doors

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, sometimes the doors you open before us are daunting and scary and challenging. We’re not quite sure if we have what it takes to walk through them.  We’re not quite sure what they will mean or what they will require, so we shrink back from accepting your invitation.  But life with you, Lord Jesus, is always and incredible adventure, so give us the courage and the grace and the strength to always take you up on your invitation to deeper life, greater growth, and more passionate love.

Scripture: Revelation 3:8

Journal: What door has God opened before you?  What is God inviting you to?  Will you go in?  What does that look like?

Reflection:

          doors

there are doors

that open in our lives

and if we have the courage

to step through them

we will be met by Jesus

on the other side

he will lead us deeper

into his great heart of love

and what looked like a crisis

becomes a conversion

an invitation into

intimacy and affection

beyond our wildest dreams

every crisis offers a conversion

if we are willing to embrace it

and meet Jesus in the midst of it

Pray

Closing Prayer: Help us, O Lord, to step through the door you have placed before us, whatever it may be and wherever it may lead.  Knowing that life with you is life in abundance.

soar

Opening Prayer: Thank you, O Lord, that you desire us to soar.  Forgive us when we refuse your invitation because we are afraid to leave the comfort and security of the nest.

Scripture: Isaiah 40:27-31

Journal: How is God inviting you to soar?  What does soaring look like?  What does it take to get there?  What will it require you to leave behind?

Reflection:

                soar

come to the edge of the nest

hear the invitation of God

receive his gentle push

leave the safety and security

of what you have known

and take the leap into

the vast unknown

soar into the heavens

on the winds of his breath

take flight and become

all you were created to be

Pray

Closing Prayer: O Lord, do not let insecurity and fear keep me from taking you up on your invitation to fly.  New life always requires a leap of faith.  Give me the courage and the strength and the grace to take that leap, whatever it may look like.

                                                               

nothing

Opening Prayer: I will presume to speak to you, My Lord, though I am mere dust and ashes.  If I imagined myself to be anything more, you would confront me with my sins, which bear witness against me.  But if I humble myself and acknowledge my nothingness, if I cast away all self-esteem and reduce myself to dust, then your grace will come to me, and your light will enter my heart.  So let the last trace of pride be swallowed up in the depths of my own nothingness and perish forever.  Let me see myself for what I am and what I have been, as mere nothingness.  Now, Lord, look upon me.  Your gaze can turn my nothingness into newness, my darkness into light, my misery into joy, my death into life.  When I become nothing, I discover both myself and you.  When I admit I deserve only punishment, you shower me with blessings.  You are my salvation, my power, my strength.  Amen. ~Thomas à Kempis

Scripture: John 15:5

Journal: When Jesus says, “Abide in me,” what does that mean to you?  How well are you doing it?  What most hinders that?

Reflection:

nothing

Lord

i am nothing

apart from you

i can do nothing

except by your

grace and mercy

and i long to be

filled with nothing

but your unfailing love

be everything

in my nothingness

Pray

Closing Prayer: Lord, give me eyes to see like you see, ears to hear what you hear, and a heart to respond like you respond.  Abiding in you means that I am wholly led by your life and your love and your Spirit, at all times and in all ways.  I am nothing but a hot mess apart from you.

attunement

Opening Prayer: My heart is not puffed up, O Lord; my eyes are not raised too high.  I am not consumed 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)

Scripture: Psalm 131:1-3

Journal: What is the state of your heart?  What are your eyes consumed with?  What is your soul full of?  What is your hope in?  How is this psalm speaking to each of these?

Reflection:

     O God

     may my heart

     be your heart

     may my eyes

     be your eyes

     may my soul

     be one with you

     may my hope

     be in you alone

     may it always be

     all of you and

     none of me

Pray

Closing Prayer: All of you, O Lord, and none of me.

overflowing with hope

Opening Prayer: O, God of hope, may my life and my spirit be filled to overflowing with all the joy and the peace and the love and the hope that life with you has to offer.  May I never be tempted to put my hope in the things of this world—my own strengths, abilities, or circumstances—but to put my hope ever and always only in you.

Scripture: Romans 15:13

Journal: What does a life overflowing with hope look like?  What is your current level of hope?  Is it producing joy and peace?  Why, or why not? 

Reflection: It’s impossible to separate the presence of true and lasting hope in our lives—and, thus, joy and peace—from the concept and reality of resurrection.  Hope that is not eternal is no hope at all; it is just wishful thinking.  Hope involves something much more substantial.  Hope involves a surety and a joyful expectation of the good that is to come. 

Maybe that’s why hope is not something we typically think about very often.  Our minds are too occupied with temporary things to dwell on eternal ones.  We love to think about our hearts overflowing with life or love or joy, things that are more tangible, but what about overflowing with hope?  What does that even look like? 

Overflowing with hope means that our lives are not determined by our current circumstances, but by a loving and good God who is always working for our eternal benefit and always bringing life out of the jaws of death.  In God’s economy, life always wins—resurrection always follows crucifixion.  A life overflowing with hope sees that; it is able to see beyond the immediate to the everlasting.

Pray

Closing Prayer: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

disappear into him

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you that by your unfailing love and abundant grace you invite us into the life and intimacy of the Trinity—a divine union that is beyond our wildest dreams.  Give us the courage and the strength and the grace to take you up on your invitation.

Scripture: John 17:20-23

Journal: What do you imagine union with God to look like?  What does it mean to take him up on this invitation to oneness?  How do we enter into the life and love of the Trinity?

Reflection:

       disappear

disappear into Me

and you will finally find

the intimacy and the union

you so deeply long for

Pray

Closing Prayer: “That they may be one, just as you, Father are in me, and I am in you, that they may also be in us.”  Yes, please!

basking in his grace

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for your unfailing mercy and your abundant grace.  Help us to bask in the beauty and wonderful of your deep, deep love for us.

Scripture: Ephesians 1:7-10

Journal: How is God lavishing his grace upon you?  What does it look like to bask in that grace?  Will you?

Reflection:

            bask

we can beg for mercy

but we must bask in grace

it cannot be earned

it cannot be achieved

it can only be received

grace is lavished upon us

all that’s required is openness

willingness to bathe ourselves

in his goodness and his love

Pray

Closing Prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus, that your grace cannot be earned or achieved, but can only be received.  Help us to open our hands and our hearts to you today that we might bathe ourselves in your goodness and love.