an old clay jar

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, I am a mess.  Fortunately, you do some of your best work in the lives of messy people.  Do that in and through me.

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:7-10

Journal: In what ways are you a mess these days?  How might God use that to reveal his love and his power?  How in touch are you with the treasure you contain?  How can you become more aware of its beauty and its value?

Reflection: I am a mess!  I always have been and will be until the day I die.  But I’m okay with that because this old clay jar contains a treasure.  And I can’t embrace the treasure if I can’t embrace its container.  The jar is somehow an essential part of the equation.  

If I never carry around in my body the death of Jesus, how can the life of Jesus ever be fully revealed in my body?  I can never fully appreciate the risen-ness of Jesus if I try to escape, or discard, my brokenness and need for Jesus.  I must somehow learn to embrace this old clay jar before I can fully appreciate, and reveal, the love and power of the Risen Jesus to a world that’s in as desperate need of him as I am.      

Pray

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me never to hide my messiness or brokenness, because it only gives you the chance to reveal your love and your resurrection power.

alive 2024

Opening Prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus, that the resurrection is not just a future hope, but a current reality.  Help us to let go of what is dead and dying, so that we can be alive to the risen life you invite us into.

Scripture: Colossians 3:1-4

Journal: Do you see the resurrection as more of a future hope of a current reality?  What does living the risen life with Jesus look like for you right now?  What will you need to let go of?

Reflection: Since, then, you have raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Set your hearts on things above, not on earthly things. (Colossians 3:1-2)

Notice that Paul says, “Since you have been raised with Christ,” and not, “Since you will be raised with Christ.”  That means resurrection life is a current reality, not just a future hope.  Because of the resurrection of Jesus, he now invites us to experience resurrection life with him.  We do this by setting our hearts and minds on things above, rather than on earthly things.  We do this by focusing on what is alive within and around us, rather than what is dead and dying.  We do this by recognizing the Risen Jesus whenever and wherever he appears to us, rather than allowing mood, whim, and circumstance to keep us from being able to see him and embrace him in his risen form.  He is the only one who is able to usher us into the life of risen-ness he invites us to.  The only question is, will we take him up on it?

Pray

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to live in risen-ness with you today.

holy saturday 2024

Opening Prayer: O God, this day—Holy Saturday—is a day of waiting and resting.  It goes against everything within us, given all that has taken place over the last twenty-four hours, but it is what you ask us to do.  For it is what you, yourself, are doing.  Help us to enter into the Sabbath rest of Holy Saturday and wait patiently for Sunday to come.

Read: Luke 23:50-56

Reflect: The silence must’ve been deafening as they sat idly by.  Their world had stopped spinning; nothing could be done.  A forced solitude had taken hold of them, meant to accomplish eternal purposes.  Space needed to be made; space to reflect, space to grieve, and space to hope.  That’s what this day is all about.

There is a certain powerlessness to Holy Saturday that is really good for us.  We can’t produce, manufacture, or control resurrection; we can’t hasten it or hurry it along.  All we can do is wait.

Ask God to help you to stop.  Ask him to help you stop doing and to start being.  Ask him to help you to stop talking and to start listening.  Ask him to help you to stop initiating and to start waiting.

Pray

Closing Prayer: O Lord, there is still some emptying that needs to be done.  Give us the patience, the courage, the strength, and the trust to make room for that to happen.  Help us to learn how to wait for you during this holy day of waiting and resting.  Sunday will come soon enough, but there is still something you want to do in us first.  Prepare our hearts, Lord Jesus, for your resurrection.

i am weak

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, forgive me when I live as if your grace alone is not sufficient for me.  Forgive me when I try to get from others what only you can give.  Forgive me when I act like I’m strong when I’m really weak.  Forgive me when I act like I’ve got it all together when I’m really just a mess inside.  Help me to embrace my weaknesses rather than hiding them, for only then will I see your power and experience the sufficiency of your grace. 

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Journal: Is God’s grace alone enough for you?  Is it really?  Then why do you try and hide your weaknesses instead of embracing them?

Reflection:

i am weak

if God’s power

is best displayed

in weakness

then why do we

go to such lengths

to hide ours

from each other

doesn’t that keep

us from being able 

to see him work

Pray

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, give me the strength and the courage and the grace to live as if your grace was sufficient for me.

a pure heart

Opening Prayer: “Create in me a pure heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”  For unless you cleanse me, I will never be clean; unless you wash me, I will never be pure.

Read: Psalm 51:1-10

Reflect: In the life of the Spirit, we see through the eyes of the heart.  Therefore, if our hearts are not pure and clean, our seeing is twisted and distorted.  The mess within us skews our vision and keeps us from seeing things—our world, ourselves, and our God—as they really are.

That’s why the words of this ancient prayer are so important: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”  It’s also why Jesus tells us: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Mt. 5:8) For only when our hearts are pure, will our eyes be clear enough to see him accurately.

Thus, a daily purifying is necessary.  “Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean; wash me and I will be whiter than snow.”  Each day we must confess and repent.  Each day we must turn from our sinful, broken, and self-consumed ways of being and seeing, and ask God, once again, to create in us a pure heart.  He is the only one who can do that.  We can’t clean it up ourselves.  God is the only one who can rid us of all that distorts, hinders, and deforms us, so that we can be made clean, whole, and new.

Pray

Closing Prayer: “Cleanse me with hyssop, O God, and I will be clean; wash me and I will be whiter than snow.”

it's time

Opening Prayer: O God, what will you do to conquer the fearful hardness of our hearts?  Lord, you must give us new hearts, tender hearts, sensitive hearts, to replace hearts that are made of marble and of bronze.  You must give us your own Heart, Jesus.  Come, lovable Heart of Jesus.  Place your Heart deep in the center of our hearts and enkindle in each heart a flame of love as strong, as great, as the sum of all the reasons that I have for loving you.  O holy Heart of Jesus, dwell hidden in my heart, so that I may live only in you and only for you, so that, in the end, I may live with you eternally in heaven.  Amen. ~St. Claude La Colombière

Scripture: Mark 1:15-16

Journal: What does “It’s time” mean to you right now?  What is God calling you to?  What is your response?  What does repent and believe look like for you these days?

Reflection: “The time has come.  The kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent and believe the good news.” (Mark 1:15)

O God, I sense that you are calling me deeper and deeper into the heart of Jesus these days, to become more and more like him.  I’m not exactly sure what I’ve been waiting for, but it’s time!  It’s time to surrender to you in a whole new/deeper way.  It’s time to know your love and affection at levels I’ve only dreamt about.  It’s time to take another step toward you and away from me.  Give me the strength and the courage and the grace to do so.  Help me, O Lord, to not delay.  It’s time!

Pray

Closing Prayer: Forgive me, O Lord, that my life is still mostly about me rather than about you.  It’s time to change that.  It’s time to truly repent and believe the good news.  Help me to take that step. 

a severe companion

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, forgive me when I resist, or run away from, sharing in your sufferings.  If it was through your sufferings that you were “made perfect” (Heb. 2:10), why would I expect it to be any different for me?  Help me to be willing to do, or to go through, whatever it takes to become more like you.

Scripture: Philippians 3:10-11

Journal: What does it do within you to see pain and anguish as a severe companion, which God uses to make you more like himself?

Reflection: “I am still quite anxious; I still have real attacks of anguish and sleeping is still a real problem. But I am quite, quite aware that this pain is given to me to purify my heart, to deepen my love for Jesus and to give Him every inch of my being. Whereas in the past the anguish seemed quite disruptive and often paralyzing, now I experience it a little more as a severe companion who wants to show me the narrow road. Once I have found that road and walk safely on it, the anguish might leave me, but right now I am trying simply to accept what the Lord gives me and trust that He knows when, how and where to give me new peace and new joy.” ―Love, Henri by Henri Nouwen

Pray

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for the severe companion of suffering and anguish; they form and mold me like nothing else can.  Give me the strength and the courage and the grace to be willing to do, or to endure, whatever it takes in order to become more like you.