assault

Opening Prayer: How long will you assault a man?  Would all of you throw him down—this leaning wall, this tottering fence?  They fully intend to topple him from his lofty place; they take delight in lies.  With their mouths they bless but in their hearts they curse.  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 62:3-6, NIV)

Scripture: Psalm 62:3-6

Journal: How are you being assaulted today?  What lies are you believing about yourself, about your world, and about your God?  What effect are these lies having on your soul?  How will you remind yourself of the truth?  How will you find rest in God alone?

Reflection: In order to live the spiritual life we must constantly disrupt our old patterns and habits—and the voices that feed them—and open our ears and our hearts to the Voice of the One who calls us Beloved.  

     This is not an easy task, especially when our enemy is constantly barraging us with a message that is quite opposite.  He would have us believe that we are not Beloved at all, but merely a leaning wall and a tottering fence.  You see, his desire is to topple us from our lofty place, to snatch us away from the safety and security of the strong and loving embrace of our God.  Therefore, day and night, he continues his assault.  

     But we are not defenseless in this battle.  We have the truth on our side, and we have the Spirit within us to constantly remind us of that truth.  As Jesus so beautifully reminded us, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32)  And the truth is that our strong and loving God has given us our belovedness and it can never be taken away.  Therefore, we can stand firm in the truth, and not allow ourselves to be overcome and overwhelmed by the lies of the enemy.  It doesn’t mean that the assaults will go away, but it does mean that we can stand up under them.  In fact, we can even find rest in God—alone.

     I think that’s one of the reasons I love this psalm so much; it is a declaration of the truth.  We can—in God alone—be assaulted, yet at rest.  Fear and anxiety can continue to barrage us, but we can stand unshaken in him.  It is not merely wishful thinking, but a declaration of truth—one that we need to remind ourselves of continuously.  One that we need to pray and claim out loud as often as we can: “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone!”  It is a refusal to allow the voice of the enemy to determine the state of our hearts and minds.  So fight back.  Don’t just stand there and allow yourself to be assaulted.  Claim the truth and be set free. 

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Strong and loving God, I claim my rest in you this day.  Hold me fast in your loving embrace that I might not believe—and be battered by—the voices of the enemy.  I am not a leaning wall.  I am not a tottering fence.  I am your Beloved.  In you alone is the rest and the peace and the love and the security that I most deeply long for. You alone are my rock, my salvation, my fortress, and my refuge.  I find my rest in you this day.  Amen.

i see you

Opening Prayer: Lord God, thank you that you always see me through the eyes of Jesus—through the eyes of love.  Help me to see myself that way.  Only then will I be able to see others that way as well.  Lord, have mercy.  Amen.

Scripture: Isaiah 62:5

Journal:  How do you think God sees you?  What goes on in his heart when he thinks about you?  How do you need to be seen by him these days?  What do you think he wants to tell you?  What would it mean if you could really believe that he rejoices over you the way a bridegroom rejoices over his bride?

Reflection:

i see you

there you go again

down that old familiar road

listening to the voices

telling you you’re not enough

lost inside yourself again

unable to find your way out

of the lies that you believe

about who you really are.

when will you let me show you

when will you let me tell you

when will you finally believe the truth

that there’s nothing in my heart but love

when i see you

i see you when you’re hiding

i see you when you’re fighting

i see you when you’re doubting

i see the mess inside

i see you when you’re playing a part 

i see you when you’re trying so hard

to make everyone believe 

that there’s something in you

worth loving

when will you let me show you

when will you let me tell you

when will you finally believe the truth

that there’s nothing in my heart but love

when i see you

i see you when you’re tired

i see you when you’re worn out

from trying to be everything to everyone

i see the you that i made you to be

a beautiful expression of my own heart

and i’m just wanting for the chance

to remind you of who that is

when will you let me show you

when will you let me tell you

when will you finally believe the truth

that there’s nothing in my heart but love

when i see you

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, my Heavenly Bridegroom, help me to see the love that is in your eyes—and heart—for me today.  For only then will I be able to believe that it’s true.  And only then will I be able to love others the way you made me to love them.  Amen.

weak

Opening Prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus, that your grace is sufficient for me.  Help me to fully learn what that means, and then help me to live accordingly.  Amen.

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Journal: What would it look like in your life to stop trying to be strong and to embrace weakness?  How would this give God the opportunity to be strong in and through you?  

Reflection: It is amazing to me, as I look back on my life, how much time and energy I have invested in trying to appear strong.  I don’t know, maybe it is my insecurity, the deep-seated fear that I am not strong, that actually drives me in this direction.  Or maybe it is my immense need for affirmation, the overwhelming desire that lives within me for others to at least think that I’m strong, even if I know the truth.  Who knows?  Whatever the case, a good bit of my life has been lived in an effort to prove to myself and my world that I am strong—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.  But it is a charade that I cannot possibly keep up.

     I guess that’s why these verses scare me to death.  I do not like weakness.  In particular, I do not like my weakness.  Thus, much of my life has been lived with the commitment to never let anyone see me as weak.  Therefore, I only tend to operate in my areas of strength.  The problem is that when I do that I miss out completely on the ability to fully experience the power of God and the sufficiency of his grace.  If I am taking up all the room, there is no room for him to move and to act.  If I am sufficient, I never need him to be.  And everyone thinks I’m awesome in the process.

     But what a life that leads to—always trying to prove my own sufficiency so I will never really be in need of his.  Trying to prove that I am enough, while, at the same time, always knowing at my core that I am really not.  It is absolutely exhausting.  But I would rather be exhausted, it seems, than admit that I am weak, that I am in need of God’s strength, and that my only sufficiency lies in the sufficiency of his grace alone.

     So I am trying to embrace—rather than resist, ignore, or deny—my weakness these days.  After all, it is the only avenue to experiencing God’s power and strength.  For in God’s economy, it is only when I am weak that I am strong.  Kind of makes me wonder why I spend so much time and energy trying to convince myself and my world otherwise.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, I am so tired of trying to prove that I’m strong, when I know otherwise.  I am weak.  And that weakness is actually the path to life.  It is the way I experience your power and your love and your strength.  Help me, Lord Jesus, to learn how to embrace my weakness, that one day I might actually learn what it means to live by your strength.  Amen.

what was lost

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, forgive me when I reduce the work of the cross to just how it affects me personally—it is so much bigger and more beautiful than that!  For your work on the cross doesn’t just take away my punishment, but also restores and renews and redeems all things.  It recaptures all things and all people, and remakes them into exactly who and what they were intended to be when you first dreamt them into being.  It makes all things new.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.  

Scripture: Luke 19:1-9

Journal: How has Jesus come to seek and save you?  How has that taken shape in your life?  How has Jesus come to seek and save all things, and to restore them back into the fearful and wonderful creations they were intended to be?  How do you see that taking shape around you?  How can you contribute to that?  What things do you still long to see made new?

Reflection: I don’t know about you, but I have a tendency, at times, to reduce the work of Jesus to “he took away my punishment.”  Which is great, and certainly true, but falls far short of the depth and the beauty of what really happened at the cross.  For Jesus didn’t just come to take away my punishment—he didn’t just come to save those who were lost—but he also came to restore and redeem all things; to seek and save what was lost at the fall.  All of the people and the things and the relationships that were broken and marred and distorted and crippled and disfigured by the entry of sin into the world, will one day be renewed and restored to their creation intent by the One who dreamt them into being.  In other words, Jesus came to reverse the effects of the fall.

     The salvation that came to the house of Zacchaeus that day wasn’t merely about punishment being taken away, but about things—and people—becoming who and what they were intended to be.  The restoration of all that was taken away by the fall.  Relationships were made right once again.  Healing and wholeness had re-entered the picture—financially, socially, and spiritually.  All a hint and a foretaste of life as it was intended to be.  Thanks be to God!

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus, for all you accomplished through the cross, and all that still will be accomplished in our lives and in our world, until we are with you again in Paradise.  O heavenly day!  Amen.

as he went along

Opening Prayer: Help me, Lord Jesus to see those who are in my path as I go about my day today.  They desperately need to be seen and loved.  Help me to do just that.  Help me to enter in to what you are doing within and around me today.  Amen.

Scripture: John 9:1-7

Journal: Who and what is God calling you to today?  What if he’s just calling you to be more present and attentive to where you are and to who crosses your path?  What would that look like today?  How will you be more present and available to God during the course of your day?  How will you really see people?  How will you see what God is doing in and around you so you can join in to it? 

Reflection: “As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth.” (John 9:1)

     Most of us, it seems, like to imagine that following Jesus means we are called to go to exotic places and do heroic things.  And while that might be true for some, it is more likely that our call contains more humble beginnings.  In fact, it starts right where we are, with whoever is in front of us at the moment.

     The truth is that you and I will go places today, and we will see people as we go.  The question is: Will we really see them?  Or will we merely pass them by in our haste to get to the next thing?  Jesus saw people.  And he saw them as he went.  It didn’t take an exotic location or an important person to get his attention.  He wasn’t, it seems, out to do heroic things.  He was more concerned with simply showing up and loving whoever was in front of him at the moment.  

     We would be wise to do the same.  For all of ministry starts where we are.  We are sent first to Jerusalem, then Judea, then Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)  So let us pay great attention, not to our “to do” list, but to where we are going and to who will be there as we go.  Stop.  Look.  Listen.  Engage.  Ask God what he is up to and join in to that.

     “As you go, see people.  Really see them.  They are dying for that.  And as you see them, look for what I am doing within and around them.  Be aware of where I am already at work and join me.  What could be more heroic than that?”  

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to see as you see today, that I may join you in the work your Father sent us to do.  Amen.

it's not about me

Opening Prayer:  It’s not about me.  It’s not about me.  It’s not about me.  It’s not about me.  It’s not about me.  It’s not about me.  It’s not about me.  It’s not about me.  It’s not about me.  It’s not about me.  It’s not about me.  It’s not about me.  It’s not about me.  It’s not about me.  It’s not about me.  It’s not about me.  It’s not about me.  It’s not about me.  It’s not about me.  Amen.

Scripture: Ezekiel 36:22-32

Journal: How do you try to make your own name great throughout the course of a day or week?  What would it look like to make God’s name great instead?  What does it look like to make life about God instead of about yourself?  How will you do that today?

Reflection: It is so easy in this life to get caught up in making a name for ourselves.  I, fact, if we are not careful, we can easily fall into the trap of believing that the life we live here on earth is more about us than it is about God.  Nothing, however, could be further from the truth.  It is not, ultimately, for our sakes—or our name—that God does any of these amazing things within and among us, but for the sake of his name.  To show who he is.  His works are meant to testify to his character and his power and his love.  We are just the fortunate recipients of his grace, the adoring objects of his love, the unworthy vessels of his power.  When we are being all that he created us to be, we are showing all of creation who he really is and what he is like.  In other words, we are making his name great.  Thus, the way we make his name great is to be all he made us to be.  But it is for his glory and his name, not our own.  It is easy to forget that. 

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Remind me, O Lord, that this life is about making your name great, not my own.  Amen.

nothing

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you that you made yourself nothing, that we might become something in you.  Give us the strength and the courage to follow your example.  Amen.

Scripture: Philippians 2:1-11

Journal: How are you trying to make yourself something these days?  What would it look like to make yourself nothing?  Will you?

Reflection: Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing. . . ." (Philippians 2:5-7, NIV)

When I try to make myself something, I am no longer following the Jesus who "made himself nothing" and calls me to do the same.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Jesus, the life you call us to is so completely opposite from the life the world tries to draw us into.  The world says climb up, while you say journey downward.  The world says be the greatest, while you say be the least.  The world says ascend to the heights, while you say descend to the depths.  The world says be something, while you say make yourself nothing.  Lord Jesus, give us the grace to follow you, wherever you may lead.  Amen.