they didn't realize

Opening Prayer: Get my attention this day, Lord Jesus, otherwise I am likely to leave you on the shore of my life unrecognized.

Scripture: John 21:4

Journal: What is God trying to say to you through this short verse today?  How are you like the disciples?

Reflection: “Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.” (John 21:4)

Apparently, it was difficult to recognize the risen Christ, just ask Peter and John, or Mary, or the travelers on the road to Emmaus.  I wonder why that was.  Was it something about him or something about them that kept the realization from happening?  Or maybe it was just the situation.  Maybe it was the early morning sunlight, or their preoccupation with trying to haul in a catch of fish, or their frustration with not being able to do so.  Maybe it was the grief and sadness and confusion of having lost their dear friend and teacher and leader.  After all, Mary came to the tomb looking for a dead Jesus, and what she found was a Jesus more alive than he had ever been.  That would have been a surprise to anyone. 

The real question is not about them but about me.  How many times in my life have I failed to realize it was Jesus?  After all, he has been there all along, but I have failed to recognize it.  And where am I currently failing to recognize that it is Jesus?  Where and how is he standing on the shore of my life, just waiting for me to finally realize that it is him?

Pray

Closing Prayer: Give me eyes to see you, Lord Jesus, and a heart to recognize you in the midst of the events and interactions and conversations of my day.

good friday: the one who stayed

Opening Prayer: On this Good Friday, Lord Jesus, help me to stay at the foot of the cross and watch and listen to all that you have for me there.  Help me look deeply into your eyes of love and be forever changed. 

Scripture: John 19:28-37

Journal: Why do you think John stayed at the foot of the cross why all of the others scattered?  Will you stay at the foot of the cross today?  Will you look into the battered face of Love and let it seize your heart and change your life?  What does it look like for you to stay with him?

Reflection: “The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true.  He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. (John 19:35)

O John, why did you stay?  Why did you stay to the bitter end?  Why did you stay until his dying breath, when all the others had fled?  Was it because of love?  Was it because you knew that love is stronger than fear?  Was it because you knew that perfect love casts out fear?

Teach me how to stay as well.  Teach me how to believe in love.  Teach me how to dwell in the house of love rather than the house of fear.  Teach me to look deeply into the eyes of Love and glean all that there is to glean from its delicious and delightful fruit.  Teach me to stand when I’m tempted to run away, teach me to stop when I am always on the go, teach me to listen when I am constantly speaking, and teach me to believe that perfect love always has ahold of me even when I am filled with fear and doubt.  Only then will I know what you know.  Only then will I know that I, too, am the disciple whom Jesus loved.

Pray

Closing Prayer: “Fix your eyes on the Crucified and nothing else will be of much importance to you.  If his Majesty revealed his love to us by doing and suffering such amazing things, how can you expect to please him by words alone.” ~St. Teresa of Avila

a prayer for palm sunday

Loving God, on this day we remember that going up to Jerusalem cost Jesus his very life.  So we come before you, conscious of the way religious words and holy phrases can slip so easily from our lazy lips and our hardened hearts.  What do we really know of your mountainous truth, your rock-hard integrity, the depth of your suffering for love of us all?  Forgive us for the shallowness of our faith and the timidity of our following: forgive us for the ready excuses we make for going our own way and claiming it as yours.

Turn us round again, we pray, by your Holy Spirit, active within us and among us.  Show us how to be open again to your faithfulness and to your freedom, that we may live new lives and be again bearers of the seeds of the realm of Jesus.

—Going up to Jerusalem by John Harvey

where is your hope?

Opening Prayer: “O Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.” (Ps. 131:3)

Scripture: Psalm 131:1-3

Journal: Where is your hope?  What would it look like to put your hope in the Lord?  How do you know whether or not you are putting your hope in the Lord?

Reflection: “O Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore.” (Ps. 131:3) Where is your hope?  Who, or what, do you really put your hope in?  If you look at your life, it will give you a pretty good idea of the answer to that question.  Your actions will always show you where your hope really lies. 

Waiting for the Lord is one surefire way to tell.  Waiting for the Lord shows us where our hope really lies.  If we are willing and able to wait for the Lord, it shows that our hope is really in him, and if we are always charging ahead, it shows that our hope is really in ourselves. 

Pray

Closing Prayer: We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.  In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. (Psalm 33:20-21)

wait in hope

Opening Prayer: We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.  In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. (Psalm 33:20-21)

Scripture: Romans 8:18-25

Journal: What do you hope for?  How do you think those things will come about?  What does it mean to put your hope in the Lord?  How is he asking you to wait patiently?

Reflection: “But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” (Rom. 8:25) There is an intimate connection between hoping and waiting.  Until we fully recognize and acknowledge that the things we most deeply long for—like healing, wholeness, freedom, and peace—cannot be accomplished by our own power, gifts, and efforts, we will always be frustrated.  When we long for things that only God can bring about, our only option is to wait in hope and trust that God’s heart is good, and he will take care of us.  Unfortunately, we are not very good at waiting patiently, which means that, in most cases, our hope is in ourselves rather than in our God.  Thus, we constantly try to manufacture and produce, to fix and manipulate, rather than wait patiently.

Pray

Closing Prayer: May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you.” (Psalm 33:22)

only you

Opening Prayer: “Strengthen the feeble hands, and steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, ‘Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.’” (Isaiah 35:3-4)

Scripture: Isaiah 35:1-10

Journal: What does the scripture for today do within you?  What does it stir up?  What does it disrupt?  How does it offer you help and hope?

Reflection: Only you, O God, can make a parched land glad and make the wilderness blossom and bloom.  Only you can make water gush forth in the desert and make streams flow in the wasteland.  Only you can turn burning sand into pools of water and transform thirsty ground into bubbling springs.  Only you can turn the wilderness into a place of life and hope.  Do that again today, we pray.  Lord, have mercy on us.

Pray

Closing Prayer: “They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads.  Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.” (Isaiah 35:10)

out of and in to

Opening Prayer: O Lord, give me the courage and the strength and the grace to leave the old behind, so that I may accept your invitation to step into the new.

Scripture: Deuteronomy 26:7-9

Journal: What is God leading you out of these days?  And what is he leading you into?

Reflection: “And the Lord heard our voice and saw our misery, toil, and oppression.  So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with miraculous signs and wonders.  He brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey…” (Deut. 26:7-9)

The two movements of God in this passage are unmistakable: He leads the Israelites out of Egypt, in order to lead them into the promised land.  That’s kind of the way He works; God is always leading us out of one thing to lead us into another.  Out of darkness and into light.  Out of brokenness and into wholeness.  Out of chaos and into peace.  Out of slavery and into freedom.  Out of fear and into love.  The first thing must be left behind in order for the second thing to be fully realized.

What is God leading you out of these days and what is he leading you into?  What is he asking you to leave behind and what is he inviting you to step into?  What does he want you to let go of and what does he want you to take hold of?

Pray

Closing Prayer: Thank you, O Lord, that you are always inviting us out of the old and into the new.  Help us to hear your call today and take you up on your invitation, whatever it may be.