the other Person to speak.  This may sound oversimplified, but in fact it can be a major task.  When we find ourselves trying to listen to someone whose speech is slow or deliberate, the great temptation is to finish their sentences for them.  The same is often the case when we listen to God’s Word, particularly to familiar passages.  Adopting a listening stance before the Word means keeping your mind as quiet as possible and letting the Bible finish its own sentences and stories.  Allowing the Bible to speak for itself means listening with as few presuppositions as possible.
     Often we fail in listening when we read only for theological or doctrinal affirmation.  The baptism of Jesus becomes a proof text for immersion and not a scene to which we are transported by our imagination.  The crucifixion becomes a necessary piece of the puzzle for redemption, the obligatory final step in a long “holy history,” and not a heartbreaking moment of transformation.  Parables and visions become codes to break, sponges to squeeze dry and then leave behind.  Sometimes my own temptation is to merely use the Bible as a folder for lyrics.
     In all these ways and more, we effectively plug our ears to the Voice of Scripture.  The simple act (which is sometimes not so simple) of quieting our minds and hearts and allowing the Bible to speak, as if it has never before spoken in its own voice to you, will transform your time with the Word.  Be quiet, be patient, and let Scripture say what it has to say! (The Walk by Michael Card)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Lord, Speak to Me

Lord, speak to me that I may speak
In living echoes of Thy tone;
As Thou hast sought, so let me seek
Thy erring children lost and lone.

O lead me, Lord, that I may lead
The wandering and the wavering feet;
O feed me, Lord, that I may feed
Thy hungering ones with manna sweet.
 
O teach me, Lord, that I may teach
The precious things Thou dost impart;
And wing my words, that they may reach
The hidden depths of many a heart.
 
O fill me with Thy fullness, Lord,
Until my very heart o’erflow
In kindling thought and glowing word,
Thy love to tell, Thy praise to show.

 

O use me, Lord, use even me,
Just as Thou wilt, when, and where,
Until Thy blessed face I see,
Thy rest, Thy joy, Thy glory share.
 
Lord, speak to me that I may speak
In living echoes of Thy tone.

Closing Prayer:
O Lord, Thou didst strike my heart with Thy Word and I loved Thee.
                                                                               ~St. Augustine