listening to God, day 3

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

Opening Prayer:
Speak, O Lord, as we come to You, to receive the food of Your holy word.  Take Your truth, plant it deep in us; shape and fashion us in Your likeness, that the light of Christ might be seen today, in our acts of love and our deeds of faith.  Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us all your purposes, for Your glory. (Speak O Lord by Stuart Townend, Keith Getty)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 19

Scripture for the Day: Genesis 32:22-32

Reading for Reflection:

Prayer is not a matter of my calling in an attempt to get God’s attention, but of my finally listening to the call of God, which has been constant, patient, and insistent in my inner being.  In relationship with God, I am not the seeker, the initiator, the one who loves more greatly.  In prayer, as in the whole salvation story unfolded by Scripture, God is reaching out to me, speaking to me, and it’s up to me to learn to be polite enough to pay attention.  When I do have something to say to God, I am rendering a response to the divine initiative.  So the questions of whether or not and how God answers prayer now seem to me bogus questions.  God speaks, all right.  The big question is do I answer, do I respond, to an invitation that is always open.  (Speech, Silence, Action! by Virginia Ramey Mollenkott)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say

I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Come unto Me and rest;
Lay down, O weary one lay down,
Your head upon My breast.”
I came to Jesus as I was,
So weary, worn and sad;
I found in Him my resting place,
And He has made me glad.

I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Behold I freely give
The living water; thirsty one,
Stoop down and drink, and live.”
I came to Jesus, and I drank
From that life-giving stream
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
And now I live in Him.
 
I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“I am this dark world’s light;
Look unto Me, thy morn shall rise,
And all thy days be bright.”
I looked to Jesus, and I found
In Him my star, my sun;
And in that light of life I’ll walk
’Til pilgrim days are done. 

Closing Prayer:
Bless with your presence my life and ministry all this day long and when night comes grant your servant rest and peace.  Amen. (A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants)

listening to God, day 2

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

Opening Prayer:
Speak, O Lord, as we come to You, to receive the food of Your holy word.  Take Your truth, plant it deep in us; shape and fashion us in Your likeness, that the light of Christ might be seen today, in our acts of love and our deeds of faith.  Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us all your purposes, for Your glory. (Speak O Lord by Stuart Townend, Keith Getty)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 19

Scripture for the Day: Genesis 28:10-22

Reading for Reflection:

Our relationship with God would be greatly improved if we saw prayer as listening to God rather than talking to him.  Think of those boring people who talk endlessly to others (or rather, at others).  All their words show that they are distanced from others rather than close to them.  Could this also be the reason why our prayers lack insight into the character of God?  Openness to God, submissiveness to God, listening to his “still, small voice,” may give us far more insight than the constant chatter which we are used to calling prayer. (The Transforming Power of Prayer by James Houston)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say

I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Come unto Me and rest;
Lay down, O weary one lay down,
Your head upon My breast.”
I came to Jesus as I was,
So weary, worn and sad;
I found in Him my resting place,
And He has made me glad.

I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Behold I freely give
The living water; thirsty one,
Stoop down and drink, and live.”
I came to Jesus, and I drank
From that life-giving stream
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
And now I live in Him.
 
I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“I am this dark world’s light;
Look unto Me, thy morn shall rise,
And all thy days be bright.”
I looked to Jesus, and I found
In Him my star, my sun;
And in that light of life I’ll walk
’Til pilgrim days are done. 

Closing Prayer:
Bless with your presence my life and ministry all this day long and when night comes grant your servant rest and peace.  Amen. (A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants)

listening to God, day 1

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

Opening Prayer:
Speak, O Lord, as we come to You, to receive the food of Your holy word.  Take Your truth, plant it deep in us; shape and fashion us in Your likeness, that the light of Christ might be seen today, in our acts of love and our deeds of faith.  Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us all your purposes, for Your glory. (Speak O Lord by Stuart Townend, Keith Getty)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 19

Scripture for the Day: John 10:1-18

Reading for Reflection:

Unless our identity is hid in God we will never know who we are or what we are to do.  Our first act must be prayer.  To be human is to pray, to meditate both day and night on the love and activity of God.  We are called to be continuously formed and transformed by the thought of God within us.  Prayer is a disciplined dedication to paying attention.  Without the single-minded attentiveness of prayer we will rarely hear anything worth repeating or catch a vision worth asking anyone else to gaze upon. (The Spiritual Life by John Westerhoff III and John D. Eusden)


Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say

I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Come unto Me and rest;
Lay down, O weary one lay down,
Your head upon My breast.”
I came to Jesus as I was,
So weary, worn and sad;
I found in Him my resting place,
And He has made me glad.

I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Behold I freely give
The living water; thirsty one,
Stoop down and drink, and live.”
I came to Jesus, and I drank
From that life-giving stream
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
And now I live in Him.
 
I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“I am this dark world’s light;
Look unto Me, thy morn shall rise,
And all thy days be bright.”
I looked to Jesus, and I found
In Him my star, my sun;
And in that light of life I’ll walk
’Til pilgrim days are done. 

Closing Prayer:
Bless with your presence my life and ministry all this day long and when night comes grant your servant rest and peace.  Amen. (A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants)

prayer, day 7

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

Opening Prayer:
Lord, I know not what I ought to ask of you.  You only know what I need.  You know me better than I know myself.  O Father, give to your child what he himself knows not how to ask.  Teach me to pray.  Pray yourself in me.
                                                                  ~Archbishop Francois Fenelon

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 84

Scripture for the Day: I Thessalonians 5:16-24

Reading for Reflection:

When you enter into the spiritual life through the gateway of prayer, you would do well to see yourself as one who has set out to create a garden.  This garden is a place wherein our Lord wants to come and walk and take pleasure.  But just now, the soil is barren—except for the places that produce clots of weeds.  His Majesty wants to uproot the weeds and plant in his garden many fruitful and fragrant blossoming plants.  You may take it for granted that the Lord is already afoot, walking in His garden, if you have any desire to seek Him in prayer, for He always calls to us first and it is His voice we hear when we think it is our desire to pray.

      If we want to be good gardeners of this new-sown soul, we must, with God's help, see to it that the good plantings are tended and grow—and I am speaking now of godly virtues.  At very least, we must see that these good things are not neglected and die. Rather, we tend our souls carefully so that the first blossoms appear.

      These are the spiritual “fragrances” that begin to rise from our lives—the fragrances of faith, goodness, self-control, love, and the like.  By them, many, many others are refreshed in spirit and attracted to the Lord (2 Cor. 2:14-16).

     Then the Lord, Himself comes to walk in the midst of our garden.  And it is all our joy to sense that He is there, taking pleasure in the lovely virtues.

                                                                             ~Teresa of Avila

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Praise to the Lord the Almighty

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty,
The King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him,
For He is thy health and salvation!
All ye who hear, Now to His temple draw near;
Praise Him in glad adoration.

Praise to the Lord,
Who over all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings,
Yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen
How all your longings have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?
 
Praise to the Lord,
Who doth prosper thy work and defend thee;
Surely His goodness
And mercy here daily attend thee.
Ponder anew what the Almighty can do,
If with His love He befriend thee.
 
Praise to the Lord,
O let all that is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath,
Come now with praises before Him.
Let the Amen sound from His people again,
Gladly for aye we adore Him.

Closing Prayer:
You stir us so that praising you may bring us joy, because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. (Confessions by St. Augustine)

prayer, day 6

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

Opening Prayer:
Lord, I know not what I ought to ask of you.  You only know what I need.  You know me better than I know myself.  O Father, give to your child what he himself knows not how to ask.  Teach me to pray.  Pray yourself in me.
                                                                  ~Archbishop Francois Fenelon

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 84

Scripture for the Day: Philippians 1:3-11

Reading for Reflection:

There is no such thing as prayer in which "nothing is done" or "nothing happens," although there may well be a prayer in which nothing is perceived or felt or thought.
     All real interior prayer, no matter how simple it may be, requires the conversion of our whole self to God, and until this has been achieved—either actively by our own efforts or passively by the action of the Holy Spirit—we do not enter into contemplation and we cannot safely relax our efforts to establish contact with God.
     If we try to contemplate God without having turned the face of our inner self entirely in His direction, we will end up inevitably by contemplating ourselves.
(Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Praise to the Lord the Almighty

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty,
The King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him,
For He is thy health and salvation!
All ye who hear, Now to His temple draw near;
Praise Him in glad adoration.

Praise to the Lord,
Who over all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings,
Yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen
How all your longings have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?
 
Praise to the Lord,
Who doth prosper thy work and defend thee;
Surely His goodness
And mercy here daily attend thee.
Ponder anew what the Almighty can do,
If with His love He befriend thee.
 
Praise to the Lord,
O let all that is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath,
Come now with praises before Him.
Let the Amen sound from His people again,
Gladly for aye we adore Him.

Closing Prayer:
You stir us so that praising you may bring us joy, because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. (Confessions by St. Augustine)

prayer, day 5

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

Opening Prayer:
Lord, I know not what I ought to ask of you.  You only know what I need.  You know me better than I know myself.  O Father, give to your child what he himself knows not how to ask.  Teach me to pray.  Pray yourself in me.
                                                                  ~Archbishop Francois Fenelon

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 84

Scripture for the Day: Colossians 1:3-14

Reading for Reflection:

It is a life at attention that I seek, a life in which prayer has woven itself into the very fabric of my days, a life in which prayer has become a constant, as regular as breathing out and breathing in.  (Living Prayer by Robert Benson)

 

     You should have it firm in your mind that prayer is neither to impress other people nor to impress God.  It's not to be taken with a mentality of success.  The goal, in prayer, is to give oneself away.  The Lord loves us—perhaps most of all—when we fail and try again. (Clinging - The Experience of Prayer by Emilie Griffin)


Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Praise to the Lord the Almighty


Praise to the Lord, the Almighty,
The King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him,
For He is thy health and salvation!
All ye who hear, Now to His temple draw near;
Praise Him in glad adoration.

Praise to the Lord,
Who over all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings,
Yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen
How all your longings have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?
 
Praise to the Lord,
Who doth prosper thy work and defend thee;
Surely His goodness
And mercy here daily attend thee.
Ponder anew what the Almighty can do,
If with His love He befriend thee.
 
Praise to the Lord,
O let all that is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath,
Come now with praises before Him.
Let the Amen sound from His people again,
Gladly for aye we adore Him.

Closing Prayer:
You stir us so that praising you may bring us joy, because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. (Confessions by St. Augustine)

prayer, day 4

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

Opening Prayer:
Lord, I know not what I ought to ask of you.  You only know what I need.  You know me better than I know myself.  O Father, give to your child what he himself knows not how to ask.  Teach me to pray.  Pray yourself in me.
                                                                  ~Archbishop Francois Fenelon

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 84

Scripture for the Day: Psalm 131

Reading for Reflection:

Why should I spend an hour in prayer when I do nothing during that time but think of people I am angry with, people who are angry with me, books I should read and books I should write, and thousands of other silly things that happen to grab my mind for a moment?
     The answer is:  because God is greater than my mind and my heart, and what is really happening in the house of prayer is not measurable in terms of human success and failure.
     What I must do first of all is be faithful.  If I believe that the first commandment is to love God with my whole heart, mind, and soul, then I should at least be able to spend one hour a day with nobody else but God.  The question as to whether it is helpful, useful, practical, or fruitful is completely irrelevant, since the only reason to love is love itself.  Everything else is secondary.
     The remarkable thing, however, is that sitting in the presence of God for one hour each morning—day after day, week after week, month after month—in total confusion and with myriad distractions radically changes my life.  God, who loves me so much that He sent His only Son not to condemn me but to save me, does not leave me waiting in the dark too long.  I might think that each hour is useless, but after thirty, sixty, or ninety such useless hours, I gradually realize that I was not as alone as I thought; a very small, gentle voice has been speaking to me far beyond my noisy place.  So:  Be confident and trust in the Lord! (The Road to Daybreak by Henri J.M. Nouwen)


Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Praise to the Lord the Almighty


Praise to the Lord, the Almighty,
The King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him,
For He is thy health and salvation!
All ye who hear, Now to His temple draw near;
Praise Him in glad adoration.

Praise to the Lord,
Who over all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings,
Yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen
How all your longings have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?
 
Praise to the Lord,
Who doth prosper thy work and defend thee;
Surely His goodness
And mercy here daily attend thee.
Ponder anew what the Almighty can do,
If with His love He befriend thee.
 
Praise to the Lord,
O let all that is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath,
Come now with praises before Him.
Let the Amen sound from His people again,
Gladly for aye we adore Him.

Closing Prayer:
You stir us so that praising you may bring us joy, because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. (Confessions by St. Augustine)