rejoice

Opening Prayer: Every day is a gift from you, O Lord, help me to treat it as such.  Help me to receive it and to live it with joy and gratitude, regardless of its contents.

Read: Philippians 4:4-5

Reflect: Joy is a choice; it is deeper than happiness and can endure sorrow.  Each day, regardless of its contents, we can choose to live as if life were a gift or a burden.  But that gift must be recognized and received in order to be experienced, valued, and appreciated.  We can either savor each day or endure each day, depending on how we look at it.  We can either count our blessings, or we can recite our woes.  The choice is ours.

“Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again: Rejoice!”  Paul was in prison in Rome when he wrote these words.  He didn’t allow his circumstances to determine his mindset and attitude.  Instead, he chose joy.  He had an attitude of gratitude.  We can live with that determination as well.  Choose joy today.

Journal: What have you got to be grateful for?  Write it all down.  Reflect on it.  Savor it.  Thank God for it.  Allow it to help you to choose joy rather than anger, bitterness, or indifference.

Pray: Tell God what you are grateful for.  Hold them near to your heart and allow them to permeate your mind and soul.

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to live a life of deep gratitude for who you are, who I am to you, and all you have blessed me with.  Help me choose joy today.

like a little child

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, I get it backwards so often; please forgive me.  Forgive me when I make this life about me, rather than about you.  Forgive me when I seek praise, acclaim, and admiration more than I seek you.  Forgive me when I try to climb up, rather than following you on your downward way.  Help me, O Lord, to become like a little child.

Read: Mark 10:13-31

Reflect: Walking with Jesus is different than we may imagine.  It often leads down, rather than up.  Take the contrast in this passage, for instance.  These two encounters with Jesus come one after the other for a reason.  Mark is very intentional in this way throughout his entire gospel.

The disciples thought the kingdom of God was about power and position, influence and importance.  They wanted to be rulers, while Jesus was trying to teach them to be children.  They wanted to be high and mighty, while Jesus was trying to teach them to be least and lowly.  They wanted to be independent and self-sufficient, while Jesus was trying to teach them the necessity of dependence and desperation.

Enter the children.  They were small, lowly, and innocent.  They were needy, weak, and dependent.  They were unimportant and insignificant, the least of these from a societal perspective.  Yet they were first in the kingdom of God.  They were open and trusting and receptive.  They were the ones Jesus blessed.

The rich young ruler, on the other hand, was the direct opposite.  He was wealthy, successful, powerful, influential, and self-sufficient.  He had no need, just a gnawing feeling inside that there was something he still lacked.  And in response to his question, Jesus looked at him and loved him.  In fact, Jesus loved him enough to tell him the truth: he must give up everything and come follow Jesus.  In essence, Jesus told him he must become like a little child if he wanted to enter the kingdom of God.  But that was too much to ask of this powerful, important man.  So instead of being blessed, he walked away sad.

Journal: Where do you find yourself in this story?  Who can you relate to most?  What does becoming like a child look like for you?  Are you willing to do it?

Pray: Put yourself in this scene as you pray today.  Where do you find yourself?  What does Jesus have to say to you?  How does it make you feel?  What is your response?

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, give us the wisdom and the courage and the grace and the strength to become like little children today, whatever that may mean.

submit

Opening Prayer: O God, teach me what it means to submit to you, because I’m not very good at that.  Help me to flee from evil and run to the truth.  Help me to draw near to you, knowing that if I do, you promise to draw near to me.

Read: James 4:7-10

Reflect: Walking with God requires a movement from autonomy to submission.  We aren’t the ones in charge, he is.  He calls the shots, he sets the agenda, he determines the course.  Therefore, our lives must reflect that. 

But what does it look like to submit to God?  The Greek word (hypotassō) used here by James gives us a great clue.  It means to station yourself under.  When we submit to God, he becomes the point.  Life is not about us anymore, it’s about him.  He leads and we follow.  He, and not us, becomes the center of the universe around which everything revolves.  Our lives are completely under his rule and his reign.

“So let God work his will in you,” says The Message translation of James 4:7-10.  “Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him make himself scarce. Say a quiet yes to God and he’ll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life.  Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it’s the only way you’ll get on your feet.”

Journal: Where and how do you need to submit to God?  What does that look like?

Pray: Place yourself under God in prayer.  Take a posture of submission, whatever that may look like.  Ask him to show you who he is and what he wants.  Listen carefully to his answer.

Closing Prayer: O God, forgive me when I try to rule and run my own life.  I am terrible at it.  Teach me what it means to submit to you and give me the grace and the strength and the courage to do it.

resisting rest

Opening Prayer: “O Lord my God, tell me what you are to me. Say to my soul, I am your salvation. Say it so that I can hear it. My heart is listening, Lord; open the ears of my heart and say to my soul, I am your salvation. Let me run towards this voice and seize hold of you.” ~Saint Augustine

Read: Isaiah 30:15-18

Reflect: “In returning and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.” (Isaiah 30:15)

Our resistance to rest is both baffling and fascinating.  Who in their right mind would “have none of it?”  Why in the world would we say, “No,” and run off to follow our own agendas, plans, and devices.  Is it all ego?  Are we so full of ourselves that there is no room for God?  Are we so determined to make a name for ourselves that we would risk all in doing so?  Are we so dead set on becoming a flagstaff on a mountaintop that we would sacrifice all that is good and holy to get there? 

Do we really believe that we are what we do?  Are we really convinced that we are who people say or think we are?  Do we really believe that our worth and value are determined by our successes and achievements?  Do we really believe that stopping and resting is only for the weak?  It would certainly appear so.

But the truth is that in returning and rest is our salvation and in quietness and trust is our strength.  It is God who determines all those things, not us.  All we have to do is be who and what he made us to be.  And leave the rest up to him.

Journal: Are you resistant to rest?  Why?  What do you do instead?  How might you enter into the returning and rest that is your salvation?  How might God be inviting you into the quietness and trust that is your strength?  Will you go there?

Pray

Closing Prayer: Rest in God’s loving embrace today in prayer.  Be who he made you to be—nothing more, nothing less.

“Come, find your rest in me today, my beloved.”

born from above

Opening Prayer: I belong to you, Lord Jesus, do with me as you please.  Be born in me anew today.

Read: John 3:1-9

Reflect: “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.  Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.  You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born from above.’” (John 3:5-7)

Born from above; what a loaded phrase!  No wonder Nicodemus was dumbfounded.  I mean, how is that even possible? 

But of course, Jesus was talking about much deeper things than mere physics.  He was talking about spiritual transformation.  He was talking about how a life is changed, which always seems to involve some sort of new birth—leaving behind our old ways of being and seeing in order to live and see anew. 

The hard part, both for us and for Nicodemus, is that it’s not a process we can control.  We can no more control the renewal of our hearts and souls than we can control the day we are born.  It is all up to God.  It is a work of the Spirit, not something we can manufacture, manipulate, or control.  Flesh can only give birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 

Thus, we must be born of water and the Spirit; it involves both a cleansing and a renewal.  And Jesus is the only one who can do both of those things, all we can do is receive and respond.

It’s what Ezekiel had written about over five hundred years beforehand: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.  I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” (Ezekiel 36:25-27) Notice how many times God says, “I will.”  It is he who produces this change, not us.

And it’s also something Paul wrote about years later: “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.  He saved us through the washing of rebirth and the renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.” (Titus 3:4-6) The two parts of being born from above are cleansing and renewal, both of which are totally up to God.

Maybe that’s the part Nicodemus struggled with the most.  Maybe he was simply unwilling to surrender his life and his knowledge and his position and his history to God and start all over again.  Maybe he was unwilling to let go of control and become a child again. 

And maybe that’s what you and I struggle with as well.  Surrender is not an easy thing; it takes the ball out of our hands and puts it squarely and wholly in the hands of God.

Journal: What is the Spirit of God doing in you these days?  How is he asking you to surrender to him?  What does it look like these days for you to be born from above?

Pray

Closing Prayer:

"Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding,
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.
You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace,
that is enough for me."

— St. Ignatius of Loyola 

 

alive: encountering the risen jesus

 

Eastertide is coming quickly.  If you are looking for a good companion for the journey of resurrection, here's an option: Alive: Encountering the Risen Jesus

big need, big cross, big love

Opening Prayer: Forgive me, O God, when I think I need to be forgiven little.  Help me to see the depths of my need so that I can begin to understand the depths of your love.

Scripture: Luke 7:36-50

Journal: Who do you relate to most in this story?  Why?  Do you realize that you have been forgiven much?

Reflection: “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much.  But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” (Luke 7:47) In reality, no one has been forgiven little, some just think they have.  The beauty of the gospel is that only when we know how big our need for forgiveness is, will we ever be able to comprehend how big the cross is, and how big the love of God is.  Big need leads to a big cross, which leads to a big love—a bigger love from God, a bigger love for God, and a bigger love for others.  God’s love becomes bigger than we could have ever asked or imagined.

By contrast, the Pharisees had a small love because of how small they perceived their need to be.  They spent their whole lives trying to reduce their need and had somehow convinced themselves that they had succeeded.  But all it did was make them judge more and love less.  Sound familiar?  It does to me.

Most of us think the goal of spiritual life is to reduce the gap between us and God.  We think that if we can just be better and perform better then we might get closer to him.  But the truth is that the older we get, and the more we get to know God, the larger the gap gets rather than the smaller.  Thus, the cross does not get smaller and smaller but bigger and bigger.  And the bigger the cross gets, the bigger love gets.  The bigger the cross gets the more we realize how wide and long and high and deep is the love of God, which makes our love for him grow in return.  We love because he first loved us.  That’s what the “sinful” woman had learned that the Pharisees had not.  Let’s be like her and not like them.

Pray

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you that those who have been forgiven much love much.  Help us to see the enormity of your forgiveness so that we might also see the enormity of your amazing love.