grasping, day 4

Come to Stillness:

Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

Opening Prayer:
Lord Jesus, forgive me when my bleeding and wounded heart causes me to grasp for life and relief from any and every source available. Instead, help me to reach only for you—that I might touch the fringe of your robe and find healing and wholeness for the brokenness of my heart and soul. In Your Name I pray. Amen. (JLB)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 16

Scripture for the Day: Luke 12:13-21

Reading for Reflection:

To pray means to open your hands before God.  It means slowly relaxing the tension which squeezes your hands together and accepting your existence with an increasing readiness, not as a possession to defend, but as a gift to receive.  Above all, therefore, prayer is a way of life which allows you to find a stillness in the midst of the world where you open your hands to God’s promises, and find hope for yourself, your neighbor, and your world.  In prayer, you encounter God not only in the small voice and the soft breeze, but also in the midst of the turmoil of the world, in the distress and joy of your neighbor, and in the loneliness of your own heart. (With Open Hands by Henri J. M. Nouwen)

Cast aside everything that might extinguish this small flame which is beginning to burn within you, and surround yourself with everything which can feed and fan it into a strong flame. (The Art of Prayer)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Tender Mercy

Hear my cry for mercy
As I call to You
As I lift my hands in Spirit
And in Truth

We cry mercy
(in the name of the Father most Holy)
We cry mercy
(in the name of the Son Who was slain)
Lord have mercy
(in the name of the Spirit indwelling)
Tender mercy Lord
You are mercy (in the name of the Father most Holy)
You are mercy (in the name of the Son Who was slain)
Lord have mercy (in the name of the Spirit indwelling)
Tender mercy Lord

 

           In Your tender mercy
           Brought by grace through faith
           I will lift my heart
           Toward Your most Holy place

Closing Prayer:
Lord Jesus, give me the grace and the strength and the courage to take off that which I use to cover myself; and to clothe myself only and always in you alone. Amen. (JLB)