overflow

Opening Prayer: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows.  Thank you, O Shepherd of my soul.  Amen.

Scripture: Psalm 23:5

Journal: What is overflowing from your life these days?  What would it look like if you were to overflow with the life and love of God?  How can that happen?

Reflection: Life was intended to be the result of overflow.  The work of God must always start within us before it can ever come through us in any meaningful way.  Unless we are overflowing with his life and his love, we will never have anything of substance and depth and authenticity to offer those around us. 

Therefore, we must pay careful attention to the work God is doing inside us.  We must give it the time and space it needs to grow and thrive and flourish.  We must make sure to nurture and tend and care for it faithfully and tenderly.  God desires that we overflow with his life and his love into a broken and hurting world that is desperate need for him.  But it all starts with what he is doing within us.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask of imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!  Amen. (Ephesians 3:20)

his glorious riches

Opening Prayer: Forgive us, O Lord, for operating like we don’t need you.  Forgive us when our pride and self-sufficiency get in the way of what you are trying to do.  Forgive us for relying on ourselves, and our own gifts and abilities, rather than relying on you.  Help us to learn what it means to live and to love out of your glorious riches.  Through Christ we pray.  Amen.

Scripture: Ephesians 3:16

Journal: Do you typically live life out of his glorious riches, or out of your own strength, abilities, and giftedness?  What would it look like to live out of his glorious riches?

Reflection: “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being.”(Eph. 3:16) Out of his glorious riches.  How often do really I live my life out of his glorious riches?  Truth be told, not very often, I’m afraid.  Most of the time I tend to live out of my own strengths, gifts, and abilities.  God offers me his glorious riches and yet I still try to put my head down and muscle through in my own strength.  Is it because I overestimate my own abilities, or because I underestimate his?  Who knows, maybe it’s a sad combination of the two.   

The only time I tend to rely on his glorious riches is when I have no other choice, when I have reached the end of my rope.  It makes me wonder why it takes me so long to realize that there’s a better way to live.  Why do I make it my last resort instead of my normal reality?  Wouldn’t it be easier if I just relied on his glorious riches to begin with?

Maybe that’s why Paul prayed this prayer for the church at Ephesus.  He knew all too well how tempting it was to try and rely on his own resources, rather than on God’s.  He knew that there are times when relying on our own strengths, gifts, and abilities can actually become an obstacle to what he’s trying to do, rather than a help.

O Lord, help us learn what it means to live out of your glorious riches, rather than our own.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O Lord, I really do believe that I need you.  Help me to live like it.  Amen.

confession

Opening Prayer: Thank you, O Lord, that you see the real me, no matter how hard I might try to hide it.  Thank you that you invite me to live my life openly and honestly before you.  Help me to have the courage to do so.  Lord, have mercy.  Amen. 

Scripture: Psalm 32:3-5

Journal: In what ways are you not living truly and openly before yourself, your God, and your world?  What would it look like to be real?  How can the practice of confession help that process?

Reflection: “When I kept silent my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.  For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.  Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.  I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’—and you forgave the guilt of my sin.” (Psalm 32:3-5)

Not only is there a freedom and a life that is found through confession, but there is also a deep sense of humility; which, although hard, is a very good thing.  We can never have too much humility.  It creates such fertile soil within and among us for the Spirit to move and to work and to act. 

Confession brings us face-to-face with who we really are, much to our dismay.  It cuts through all the bullshit; all the ways we try to manage and control how others see us.  It forces us to be real.  It takes us all the way down to the ground.  It enables others see our mess, our ugliness, and our total dependence on God, which is not the easiest or the most comfortable thing in the world, but is a process that is essential to life-giving community.

When we refuse to confess, we lock ourselves up in the prison of the make-believe.  A place where we can’t truly get to know people and they can’t get to know the real us.  Thus, we end up living in loneliness and hypocrisy, which is no life at all.

God wants so much more for us than that.  He wants peace and joy and life and love—all of which is impossible if we are not living truly and openly with him, with ourselves, and with others.  That is the beautiful gift that confession offers, if we are brave enough to go there.

Prayer

Closing Prayer:  Here I am, O Lord, all of me—no covering, no posturing, and no pretense.  Just the real me, standing naked and vulnerable before you.  And, as best I know how, I give all of myself to you—the good the bad and the ugly.  Have mercy on me, O Lord.  Amen. 

keeping it real

Opening Prayer: Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer)

Scripture: Psalm 32:1-11

Journal: Who are you real with these days?  Who knows what’s really going on within you?  What would it look like to live in such a way that your community is able to fully know and fully love you?  Will you make a commitment to live that way?

Reflection: “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.  I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’—and you forgave the guilt of my sin.” (Psalm 32:5) It is amazing what living openly and honestly with ourselves, our God, and one another will do for us, if we are courageous enough to do it.  That’s why confession is so important; it does not lead to guilt and shame, but to freedom and joy.

But still we hide.  We hide our sin, we fail to acknowledge our weakness, and we cover up our flaws and our failures.  And, thus, we end up alone.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer said it so well: “Pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner.  So everyone must conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship.  We dare not be sinners.  Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous.  So we remain alone in our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy.  The fact is that we are sinners!”  We live as prisoners in our own lives, not as those who have been redeemed and set free.  As one of my good friends once said: “God can’t help fake people, only real ones.”

So we must somehow learn to live real lives before ourselves, before one another, and before our God.  We must be willing to live from the truth of our inner being, whatever it may be.  We must be brave enough to put our real selves out there on a regular basis, and let our God and our friends get their hands, and their hearts, involved in our mess.  That is the only way it can ever be redeemed and transformed.  We must learn to keep it real.  That’s what confession is all about.  It is meant to help redeem and restore us.  It is meant to lead us to joy and freedom:  “Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous; sing, all you who are upright in heart!”  So let’s start today! 

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Help me, O Lord, to live a real life today, not a fake one.  Give me the strength and the grace and the courage to come out of hiding and live openly and honestly with you, with myself, and with my community.  For only then can I live in the joy and the freedom you created me for.  Amen.

 

a prayer to care

Opening Prayer:  “Show me you ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.” (Psalm 25:4-5)

Scripture: Psalm 25:4-7

Journal: What do you care too much about?  How does that impact the way you live?  What would it look like to care about the things God cares most about?  How would that change the way you live?

Reflection:  Forgive me, O Lord, for the things I care too much about—and the things I don’t.  Forgive me that I’m more concerned with being right than I am with being loving, I’m more concerned with being comfortable than I am with being compassionate, I’m more concerned with being liked than I am with being genuine, and I’m more concerned with my kingdom than I am with yours.  Lord, have mercy!

Help me to totally surrender myself to you, so that I will not be consumed with the petty and the passing, but will only care about the things that matter most to you. 

“Show me you ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.  Remember, O Lord, your great mercy and love, for they are from old.  Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good, O Lord.” (Psalm 25:4-7)

Prayer

Closing Prayer:  “Remember, O Lord, your great mercy and love, for they are from old.  Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good, O Lord.” (Psalm 25:6-7)

bigger

Opening Prayer: O Lord, help me to magnify you in all that I do, think, and say.  For this life is about you, not about me.  Amen.

Scripture: Luke 1:46-48

Journal: Who, or what, are you magnifying these days?  What would it look like to magnify the Lord?

Reflection: “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. (Luke 1:46-48) Life with God is about making him big, not vice versa.  It is our job to magnify him, not ourselves.  The Greek word used here is megalynō, which means to make great.  In contrast to the word Mary uses for herself, tapeinōsis, which means to make low.  Thus, our role is to make him bigger, while making ourselves smaller, to lift him high, while making ourselves low.  For this life is not about us, but about him.  It is about his glory, not our own.  We cannot magnify him, if we are constantly trying to magnify ourselves.  Mary realized that.  O Lord, help me to realize it as well.

Prayer

Closing Prayer:  I am here to make you big, not myself.  O Lord, help me to remember that.  Amen.

making all things new

Opening Prayer:  Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you are making all things new—even me.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Scripture: Revelation 21:1-5

Journal:  How is Jesus making you new these days?

Reflection:  I don’t know where I came up with the idea that Jesus making all things new would happen suddenly and instantaneously in my life, but I have found that, more often than not, the kind of new I experience, this side of the new heavens and the new earth, comes about much more slowly.  In fact, it is a new that Jesus has been making for a long, long time.  Notice that he doesn’t say, “I will make all things new,” or even, “I have made all things new,” he says, “I am making all things new.”  In fact, it is something that is going on even as we speak.  Quite possibly, since the very moment when things went terribly awry in the beginning, Jesus has been at work, making all things new again, and will continue for all eternity.

He is even making us new.  The problem is that what we expect to be sudden and instantaneous, most likely will occur over time, with a good bit of struggle, the same way a caterpillar is transformed into a butterfly.  The struggle and the pain and the turmoil is a necessary part of the transformation.  It is not a short and easy process, but still a good and beautiful one.  And it is likely to be so slow that we think nothing is going on, unless we pay careful attention.

So let us look for the new that Jesus is making, both within and around us.  It is there; be it ever so small and subtle at times.  Look hard, because when you finally see the tiny hints of new breaking through the soil of your soul, you will know for sure that God is up to something good and beautiful.  He, indeed, is making all things new.  Even you.  Thanks be to God!

Prayer

Closing Prayer:  Help me see, Lord Jesus, the new you are making, both within and around me, so that I may fully receive and enjoy what you are up to.  Amen.