weary and burdened

Opening Prayer: He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.” (Psalm 91:1-2)

Scripture: Matthew 11:28-30

Journal: What is the state of your soul these days?  Are you weary or burdened?  What load are you carrying that is not yours to carry?  Why?  Will you come to him, give that load to him, and receive his rest?

Reflection: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”  Weary and burdened.  Two words that just seem to go together, kind of like thunder and lightning.  Two words that are somehow intimately connected.  And, sadly, the two words I most often hear as I sit with people who are in ministry.  They are tired and weary, and most often because they are loaded down with the burdens, demands, and expectations of ministry.  Some that have been put upon them and many they have put upon themselves.

The word weary comes from the Greek word, kopiaō, which means to be exhausted with toil or burdens or grief.  And the Greek word for burdened is phortizō, which means to load one with a burden or to be loaded down.  So, it appears that weariness comes about as a direct result of being weighed down with the demands, expectations, toil, and pain of life and work.  It is the residual effect of carrying the overwhelming load of the fears and the joys and the pain and the sadness and the hopes and the dreams and the oughts and the shoulds of both ourselves and others.  No wonder we’re so weary!  No one can possibly carry all of that. 

But Jesus tells us that we do not have to.  He says, “Come to me.  Do not try to carry that load yourself.  Give it to me; I will carry it.  Take my load yoke upon you, not the one you have made for yourself, and not the one the world or the culture has made for you.  My load is easy, which literally means well-fitting, and my burden is light.  I will do the heavy lifting if you will just come to me and give me the burdens.  If you do that, I will give you rest.  I will renew your strength and restore your soul and help you to recover your life.  But you must come to be and let go of the burden.  It is mine to carry, not yours.”

Pray

Closing Prayer: “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (Matthew 11:28-30, The Message) 

knock, knock

Opening Prayer: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Scripture: Matthew 7:7-11

Journal: What kind of God do you think is waiting in the other side of that door?  How does that impact your knocking?

Reflection: What kind of God do you think is waiting on the other side of that door?  Is it a God who is too busy and preoccupied to be bothered?  Is it a God who is distant and disinterested in answering for someone like you?  Is it a God who gets irritated and frustrated when someone knocks?  Or is it a God who takes his sweet time answering, if he answers at all?

But what if God is different from all those pictures.  What if he’s a God who has actually been excitedly waiting for you to come and knock.  What if he’s a God who really wants to see you, to talk to you, and to welcome you.  What if he’s a God whose heart is so full of love and affection for you that he can’t wait to open the door and sweep you up into his great arms of love.

When my two grandsons come over to our house, they run from the car to the front door.  They can’t wait to knock because they know the heart that’s waiting on the other side of the door.  They know what kind of reception they will get.  So they rush to the door and press their noses against the glass on either side of it with big smiles and full hearts.  And as they knock, they jump up and down in anticipation of the welcome that’s to follow.

But what’s going on in their hearts pales in comparison with what’s going on in mine.  I’m so full of love and affection these two little guys that I can’t get the door open fast enough.  And when I open it, they leap into my arms and wrap me up in their embrace.  Needless to say, when this happens my heart is so full of love that I’m about to burst.  And God never fails to remind me: “You know that’s how I feel about you, right?  So, come.  Run.  Knock.  I can’t wait to open my door, my arms, and my heart to you.”

Pray

Closing Prayer: Heavenly Father, help me to get a clear picture of exactly who it is on the other side of that door, because the picture I have of you will impact everything else in my life, particularly how I ask, seek, and knock.  Help me to know you as the good and loving Father that you truly are.

thy will be done

Opening Prayer: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Read: Matthew 6:9-13

Reflect: Has prayer become a tactic?  Has it become something we use simply to try and further our own plans and agendas?  Has it become a way of trying to get God to fall in line with our will, rather than a place where we seek his?

Prayer is about submission, not manipulation or coercion.  It is a place where we surrender our schemes, plans, desires, and agendas in order that we may follow his.  It is about aligning ourselves with God’s will, rather than seeking our own.  Thus, it has a lot more to do with listening than it does with speaking.

Journal: What is prayer to you?  What does your practice of prayer look like these days?  How much of your time in prayer is devoted to seeking his will rather than seeking your own?

Prayer

Closing Prayer: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

two sighs

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, forgive us for the things that make you sigh.  Forgive us for the situations and circumstances that are far from what you intended them to be.  Forgive us for the attitudes, behaviors, patterns, and dysfunctions that are far from who you intended us to be.  Touch and transform our lives so we can be who and what you created us to be.

Scripture: Mark 7:31-8:13

Journal: Are there things in your life that make Jesus sigh?  What are they and what would it look like to allow Jesus to touch them and make them whole?

Reflection: Two encounters, two sighs.  Both are filled with tons of meaning.  The first happened as Jesus prayed over a man who was deaf and mute.  And the sigh that Jesus uttered on that day was actually more of a groan, at least that’s a much more accurate translation of the Greek word Mark used (stenazō).  Which begs the question: What in the world made God-in-the-flesh groan?

What made him groan was seeing a life that was not at all what it was intended to be.  What made him groan was seeing the brokenness and pain and struggle of one whom he had made in his image, to reflect his beauty.  That’s what broke God’s heart.  In other words, our pain makes God sad.  So sad that it makes him groan, so Jesus groaned.

The second sigh occurred when Jesus addressed the unbelief of the Pharisees, who were demanding a miraculous sign even though he had already given so many.  In fact, he had just fed well over four thousand people with just seven loaves and a few small fish.  You would think that would’ve been enough, right?  But no, they were demanding even more.  The fact is, they did not want to believe.  That made Jesus groan as well.  But this time the word used is even stronger word, anastenazō.  This word means to groan deeply, or a groan that comes up from the depths of your being.  There’s probably not anything that made Jesus sadder than unbelief, and the Pharisees were experts in the field.

But what about us.  What in our lives causes Jesus to sigh?  What about our lives brings a groan up from the depths of his being?  What are the things that cause us to live lives that are far less than what he desires and intended for them to be?  In what ways is unbelief living and active in us?  Maybe it’s time to ask Jesus to touch and transform those places.  Because my guess is that those things cause us to groan as well.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Touch us and heal us, Lord Jesus.  Heal our brokenness and heal our unbelief.  Help our live to be all you created them to be.

walking in humility

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, forgive us when we get too full of ourselves.  Forgive us when we get too big for our britches and start demanding that you behave the way we want you to behave and do what we want you to do.  Forgive us for our entitlement and demandingness.  Help us to know what it means to walk in humility rather than arrogance.

Scripture: Mark 7:24-30

Journal: What do you appreciate most about the attitude and the posture of the Syrophoenician woman?  What does it invite you into in your own life with Jesus?

Reflection: “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” (Mark 7:28) Our world is so full of demandingness and entitlement that we would never expect an answer so beautiful and humble from the lips of one who was in such a desperate situation.  In fact, we would have expected her to storm in, shouting protests, and demanding something be done.  But not this woman.  She knew exactly what Jesus was saying and wasn’t offended by it at all.  Maybe it was because of the smile on his face or the tenderness in his voice.  Or maybe it was simply because this woman knew exactly who Jesus was, knew exactly who she was, and was responding out of reverence, respect, submission, and humility.  There was no demand in her voice and no entitlement in her heart.  Jesus knew that and he wanted everyone else to see it as well.

But didn’t Jesus just call her a dog?  How could he do something like that?  How dare he!  Jesus and the disciples had just come from a conversation with the Pharisees about what is clean and what is unclean.  And the very next thing you know, he was approached by a woman who was considered unclean by the Pharisees and the teachers of the law.  In fact, they would have called her a dog, so Jesus was just using their own terminology to teach them something about the heart of God and the heart of man.  So, tongue planted firmly in cheek, he employed the power of metaphor to invite a “Gentile dog” into a beautiful and healing conversation with God in the flesh.

And in the midst of this short conversation, it was her heart and her attitude that put the Pharisees and teachers of the law to shame.  She was not offended.  She was not demanding.  She did not turn hostile.  She went with the picture.  She was like: “You are one hundred percent correct; I am a dog.  I deserve absolutely nothing.  I’m not asking to take food out of the mouths of the children of Israel, but can I at least have the crumbs that fall under the table, even if I don’t deserve them?”  And as Jesus healed her daughter, I wonder if anyone in the crowd thought to themselves, “I need to be more like her, because her spirit and her attitude brought joy to the heart of God. 

So, what does it look like to walk with God in humility?  It looks just like this woman.  It means fully recognizing who he is and fully recognizing who we are.  It means ridding ourselves of all entitlement and protest and demandingness.  It means living lives of reverence, respect, submission, and surrender to his will and his ways.

Pray

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to live a life of humility, reverence, respect, submission, and surrender.  You are God, and I am not.  Therefore, help me to live like it.

stewardship of your soul

Opening Prayer: “My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him.” (Psalm 62:1)

Scripture: Genesis 2:7

Journal: What is the state of your soul these days?  How is God breathing his life and breath into you?  What does it look like to be a good steward of the soul God has given you?

Reflection: “God formed man out of the dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life.  The man came alive—a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7, The Message)

What exactly is the soul?  How was it created?  What is its purpose?  And how do we nurture and take care of it?  On top of that, what does it look like to be a good steward of our soul? 

The soul is where the life of God resides.  It is the place where God breathes his divine life and breath into us and then breathes it out of us into his world.  That’s how ministry is designed to take place; it involves both an inhale and an exhale.  Unfortunately, all too often, we live our lives in a constant state of exhale and make no room to inhale his life and his presence and his love.  Which leaves us with nothing of value, power, or substance to breath into the lives of those God has given us to care for. 

To be a good steward of our soul, then, is to recognize where the soul came from in the first place; it is a gift from God.  Thus, we have a responsibility to take care of it.  We are always asking how to be good stewards of our time, our gifts, our abilities, our money, and our resources, but what about our soul?  How often do we consider what it looks like to be good stewards of our soul?

Simply stated, it means to make time and space for God to breathe his divine life into us.  It means to stop, look, and listen.  It means to be still and sit quietly before him.  It means to be fully present and fully attentive to him.  It means to stop talking and start listening.  It means to stop running and spinning and toiling and start praying.  Only then will we be living a life of depth and quality and power that’s actually worth passing along to others.  

Pray

Closing Prayer: “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.” (Psalm 62:5)

an undivided life

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, you want all of us, not just a part.  Help us to not live divided lives, but to be completely yours at all times and in all respects.

Scripture: Mark 3:22-30

Journal: How are you living a divided life these days?  How have you compartmentalized it?  What does Jesus want you to do about that?  How is he inviting you to live an undivided life?

Reflection: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” (Mark 3:25) Wise words.  But what, exactly, does it look like to live a divided life?  Because, according to Jesus, that is an endeavor that is destined for failure.  Which means we better pay careful attention to the ways we are compartmentalizing our lives in an effort to keep our “worlds” apart. 

Does our life of faith affect and rule over all the other areas of our lives or is it just a nice little compartment that we pull out when it is most useful and convenient?  Is it something we try our best to keep separated from all the other areas of our life?  Or is our faith, perhaps, our highest priority, but there are certain areas of our lives that we keep away from our life of faith because they are not congruent with it?

I guess the main question is: Am I the same person in every area of my life, or am I a different version of myself depending on who I am around and what I am doing?  For a house divided against itself cannot stand.  Eventually one side or the other must take priority and precedence.

Pray

Closing Prayer: “Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.  I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever.  For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths of the grave.” (Psalm 86:11-13)