fear, tuesday

Tuesday, October 14

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

          

Opening Prayer: O Lord our God, help us to live our lives with the faith and courage necessary to live by love and not by fear.  Forgive me when my seeing and my thinking get so distorted that I allow fear to control me and make me its slave—even when I don’t fully realize it.  Seize my heart and soul with your perfect love in such a way that it drives out all fear and gives me the freedom to truly love, rather than manipulate, those in my life and world.  In the name of Jesus.  Amen.

          

Scripture Reading for the Day: Psalm 27:1-14

Reading for Reflection:

 

Fear is the great enemy of intimacy.  Fear makes us run away from each other or cling to each other but does not create true intimacy.  When Jesus was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane, the disciples were overcome by fear and they all "deserted him and ran away" (Mt. 26:56).  And after Jesus was crucified they huddled together in a closed room "for fear of the Jews" (John. 20:19).  Fear makes us move away from each other to a "safe" distance, or move toward each other to a "safe" closeness, but fear does not create the space where true intimacy can exist.  Fear does not create a home.  It forces us to live alone or in a protective shelter but does not allow us to build an intimate home. (Lifesigns by Henri J.M. Nouwen)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

                                 

Closing Prayer:  Lord, you know what’s going on here.  You know where I’m confused and where I hurt and what I’m questioning, and what I’m wondering about.  I’m captive to my past, captive to my fears, captive to my false sense of security, captive to my pride and my judgmentalism and my petty demands.  You know about all the times I’ve failed to let your Spirit blow through my life.  I feed on emptiness until I’m stuffed, and then I wonder why you seem so distant.  From all of these chains there is freedom; from all of the cages, a key.  Release me.  Reveal yourself.  And set me free. (A Heart Exposed by Steven James)