Opening Prayer:
O Loving God, who breathed me into being,
breathe your Divine Breath in me again this day—that I might be filled with your
life and guided by the winds of your Spirit.
For the sake of your Son. Amen.
(JLB)
Psalm for the Week:
Psalm 104
Scripture for the
Day: John 14:15-21
Reading for
Reflection:
At this point you may be wondering, What about
God’s role in spiritual growth? After
all, the Bible speaks of transformation as the work of God. It’s always a miracle when it happens. To speak of spiritual growth only as a product
of training could make it sound like something we can engineer. Anytime a frog is turned into a prince—or
even just a gentler, kinder frog—there is always something mysterious and
awesome at work. In spiritual growth
that “something mysterious” is the work of the Spirit. So another analogy from scripture is
helpful. “The wind blows where it
chooses,” Jesus said, “and you hear the
sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the
Spirit.”
Consider
the difference between piloting a motorboat or a sailboat. We can run a motorboat all by ourselves. We can fill the tank and start the
engine. We are in control. But a sailboat is a different story. We can hoist the sails and steer the rudder,
but we are utterly dependent upon the wind.
The wind does the work. If the
wind doesn’t blow—and sometimes it doesn’t—we sit still in the water no matter
how frantic we act. Our task is to do
whatever enables us to catch the wind.
Spiritual transformation is that way.
We may be aggressively pursuing it, but we cannot turn it on and
off. We can open ourselves to transformation
through certain practices, but we cannot engineer it. We can take no credit for it.
It is
profitable to see this. This truth saves
us from pride and misdirected effort.
Fist-clenching, teeth-gritting exertion is usually not productive. Indeed, feeling a constant sense of strain or
burden probably indicates that we are off course. Jesus offered his yoke—his way of life—to
tired people because he said his way of life involved ease and lightness and
“rest for your souls.” This theme is
echoed by many of his followers. Frank
Laubach writes, “The sense of being led by an unseen hand which takes
mine…grows upon me daily. I do not need
to strain at all to find opportunity…strain does not seem to do good.”
Another
analogy from sailing concerns the fact that wise sailors know that their main
task is being able to “read” the wind—to practice discernment. An experienced sailor can simply look at the
lake and tell where the wind is blowing strongest, or look at the sky and give
a weather forecast. A wise sailor knows
when to raise and lower which sails to catch the wind most effectively.
Spiritual growth requires discernment.
We must learn to respond to the fresh wind of the Spirit. Moses didn’t ask or arrange for the burning
bush. But once it was there, he had to
make a choice: whether to turn aside and pay attention to the work of God.
God’s
responsibility is to provide the burning bush.
Our responsibility is to turn aside.
Often I forget this.
Sometime
ago I bought a devotional book and set a goal of finishing it by the end of the
year. Several times as I read, it was
clear that something was happening in my heart; I felt I should stop and study
a certain passage for a while. But such
delays would have kept me from my goal of finishing the book. So I kept going.
I should
have realized that getting through the book “on time” was not, as I thought,
the way to demonstrate
my devotion.
The purpose was to put myself in a place where transformation could
happen. If God should speak to me
through one passage—if I am being convicted or healed or challenged—them my
role is to stay there until the wind dies down.
Then it’s time to move on. I was
motorboating instead of sailing. I failed
to turn aside.
Take
another example. A friend of mine was at
a retreat center recently where a group of people were spending a day in the
practice of silence. One of them, not
watching where she was walking, bumped into my friend and nearly knocked her
over. But because the woman was engaged
in silence, she didn’t say a word, not even a simple “Excuse me.” Yet, the whole purpose of practicing silence
is not to see how long we can go without speaking; the goal is to make space
for Jesus in our lives so we learn to live like him. Living like him in
part involves responding with grace and civility
when we bump into people.
Our
primary task is not to calculate how many verses of Scripture we read or how
many minutes we spend in prayer. Our
task is to use these activities to create opportunities for God to work. Then what happens is up to him. We just put up the sails: The wind blows
where it chooses…” (The Life You’ve Always Wanted by John
Ortberg)
Reflection and
Listening: silent and written
Prayer: for the church,
for others, for myself
Song for the
Week: Wind of
God
Spirit, come, like a mighty wind;
Raise these bones back to life again.
Lift us up from this desert land;
Breathe upon us and we will stand.
Come and blow, Wind of God;
Blow, Wind of God
Lead us out of our wilderness;
Be our Savior, our hope, and rest.
All our idols have turned to dust;
You alone can deliver us.
Wind of God, come and blow;
Holy Spirit, let your power flow.
Stir our hearts, Breath of Life;
Speak your Word, and we will rise.
Come, revive, come, restore;
We can't live without you, Lord.
Come and blow, come and blow,
Wind of God
Closing Prayer:
Father, you alone know what lies before me
this day, grant that in every hour of it I may stay close to you. Let me today embark on no undertaking that is
not in line with your will for my life, nor shrink from any sacrifice which your
will may demand. Suggest, direct, control
every movement of my mind; for my Lord Christ’s sake. Amen. (A Diary of Private Prayer by
John Baillie)
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