taken hold of

Opening Prayer:

Take me to you, imprison me, for I

Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,

Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

~John Donne

Scripture: Philippians 3:12-14

Journal: How has God taken hold of you?  How are you straining and pressing on to take hold of life with him?

Reflection: “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.  But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:12-14

If we truly have been taken hold of by God, if we have been ravished by the One who loves us like no other, then we will do everything in our power—strain and press and wrestle and fight—to take hold of the life and the love he offers to us.  We will simply have no choice; our hearts will not allow us to do otherwise. 

Pray

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, seize our hearts with the power of your great affection, so that everything in our lives might become an expression of love to you.  Amen.

known

Opening Prayer: O God, help us to truly know you, so that we might be fully known and become all you desire us to be.  Amen.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:12

Journal: What does it mean for you to know God, even as you are fully known?  What is the next level of knowing that he is calling you to?  How does knowing him fully enable you to know yourself fully?

Reflection: “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.  Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)

God always invites us beyond where we are.  Thus, as we lean in to the invitation deeper into his heart, it is both incredibly exciting and absolutely terrifying.  Because as we go deeper into his heart, he asks us to let go of deeper and deeper things, some of which are so deep that they feel like part of who we are.  But they are not.  They are merely the deepest and most subtle ways we have lived falsely, and moving deeper into the heart of God means that we learn to be our truest, Christ-like selves.  So sometimes this call to wholeness means giving up our idea of what wholeness even looks like in the first place, which is letting go at one of its deepest levels.  It is all a part of the journey to “know fully, even as we are fully known.”  The two go hand in hand. 

God does not want us to settle for less.  Whatever it takes to strip away the false and bring about the true, is what he will do.  He loves us too much to allow us to live lives that are less than what he dreamt them to be.

Pray

Closing Prayer: Lord God, seeing you and knowing you is such a process.  It does not happen all at once.  Lead us on this amazing journey of knowing and being known, until that day when we are able to see you clearly and know you—and ourselves—fully.  Amen.

stretch out your hand

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, please help me to have the strength and the grace and the courage to do whatever you ask of me, even if it’s something I don’t have the ability to do on my own.  Amen.

Scripture: Mark 3:1-5

Journal: What does “Stretch out your hand” mean for you?  What is Jesus really asking of you?  Will you do it?

Reflection: “Stretch out your hand.” It is what you told the man in the synagogue (Mark 3:5), and it is what you tell me.  But what does that mean, Lord Jesus?  What are you really asking of me?  Are you asking me for the courage to be vulnerable and weak and powerless, so that your power might be on full display?  Are you asking me to trust in your goodness and mercy, even when it demands that I do something that is impossible unless you give me the strength?  Are you asking me to have faith in your desire, and ability, to transform the parts of my life that are twisted and distorted and not at all what you intended them to be?  Or are you simply asking me to obey, whether I understand what you are up to or not?

Whatever the case, Lord Jesus, it is what you ask me to do: “Stretch out your hand.”  Give me the wisdom know exactly what that means, and the strength and the courage and the grace necessary to be able to do it.

Pray

Closing Prayer: Open and obedient, that’s what you ask of me, Lord Jesus.  Help me to be both.  Amen.

 

telling the truth

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, help us to tell your beautiful truth with our lives before we try to tell it with our words.  For until we embody the truth we proclaim, why would anyone want to listen to what we have to say?

Scripture: Matthew 7:1-6

Journal: What truth do you need to hear today?  How does that affect the way you share the truth with others?

Reflection: Telling the truth always begins with telling it to yourself.  Until we have come face-to-face with our own sin and need and dysfunction, we can never properly enter into the sin and need and dysfunction of others.  There is a deep humility required—a realization of our own extreme brokenness.  That realization creates a right spirit as we enter into someone else’s pain and struggle.

Unfortunately, throughout the centuries truth has been used as a weapon, rather than a help.  But truth was never intended to bludgeon, it was meant to love.  So telling the truth should be something that draws, rather than something that repels.  Or as Emily Dickinson so beautifully put it, “The Truth must dazzle gradually.” 

Therefore, we must first live the truth before we run to tell the truth.  The truth must dazzle with our lives before it can dazzle with our words.  That’s why people were so drawn to Jesus; he embodied the truth he proclaimed.  He was not a living contradiction, and we should not be either.

Pray

Closing Prayer: Dazzle us gradually, Lord Jesus, with your truth, for it is truly beautiful.  And once we have been captured by that truth, give us the wisdom to know how to tell it to others—not only with our words, but with our lives as well.  Amen.