embrace the new that lies ahead

Opening Prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus, for the new year that lies ahead.  You have much you want to do both in and through us, so help us to be open and receptive to whatever that may be—your work and your word and your will. 

Scripture: Isaiah 42:8-9

Journal: How is God asking you to embrace the new year?  How is that requiring you to let go of the old?

Reflection: You can’t embrace the new, without letting go of the old.  Will you?

Pray

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, give me the courage and the strength and the grace to let go of the old, so that I might be able to be receptive to the new.

god alone

Opening Prayer: “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.” (Psalm 62:5-6)

Scripture: Psalm 62:5-6

Journal: What is your sense of well-being dependent upon?  What does that tell you about your life and your faith?  What would it look like for you to put your hope in God alone?

Reflection: “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.” (Psalm 62:5-6)

Until my sense of well-being depends on God alone, I will always be at the mercy of mood, whim, and circumstance.  He alone is my rock and fortress.  He alone will allow my soul to find rest and peace.  He alone is my hope.  If my hope is in anyone or anything else, I am in for a rocky ride. 

“Trust in him, O people, pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.” (Psalm 62:8)

Pray

Closing Prayer: “Trust in him, O people, pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.” (Psalm 62:8)

 

 

how can i be sure of this

Opening Prayer: Forgive us, O Lord, when we doubt the goodness of your heart and the power of your love.  Give us confidence that you do, indeed, hear our prayers and are committed to giving us the deepest desires of our hearts—yourself.

Scripture: Luke 1:5-25

Journal: What is your prayer these days?  How are you asking him to answer it?  Where are you asking, “How can I be sure of this?”

Reflection: “How can I be sure of this?” (Luke 1:18) It’s a simple enough question, I suppose.  And not terribly out of line, at least on the surface, given the circumstances. Except when you consider that the being standing before Zechariah was actually and angel, who had just told him that “your prayer has been heard.”  It certainly echoes the sentiments of a man who would come before Jesus years later: “Lord, I believe.  Help me overcome my unbelief.” (Mark 9:24)

What caused Zechariah to doubt?  Was it that the miracle seemed too hard to perform, given his age, or that he didn’t really believe God loved him enough to perform it?  In other words, did Zechariah have a hard time believing that God could answer his prayer, or that God would answer his prayer?

Julian of Norwich once wrote: “For some of us believe that God is all power and able to do all, and that he is all wisdom and knows how to do all.  But that he is all love and will do all, there we stop.  This ignorance is that which most hinders God’s lovers.”

So, what is it for you?  What makes it hard to believe that God wants to answer your prayers?  What makes it hard for you to believe that he wants to turn your mess into a miracle?  Do you believe he can?  Do you believe he will?  Just pay careful attention, because sometimes the miracle he is performing is not the exact one we are asking him for.  Sometimes he is doing a bigger, deeper work.

Pray

Closing Prayer: “Lord, I believe.  Help me overcome my unbelief.”

 

low

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, the way you chose to enter this world tells us so much about who you are, and about who you aren’t.  Help us to have the courage and the strength and the grace to see your example and to follow it. 

Scripture: Luke 2:7

Journal: How did Jesus enter this world?  Why?  What does that say to you?  How does it call you to be more like him?

Reflection: “And she gave birth to her firstborn, a son.  She wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them at the inn.” (Luke 2:7)

Talk about humble beginnings!  The Creator of the universe, God in the flesh, came into the world as a newborn baby, was wrapped in cloths, and was laid in a manger.  All because there was no room for him in the inn!  Are you kidding me?  How much lower can you get?  And yet, this is how God chose to enter his creation. 

It certainly tells us something about the character of our God.  And it certainly sets an example for those of us who follow.  The very birth of Jesus invites us to the low places.  It invites us to enter the world with a hush rather than a flash.  It invites us to make our home among the low rather than the high. 

The temptation to try and make a place for ourselves in this world is so strong, and yet Jesus did the very opposite.  And he invites us to join him.  Which means that whenever we find that there is no room for us, we are most likely following in his footsteps.  Rejoice and be glad!   

Pray

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, give me the courage to follow you, no matter how low it may lead.

my newest book

 

If you are looking for a good companion for the journey from Epiphany to Lent, this book could be for you.  It's the second book in the Order My Steps series:  Available now on Amazon

stay in the struggle

Opening Prayer: Give me the courage and the strength and the grace to wrestle with you, O Lord, whatever that may look like.  For it is only through the wrestling that the blessing arrives.

Scripture: Genesis 32:1-31

Journal: Where and how are you wrestling with God these days?  What is that struggle accomplishing in you?  Will you stay in the struggle long enough to receive the blessing it holds?

Reflection: “But Jacob replied, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’” (Genesis 32:26)

You’ve got to admire Jacob’s tenacity.  While most of us would probably have been saying, “Let me go, this is exhausting, painful, and incredibly uncomfortable,” Jacob was saying, “I will not let you go until you bless me."  The truth is that most of us probably do not stay in the struggle long enough to get the blessing.  We tap out.  But Jacob was determined.  He knew this wrestling would eventually bring a blessing, so he stayed in it.  And although he left with a limp, he also left with a new name.  From that moment on, Jacob’s life would be forever changed.

Pray

Closing Prayer: “Enable me to stay in the struggle until the blessing arrives.  I will allow myself to be vulnerable.  That very vulnerability is my limp, but it is also my blessing.  O Transforming One, you have wounded me, yet you have not disappointed me.  I am grateful for the blessing of all my new names.  Thank you for your presence in the beautiful struggle of daily life.” (Abide by Macrina Wiederkehr)

the depths of woe

Opening Prayer: Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!  O Lord, hear my voice!  Let your ears be attentive to my pleas for mercy! (Psalm 130:1-2)

Scripture: Psalm 130:1-8

Journal: When were you last in the depths of woe?  What impact did it have on your life?  How are knowing the depths of our own sin and the knowing the depths of God’s love tied together?  Do you have the courage to ask God to take you to the depths of woe, so that you can know the depths of his unfailing love?

Reflection: In the Scriptures, I normally think of an invitation into the depths of God as a positive and inviting thing.  But what about when he invites us—or ushers us—into the depths of woe?  What about when God leads us—or takes us—to a place of coming face to face with our own sinfulness, brokenness, and desperation?  What about when he invites us not just to take a look at his beauty, but to take a good long look at our own inner ugliness?  That’s a whole different story.  I guess that’s why most of us refuse to go there on our own, we have to be taken there.

Well, God has taken me there recently, and I have to say it is not a place I enjoy being.  To be taken to the depths of woe is to be taken to the depths of your own neediness, brokenness, and insecurity, which is painful, humiliating, and incredibly dark.  It involves wave after wave of sorrow, sadness, and shame, with absolutely nothing you can do about it, except sit in it, cry out for mercy, and wait for God to show up in it.

But you know what I found at the bottom of these depths of woe?  I found Jesus.  I guess that’s why the words of the ancient prayer (Psalm 139:8) remind us that even “if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.”  He was right there with me.  His goodness, his unfailing love, and his full redemption (Psalm 130:7-8) even reach to the bottom of the depths of woe, and beyond.  In fact, it is impossible to know the true depths of the unfailing love of God apart from a journey to the bottom of the depths of woe.  For these depths are meant not only to mark you deeply, but also to change you completely.  Jesus meets us there and makes us more into the people, and the lovers, he dreamt us to be.

So if you are currently in the depths, like me, don’t fight it but embrace it.  God is bigger than your sorrow and your sadness and your pain.  God is even bigger than your sin.  Trust him; he is doing a great work in you.  He wants to show you the depths of your sin, so that he can help you to better understand the enormity and extravagance of his unfailing love, as well as the beauty and power of his full redemption.

Pray

Closing Prayer: “From the depths of woe I raise to Thee the voice of lamentation.  Lord, turn a gracious ear to me and hear my supplication.  If Thou iniquities dost mark, our secret sins and misdeeds dark, O who shall stand before Thee?

To wash away the crimson stain, grace, grace alone, availeth.  Our works, alas! are all in vain;
in much the best life faileth.  No man can glory in thy sight, all must alike confess thy might,
and live alone by mercy.” ~Martin Luther

advent is coming

 Advent begins on Sunday, December 3.  If you are looking for a good companion for the season for yourself, your family, your friends, your staff, your small group, or your church, here are two options.

Order My Steps

Watch and Wait

everything

Opening Prayer: “My heart is not proud, O Lord, my eyes are not haughty.  I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.  But I have stilled and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.  O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, both now and forevermore.” (Psalm 131:1-3, NIV)

Scripture: Psalm 131:1-3

Journal: What does this ancient and wonderful prayer stir up in your heart today?  How can you move from trying to be something, to becoming nothing, so that God can be everything?

Reflection:

prayer involves

the movement from

trying to be something

to realizing we are nothing

so that God can be everything

Pray

Closing Prayer: “O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and marvelous for me.  But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.  O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.” (Psalm 131:1-3, ESV)

through the sea

Opening Prayer: O Lord, your path always seems to lead through the sea and not around it.  Forgive me when I get so comfortable with the familiar that I fail to trust you to lead me out of my slavery and dysfunction.  Give me the courage and the strength and the grace to follow you, wherever it may lead.  Because following you always leads to freedom.

Scripture: Psalm 77:19-20

Journal: How has God brought you out of slavery?  How is God trying to get slavery out of you?  How does the process of going through the sea play into that?

Reflection: “Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though you footprints were not seen.” (Psalm 77:19) A very wise man once said that there are actually two exodus stories in the book of Exodus.  The first is God getting Israel out of slavery and the second is God getting slavery out of Israel.  The first happened one day, as God led his people out of Egypt and through the Red Sea.  The second took forty years of wandering in the wilderness.  It seems that the comfortable and familiar, no matter how hard and dysfunctional, don’t loosen their grip on us easily.  The problem is that following Jesus almost never involves what is easy, comfortable, or familiar.

I’m coming to realize more and more that God’s way always leads through the sea—and then through the wilderness—not around it.  It is only by going through the sea, and then the wilderness, that God gets slavery out of us.  It is a long and arduous journey.  The life of slavery runs deep.  Its roots have dug way down into us and it will take some time and effort to pull them out.

“Freedom cannot abide in a heart dominated by desire, in a slave’s heart,” wrote John of the Cross.  “It abides in a liberated heart, in a child’s heart.”  Going through, not around, is how God brings that liberation about.  “There is no way out, only through,” wrote Gerald May.  And he was so right.  There is something about going through, instead of around, that is transforming.      

But the bottom line is that until we love our liberation more than we love our captivity, we will always be slaves.

Pray

Closing Prayer: Forgive me, O God when I love my captivity more than I love the freedom you are offering me.  Don’t just get me out of slavery, but also get slavery out of me.

rule #1

Opening Prayer: My heart is not lifted up, O Lord, my eyes are not raised too high.  I do not occupy myself with great matters, or thing too wonderful for me.  But I have stilled and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.  O Israel, put your hope in the Lord, both now and forevermore. (Psalm 131:1-3)

Scripture: Psalm 131:1-3

Journal: What is prayer?  How does this psalm invite you to pray?

Reflection: Be still.  Be quiet.  Drop your list. Abandon your agenda.  Stop your anxious spinning.  Listen to God.  Let him guide you.  Wean yourself off of the need to be everything to everyone.  Still and quiet your soul and just see what happens.  This is the first lesson in the school of prayer.

Pray

Closing Prayer: Speak, Lord, your servant is listening. (1 Sam. 3:9)

functional atheism

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, help us to hear your knock during this time and open the door.  Come in and be with us and allow us to fully be with you. 

Scripture: Revelation 3:14-22

Journal: Where and how do self-sufficiency, productivity, and performance dominate your life

Reflection: Functional atheism.  What an interesting phrase.  It is the belief that ultimate responsibility for everything rests with me. Thus, it is not so much atheism in theological terms, but atheism in practical, functional terms.  Which makes it very subtle and hard to spot.  In fact, most functional atheists would probably not consider themselves atheists at all, they just live like they are.  The telltale signs of functional atheism are self-sufficiency, productivity, and performance—three things that are highly valued by the culture around us.  But three things that can also leave us spiritually dead and impoverished. 

Just look at the letter Jesus wrote to the church at Laodicea, for example. (Rev. 3:14-22) These were folks who professed that they both knew Jesus and sought to follow him, and yet the way they lived their lives said something much different.  In fact, Jesus described their love for him as tepid and lukewarm, which made him want to vomit.  There was no passion or zeal for God, only a falsely satisfied sense of self-sufficiency: “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.”  So much so that they had left him out of their daily lives.  Jesus was on the outside looking in; knocking continually on the door of their hearts, longing for deep, vibrant, intimate relationship with them, and yet they left him outside.  Thus, the “believers” at the church of Laodicea were functional atheists.  They said they loved God, but they lived like he didn’t exist.

The admonition Jesus gave them was to stop relying on themselves and their own resources to manage life, to realize their poverty and their helplessness, and to turn to him to give them what they could not possibly provide for themselves: to be rich in spiritual treasure, to be clothed in his holiness and righteousness, and to be healed and made whole.  Only Jesus could give them those things, if only they would be willing to open the door.  The very life of their souls depended on it.

Pray

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, forgive us when we say that we love you, when our lives tell a much different story.  We know all too well our tendency to plow right through life on our own without inviting you in or asking for your guidance and direction.  To live according to our plans and agendas, rather than yours.  Forgive us, Lord Jesus.  Help us to have the courage and the strength and the grace to give every area of our lives totally and completely to you, with no holding back.

 

the essence of prayer

Opening Prayer: “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him is his temple.” (Psalm 27:4)

Scripture: Psalm 27:4

Journal: What is the true essence of prayer?  How does that take shape in your life?

Reflection: “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him is his temple.” (Psalm 27:4)

That’s it.  That’s what prayer is all about.  In fact, that’s what life with God is, ultimately, all about.  In the midst of the chaos and commotion and turmoil of this life, a single-minded focus on God, and simply being with him, is of utmost importance.  It is so easy to get swept away with worry and care about the many things that we get distracted and forget about the one thing—Jesus. 

Henri Nouwen said it this way: “Prayer is entering into the presence of God here and now.  Prayer is the way I which we become present to the moment and listen to God who is with us.  God is always where we are.  God is with us until the end of time.  We have to be here.  We have to listen.  We have to be attentive.  Prayer is the discipline of attentiveness, of being here.

“I really want you to ask you to practice prayer as a practice of the presence of God.  You don’t have to say many words.  You don’t have to have deep thoughts.  You don’t have to worry about how to think.  You can just be where you are and say, ‘I love you.  I love you.  I know you love me and I love you.  I don’t have any big things to say.  I don’t have any profound words to express, but I am here and I want you to be with me and I want to be with you.’  It’s that simple.  It is a very simple thing.  Prayer is not complicated.  It is not difficult.”

The true essence of prayer is simply being with God—dwelling, gazing, and seeking.  I don’t know why we make it so complicated.

Pray

Closing Prayer: Here I am, Lord.  Be with me and give me the grace to be with you.

awakened to love

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you that you are far more interested in awakening us than you are in shaming us.  Awaken us now to your unfailing love and deep affection, so that we might be captured by your beauty and forever changed by your passion.

Scripture: John 4:16-18

Journal: What are your “husbands?”  What are the things, or who are the people, that distract you from depending on the love of the Father?  How are you depending on people for love that only God can give? 

Reflection: “The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have aid is quite true.” (John 4:18)

Contrary to popular opinion, Jesus is not trying to shame, but to awaken.  Awakening, however, is not a tidy process.  In fact, it can be pretty messy.  For in order to truly awaken someone, they must first be made aware of how they have been lulled to sleep.  Their needy patterns and strategies must be exposed, recognized, and acknowledged before true awakening can take place.

But who in their right mind wants to be exposed?  Only someone who realizes deep inside that their lives have taken a terribly wrong turn.  Only someone who yearns for and longs for and hopes for a life that’s better than the one they are living.  Only someone who is longing to experience a love that is deeper and wider and longer and higher than any love they have yet to experience. 

That’s where we have to trust the heart of Jesus, that his intent is love and never shame.  That he alone can love us with the depth and the passion and the intimacy we most deeply long for.  That when he exposes us it is with the utmost gentleness and kindness and compassion, for it is his invitation to name what is wrong within us and return to what is good and true. 

The heart of Jesus is to expose and awaken, to name and invite.  Because, ultimately, he doesn’t want us to settle for less than the life and the love he created us for.  He doesn’t want us to live at the mercy of others.  He doesn’t want us to be dependent on the attention and affection of those around us, when it is only he who can give us the attention and affection we most deeply need.  Helping us to realize that and helping us to stop being the attention and affection whores that we are, is what spiritual awakening is really all about.  It certainly was for the woman at the well. 

Pray

Closing Prayer: Forgive me, Lord Jesus, when I try to fill my soul with lesser loves.  For only your Greater Love will truly satisfy.  Help me to turn away from the broken wells I run to and come only to you, the spring of living water.

 

he will

Opening Prayer: “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

Scripture: Luke 5:12-13

Journal: Do you really believe that Jesus will touch you and heal you?

Reflection: “The cause why we are so troubled with these sins is because of our ignorance of love.  To this knowledge we are most blind, for some of us believe that God is all powerful and able to do all, and that He is all wisdom and knows how to do all.  But that He is all love and will do all, there we stop.  This ignorance is that which most hinders God’s lovers.  There persists a fear that hinders us because of paying attention to ourselves and the sins we have done in the past.  We do not know how to despise the sin of self-hatred, as we do other sins which we recognize.” ~Julian of Norwich

Pray

Closing Prayer: Listen as Jesus says to you: “I am willing.  Be clean!”

deep healing

Opening Prayer: Heal us, O God, in a deep and beautiful way.  For it is healing that we need and only you can offer it.  Heal our hearts, heal our lives, and heal our world.  Our wounds are the source of most of our conflicts and issues and dysfunctions, so touch us with your healing hands of love and make us alive and whole and free.  Amen.

Scripture: Mark 2:1-12

Journal: Where are you in need of healing?  What are the deeper issues?  Will you let Jesus touch and heal you in those deeper places?

Reflection: Jesus always sees beyond the presenting problem to the core.  He doesn’t just want to touch the surface, but the deeper places.  Touching those deep places within us is the only way we can experience real healing and wholeness.

Thus, Jesus knew that the problem with the paralytic wasn’t merely his legs, it was so much more than that.  The real problem was his heart, so healing just his legs would stop far short of the healing that was most desperately needed.  If Jesus would have healed the paralyzed man's legs, without healing his heart, the man still wouldn't have been whole.

Maybe you have prayed for years for God’s intervention in some area of your life, and yet, for the most part, those prayers have seemingly gone unanswered.  That area of your life remains unchanged.  Here’s a thought: maybe it’s because you are praying for the wrong thing.  Maybe you too, are praying for your legs, when there is a much deeper issue that must be addressed.  God wants to get his hands on that place.  He wants to heal you at your deepest levels, but in order to do that he needs you to recognize exactly what the problem is.  Are you willing to go there with him?

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O Jesus, I need healing—deep, deep healing; and you are the only one who can give it.  Lord Jesus, have mercy on me.

were and will be

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you that you are always calling us beyond our own comfort and proficiency to a place of surrender and trust.  You alone know who you want us to become, and you alone can lead us there.  Help us to have the faith and the courage to follow you.

Scripture: Mark 1:16-20

Journal: How is Jesus calling you these days?  How is he trying to take you from who you were to who you really are?  What will you have to leave behind in order to follow him there?  Are you willing?

Reflection: “As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their net into the lake, for they were fishermen.  ‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will make you fishers of men.’  At once they left their nets and followed him.”

They were fishermen, but they will be fishers of men.  God was calling them to leave behind what they were, in order to become who they really are.  It was a pretty abrupt departure from the life they had known and grown comfortable with.  Now they were being asked to move from proficiency to mystery.  They would have to leave behind a life and an identity they had grown accustomed to and familiar with, in order to step out into the great unknown.

But isn’t that always what life with Jesus is like?  Leaving behind the comfortable and familiar, in order to embrace a life of risky dependence.  Trading autonomy for obedience and control for surrender.  Saying goodbye to comfort and proficiency, since they cause us to stop short of the life God is beckoning toward, and saying an unreserved yes to Jesus, regardless of what that might mean. 

We might be tempted to try to convince ourselves that this calling was only for them, but it’s not.  It is for us as well.  These brave souls were willing to leave everything behind—their boats, their nets, and even their own father—in order to follow the call of Jesus.  Are we?

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Help us, Lord Jesus, to never settle for a life of safety and comfort, when you are beckoning us to so much more.  Open our ears to your call today and give us the strength and the courage to leave our nets behind and follow you.

pure in heart

Opening Prayer: Blessed are those who remain untainted by the world around them, for, with less to distort their vision, they will have a clearer view of God. —Jim Branch, May 2023 (a paraphrase of Matthew 5:8)

Scripture: Matthew 5:8

Journal: How would you describe your heart these days?  How is it possible for us to become pure in heart?

Reflection: “Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.” (Mt. 5:8)

Of all the beatitudes, this one seems the most inaccessible.  I mean, I know my own heart and how impure it really is.  Thus, purity of heart is only possible if God provides it; we can’t do it ourselves.  We are totally dependent on him.

A careful study of the word, however, might give us a hint as to how this takes place.  It’s what the saints called purgation.  The word pure, in the Greek, is katharos, which is an adjective meaning clean.  It is the word also used in John 15:3 to describe the results of pruning (kathairō), the verb associated with katharos.  Kathairō literally means to purge.  It is the process by which we are emptied, in order to be filled.  Thus, if we ever want to be filled with God’s purity, we must first allow the Spirit of God to purge us of our impurities.  In the words of a wise saint, “How can God possibly fill you if you are already full of yourself?  It’s like trying to pour into an already full cup.  You must first empty the cup.” 

So, instead of just trying to add purity to our hearts and lives, which is impossible for us to achieve on our own anyway, we should probably start (through the power of the Spirit) by emptying ourselves of all that is not God.  Then, and only then, can he fill us with himself, and his purity.  Then we will, indeed, be blessed.

In the words of Susan Annette Muto, “When we live the Beatitudes in and with the Lord, we become liberated persons in the fullest sense.  We follow the path of purgation until, with Jesus, we are filled with the peace of surrender to the Father and led by his Spirit to new depths of intimacy with the Indwelling Trinity.”

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Purge me, Lord Jesus, of all that is not you, so that you can fill me with your life, your love, and your purity.

merciful

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.  For only then can I ever hope to be merciful to others.

Scripture: Matthew 5:7

Journal: How have you been shown mercy?  How does that impact your ability to be merciful to others?  What is one concrete way that you can be merciful today?

Reflection: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” (Mt. 5:7)

So, if the merciful are blessed, how in the world do we become merciful?  It seems to me that it’s impossible to be merciful without first realizing how desperately we need mercy ourselves.  If we don’t think we need mercy, we probably aren’t going to be able to extend mercy.  But if we realize the depths of our own need, and are extended mercy ourselves, it makes it much more likely we will respond in kind.  I mean, how could one who has been granted mercy, withhold that mercy from others, right?  Receiving mercy changes us into merciful people.  So the way to become merciful is to bask in the mercy of God.

But we can only do that, it seems, by coming face to face with our own neediness and desperation.  As much as we would like for it not to, desperation plays a definite role in the equation.  Desperation leads to dependence, dependence leads to humility, and humility, in turn, leads to mercy.  Thus, increasing our desperation, increases our capacity to be merciful.  Once we have received mercy ourselves, it does something deep inside—it makes us merciful people. And blessed.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord, have mercy.  Christ, have mercy, Lord, have mercy.  Amen.

 

hungry for righteousness

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, I am hungry and thirsty for a lot of things, but none of them can really fill me up.  Give me, O Lord, a hunger and thirst for you—a hunger and thirst that makes me yearn for all things to be made right once again.  A hunger and thirst both for myself and for all things to be who and what you intended them to be. 

Scripture: Matthew 5:6

Journal: What is your soul hungry and thirsty for?  How do you try to ill that thirst?  How hungry are you for God these days?  What would it look like to hunger and thirst for righteousness?  How do we get there?

Reflection: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Mt. 5:6)

What does it mean to hunger and thirst for righteousness?  The word for righteousness, in the Greek, is dikaiosynē.  It means the state of him who is as he ought to be.  Thus, to hunger and thirst for righteousness means to yearn for and long for and work for all things, people, and relationships to be as God intended them to be. 

Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are agents of life and hope and change in this world.  They are the ones who are called and empowered to bring the hope and the healing and the wholeness of God into this dark and broken world.  They are the ones who are constantly working to help roll back the effects of the fall, by giving people a taste of the kingdom of God in the here and now.  They are ones who are called to live and to love as God intended.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Make me hungry and thirsty, Lord Jesus, for the things of God.  Make me hungrier and thirstier for his kingdom and his righteousness than I am for my own.

meek

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you that you were meek.  I want to be meek too; I want to be like you.  Help me.

Scripture: Matthew 5:5

Journal: What does it mean to be meek?  How is Jesus inviting you to pursue meekness?  What does that look like?

Reflection: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. (Mt. 5:5:5)

Meek is not a word that’s used much these days.  And if it is, it is almost never used in a positive way.  Culturally speaking, being meek is seen as being a pushover, being weak, being spineless.  Which, in all honesty, is the exact opposite of what meekness is really all about. 

Meekness is about being humbly submissive, which is probably part of the problem.  Nobody wants to be submissive to anyone these days, particularly to God.  As a wise saint once said: “Meekness toward God is a disposition of spirit in which we accept his dealings with us as good, and therefore without disputing or resisting.”  Thus, being submissive takes strength and courage and patience and wisdom and fortitude.  You have to have tons of backbone to be submissive; it is not easy.

Jesus knew that.  That’s why he said that the meek are blessed, because the meek are wise enough and strong enough and courageous enough to submit their plans and their agendas and their wills to the will of God—the one who made them.  The meek recognize the created order and the magnificence of the One who created them.  Their lives are about glorifying God, not about glorifying, or gratifying, themselves.

When we submit to God, we submit to the Spirit, instead of trying to be the Spirit.  We stop managing and controlling and hijacking and manufacturing and steering and directing, and we start listening and waiting and watching and praying and paying attention.  We stop trying to constantly grab the wheel and simply trust God instead.  We let God lead.  For the price of submitting may indeed be high, but the price of non-submitting is higher still—our soul.

Closing Prayer: O Lord, help me to learn how to stop steering and controlling and directing relationships and conversations, so that you might actually do that.  Help me to stop grabbing the wheel and let you lead.

 

blessed are

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to truly desire to become all of the things that you say are truly blessed, no matter how terrified I might be of them actually becoming a part of my life.

Scripture: Matthew 5:3

Journal: What does poor in spirit mean to you?  What do you think it meant to Jesus?  How does one become poor in spirit?

Reflection: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt. 5:3) 

The eyes of Jesus see what we cannot.  They see beneath the surface of things, to the very depths.  They see past the temporal, to the eternal.  They see the value in things and situations that we do not typically see as desirable.  That’s because Jesus is more concerned with our character than he is with our circumstances.

That’s why he can say that the poor in spirit are “blessed.”  In fact, theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  The poor in spirit are the last, the lowest, and the least.  They are the small, the hidden, and the quiet. The poor in spirit are the ones who are most open to God, because they need him so desperately.  It is the lowly and the meek and the humble and the needy and the inadequate whose hearts are most receptive to God, not the proud and the arrogant and the powerful and the self-sufficient.  It is in weakness that God’s strength comes shining through.  Poverty of spirit is the very best soil in which to grow the most beautiful things of God.

At times we are tempted to ask, “Where is God in the midst of loneliness and brokenness and marginalization?  Where is God in struggle and turmoil and weakness?  Where is God in disruption and disorientation and disturbance?”  But I think the better question is: “Where is God in success and attention and popularity?  Where is God in pride and adequacy and competence?  Which environment grows the better fruit of the Spirit within us?  Which makes us more loving and grateful and compassionate?  Which makes us more open and excited and receptive to receiving the kingdom of heaven?”

So, contrary to popular opinion, maybe the poor in spirit really are blessed after all.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O Lord, I say I want to be poor in spirit, but then I am resistant to or frustrated by the circumstances in my life that can actually make me that way.  I am such a contradiction!  Forgive me.  Give me the desire to truly be poor in spirit.  Help me to become more and more like you.    

 

reverent submission

Opening Prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you were “obedient even unto death.”  Help us to have the courage and the strength to be the same.

Scripture: Hebrews 5:7-10

Journal: Where is God calling you to reverent submission these days?  What does that look like?

Reflection: “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.” (Hebrews 5:7)

Reverent submission involves seeing God for who he truly is and seeing ourselves for who we truly are.  It involves a deep recognition of his great power and our inherent powerlessness, of his immeasurable strength and immeasurable our weakness, of his supreme adequacy and our feeble inadequacy.  It is, in fact, an acknowledgement of our desperate dependence on him.

Reverent submission brings about a willingness to surrender our plans and our will and our way, in deference to his.  It makes us open to whatever God is doing, rather than us trying to determine what God is doing: no manufacturing, no steering, no managing, no hijacking, no controlling. 

Reverent submission is about obedience instead of autonomy.  It calls us to wait and to listen and to pray.  It asks us to watch and to wait and to pay attention.  It asks us to respond to God’s initiative, rather than always taking our own.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Help us, Lord Jesus, to be more and more like you.  Help us to always act in reverent submission, rather than in prideful arrogance.

genuine encounter

Opening Prayer: Forgive us, O Lord, when we allow knowledge of you to be a substitute for encounter with you.  You want so much more for us than that.

Scripture: Job 42:1-6

Journal: Where and how have you allowed hearing of God to be a substitute for encounter with God?  Where and how have you encountered him recently?

Reflection: “My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you.” Job 42:6

All too often, hearing of God is used as a cheap substitute for encounter with God.  And there is no substitute for genuine encounter with God, just ask Job.  Once he actually encountered God, everything changed.  It is not information about God that transforms us, but direct encounter with God.  It is a deeper, more intimate kind of knowing that brings about real and lasting change.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O Lord, help my eyes to truly see you today.

turning

Opening Prayer: O Lord, how I long to be different.  How I long to turn from my twisted and dysfunctional patterns and habits, in order to be more whole and holy.  I long to be set free from my own self-consumed ways of being and seeing, and to become more and more like you.  I long to be more loving instead of self-centered, I long to be more compassionate rather than competitive, and I long to care more about your will and your work than I do about my own.  Continue, O God, to transform my heart.  Grow your grace in me and let it flow freely and effortlessly from my heart and life.  Change me from deep within. Give me more peace and less frustration.  Make me more rooted and less reactive.  Help me to be more caring and less annoyed.  O Jesus, fill me so full of your love that there will be no room in me for anything else.

Scripture: Mark 1:14-15

Journal: What does “repent and believe the good news” look like for you these days?  What do you need to turn away from?  How do you need to turn toward God?

Reflection: “The time has come.  The kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15) Repentance always involves a two-part movement: a turning away and a turning toward.  Turning away from autonomy and turning toward obedience, turning away from control and turning toward surrender, turning away from independence and turning toward dependence.  Ultimately, repentance is about turning away from my kingdom and turning toward God’s.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to repent and believe the good news.  Today.

a place of abundance

Opening Prayer: Praise our God, all peoples, let the sound of his praises be heard; he has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping. (Psalm 66:8-9)

Scripture: Psalm 66:10-12

Journal: Listen to the words of this ancient prayer, and listen for the prayer of God that rises in your heart.  What is it?  What is stirring in you?  How has God used the hard things in your life to bring you to a place of abundance?  How is he?

Reflection: “You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance.” (Psalm 66:12)

To reach the land of abundance, it seems, we must go through the fire and the water.  There is no way around it.  To get to the place called resurrection, we must go through the doorway of death.  In the words of C. S. Lewis, “Only that which has died will be resurrected.”  So, struggle is a prerequisite for growth and death is the prerequisite for resurrection.

That being the case, it seems like we would stop getting so offended and hurt and surprised when we have to go through hard things.  God told us that it would be this way.  It was that way for Jesus, so why would we expect it to be any different for us?  Why should we get an exemption?  Hard things should just be a sign to us that we are on the right path, and the final destination is oh so good.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: For you, O God, tested and tried us; you refined us like silver.  You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs.  You let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance. (Psalm 66:10-12)