seek

Opening Prayer:  O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you. (Psalm 63:1)

Scripture: Psalm 63:1, Matthew 6:33

Journal: What are you really seeking these days?  How are you seeking God for what it can do for you, rather than seeking him for who he is?

Reflection:  Why do you seek God?  No, really?  What is the real reason?  Go ahead, dig down beneath all of the surface answers and really ask yourself that question.  It is an incredibly difficult one to answer—or at least to answer honestly—because the reality is that we seek so many things other than God, or at least under the guise of seeking God. 

     We seek notoriety, we seek success, we seek significance.  We seek answers, we seek relief, we seek control.  We seek attention, we seek applause, we seek affirmation.  All of which are not God.  Even in ministry we subtly seek things other than God, in the name of seeking God.  We seek results, we seek impact, we seek something to pass along to others, etc.  And when we seek these things, it is not ultimately God that we seek.

     “O God, you are my God,” David writes, “Earnestly I seek YOU.”  God is the end, not merely a means to an end.  The reason we seek God is simply because he is God, and he is worthy of being sought.  As C.S. Lewis once said, “If you are seeking God not as the end, but a means to an end, you are not seeking him at all.”  King David knew this.  He knew how easy it was for us to get off track.  He knew how easily we could be distracted from seeking God by seeking the gifts of God.  So he brought us back to the bottom line: Life with God is about seeking God—period.  Only when we get to the point of seeking him first, will the other things be added.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O my God, teach me to seek you, for I cannot seek you unless you teach me, or find you unless you show yourself to me.  Let me seek you in my desire, and desire you in my seeking.  Let me find you by loving you, let me love you when I find you.  ~St. Anselm of Canterbury

enemies

Opening Prayer: To you, O Lord. I lift up my soul; in you I trust, O my God.  Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. (Psalm 25:1-2)

Scripture: Psalm 25:1-10

Journal: Who or what are the most regular enemies of your heart and soul?  How do you fight them?  How often do you triumph over them?

Reflection:  How often do you feel like your enemies triumph over you?  Sadly, for me it seems like a daily affair.  Somehow, in the midst of the chaos and busyness and happenings of any given day, I lose focus, I let my guard down, and before I know it I am at the mercy of my enemies—without even recognizing it.  Anxiety, insecurity, and fear have me by the throat and I find myself reacting to them in the same old, dysfunctional ways I have always reacted to them.  It is amazing how the same scenario repeats itself over and over and over again.  You’d think that at some point I’d learn.

     I think that’s where the words to this ancient prayer come in.  They help me to be on guard and aware of the things and the situations—and even the people—that bring out the worst in me; that make me the worst version of myself.  They help me to call these dark emotions and patterns exactly what they are—enemies.  And once I am finally able to recognize that they are indeed enemies—and name them—I can finally begin fight them in some fruitful way.  For it is almost impossible to fight an enemy that you have not named, and that you cannot see.  They will continue to kick your butt day after day.  

     But once they are identified, and named, they tend to lose some of their power over us.  They can be fought, and eventually triumphed over.  For God takes over from there.  He is the one who fights these battle for us.  All we have to do is constantly lift our souls to him and put our trust in him.  He will fight our battles for us, once we finally realize that it is indeed a battle we are fighting.  He is the only one who can give us the victory we so deeply long for. 

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O my Strength, I will watch for you, for you, O God, are my fortress. My God in his steadfast love will meet me; God will let me look in triumph on my enemies. (Psalm 59:9-10, ESV)

fire

Opening Prayer: Set a fire down in my soul that I can’t contain, that I can’t control.  I want more of you God.  I want more of your God. ~Will Reagan

Scripture: Acts 2:1-21

Journal: How and where is the fire of God’s Spirit burning within you these days?  What nurtures that fire?  What hinders it?

Reflection:

     fire

burning within

consuming my heart

with the heat of

your great affection

transforming everything

in his holy path

destroying the old

and the worn

and the false

leaving only 

the new

and the true

the me you dreamt

from the beginning

working your will

empowering and engaging

restoring and refining

bringing a kingdom

that will never end

such is your Spirit

the fire of God

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Burn, O Spirit of the Living God, consume my heart and soul.  Refine and renew and transform this life of mine into all you desire it to be.  For only then will I burn with a passion and a zeal that will impact the world around me.  No one can contain the fires of your Spirit, O Lord, so flame on.  Transform our lives and our world with the heat of your great affection.  Amen.

still and silent

Opening Prayer: O Lord, let me never be presumptuous.  Let me never begin my prayers with words rather than silence.  Let me be still and silent before you, before I dare utter a word in your presence.  Let me listen, in order that I might speak.  Amen.

Scripture: Psalm 46:10

Journal: Where does listening and being still fit into your prayer life?  Where should it fit into your prayer life?

Reflection: Presumptuous prayer speaks to God without first listening to him.  It obsessively, anxiously, or pretentiously multiplies human words to God, but with, at best, a distracted, indifferent, or fitful interest in God’s words to us.  But God speaks to us before we speak to him.  If we pray without listening, we pray out of context. (Answering God by Eugene Peterson)

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord, I know not what I ought to ask of Thee; Thou only knowest what I need; Thou lovest me better than I know how to love myself. O Father! Give to Thy child that which he himself knows not how to ask. I dare not ask either for crosses or consolations; I simply present myself before Thee, I open my heart to Thee. Behold my needs which I know not myself; see and do according to Thy tender mercy. Smite, or heal; depress me, or raise me up; I adore all Thy purposes without knowing them; I am silent; I offer myself in sacrifice; I yield myself to Thee; I would have no other desire than to accomplish Thy will. Teach me to pray. Pray Thyself in me. ~Francois Fenelon

kiss

Opening Prayer: I feel your love as you hold me to your sacred heart, my beloved Jesus, my God, my Master, but I feel, too, the need I have of your tenderness, and your caress because of my infinite weakness. ~Charles de Foucauld

Scripture:  Song of Songs 1:2

Journal: What is God’s invitation to you today?  How is he drawing you into more and more intimacy with himself?

Reflection: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth—for your love is more delightful than wine.” 

"You have seen the way we must follow, the order of procedure.  First we cast ourselves at his feet, we 'kneel before the Lord, our maker,' deploring the evil we have done.  Then we reach out for the hand that will lift us up, that will steady our trembling knees.  And finally, when we shall have obtained these favors through many prayers and tears, we humbly dare to raise our eyes to his mouth, so divinely beautiful, not merely to gaze upon, but--I say with fear and trembling--to receive his kiss; for Christ the Lord is a Spirit before our face.  And we who are joined to him in a holy kiss become, at his good pleasure, one spirit with him." (On the Song of Songs by Bernard of Clairvaux)

Through the centuries the saints and the poets who came before us understood something about God that most of us are only beginning to discover: At his core, God is a lover.  For we were created out of the overflow of Divine Love, in order to experience the very love that God had within himself—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  And even after we had turned away and pursued other lovers, God did not give up on us, but came to earth in pursuit of his beloved.  Even to the point of giving himself, in the person of Jesus, so that he might redeem us, win back our hearts, and be reunited with us in love once again.  In order that we might live all of our days on earth in loving union with him and spend eternity basking in the warmth of his Great Affection.  For what God wants more than anything is loving union with us—his beloved.  And he will stop at nothing in order to make that a possibility. 

Prayer

Closing Prayer:

O living flame of love

That tenderly wounds my soul

In its deepest center!  Since

Now you are not oppressive,

Now Consummate! If it be your will:

Tear through the veil of this sweet encounter!

O sweet cautery,

O delightful wound!

O gentle hand!  O delicate touch

That tastes of eternal life

And pays every debt!

In killing you changed death into life.

O lamps of fire!

In whose splendors

The deep caverns of feeling,

Once obscure and blind,

Now give forth, so rarely, so exquisitely,

Both warmth and light to their beloved.

How gently and lovingly

You wake in my heart,

Where in secret you dwell alone;

And in your sweet breathing,

Filled with good and glory,

How tenderly you swell my heart with love.

—John of the Cross

listen

Opening Prayer: Speak, O Lord, for your servant is listening.

Scripture: I Samuel 3:1-21

Journal: How do you listen to God?  What has he said to you lately?

Reflection:

how to listen

butt in seat
turn off phone
quiet the noise
come to stillness
pay attention
open ears
wait
wait
wait

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Speak, O Lord, for your servant is listening.

must

Opening Prayer: My God, I wish to give myself to thee.  Give me the courage to do so. ~Francois Fenelon

Scripture: 1 Kings 8:54-61

Journal: What are your “musts” these days?  What are God’s “musts” for you?

Reflection: We who have heard the call of our God to a life of entire consecration and perfect trust, must do differently from all this.  We must come out from the world and be separate, and must not be conformed to it in our characters or in our lives.  We must set our affections on heavenly things and not on earthly ones, and must seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, surrendering everything that would interfere with this.  We must walk through the world as Christ walked.  We must have the mind that was in Him.  As pilgrims and strangers, we must abstain from lusts of the flesh that war against the soul.  As good soldiers of Christ, we must disentangle ourselves from the affairs of this life as far as possible, that we may please Him who hath chosen us to be soldiers.  We must abstain from all appearance of evil.  We must be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ’s sake, hath forgiven us.  We must not resent injuries of unkindness, but must return good for evil, and turn the other cheek to the hand that smites us.  We must take always the lowest place among our fellow-men; and seek not our own honor, but the honor of others.  We must be gentle and meek and yielding, not standing up for our own rights but for the rights of others.  We must do all that we do for the glory of God.  And, to sum it all up, since He who hath called us is holy, so must we be holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, “Be ye holy, for I am holy.” (The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life by Hannah Whitall Smith)

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord, I am yours; I do yield myself up entirely to you, and I believe that you do take me.  I leave myself with you.  Work in me all the good pleasure of your will, and I will only lie still in your hands and trust you.  Amen. (The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life by Hannah Whitall Smith)