moving through suffering, day 2

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

Opening Prayer:
Father, I know my wounded and broken places oh so well. At times they can consume me and keep me from being able to hear your voice. Help me to see my pain as an invitation to know you more intimately rather than a reason to doubt the goodness of your heart. Help me to know that through my pain you desire to accomplish something very good in me. In the name of Jesus, the author of our salvation, who was “made perfect through suffering.” Amen. (JLB)

 

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 121

Scripture for the Day: 1 Peter 4:12-19

Reading for Reflection:

Dear Jesus,

     Thank you for the hard and sometimes uphill road I have had to walk in following you.  I am stronger because of it.  And we are closer because of it.  For all good things that have come to me along the way, I thank you.

     But I have to say, I wish it were an easier way, a shorter way, a more scenic way.  I wish the road didn’t have to go past the garden of Gethsemane, with its darkness and loneliness and tears.  I wish it just went in endless circles around the seashores of Galilee, and that walking with you were more of a serene stroll in the sunset.

     Help me to understand that Gethsemane is as necessary as Galilee in the geography of a growing soul.  Help me to remember that even though you were a son, yet you learned obedience through the things you suffered. 

     Paul talks about entering into fellowship of your suffering.  I do so very much look forward to having fellowship with you, but honestly, Lord, the thought of having too suffer to experience it stops me in my tracks.

     Help me, Lord Jesus, to want your company more than I want serenity, and to love fellowship with you more than I fear the suffering necessary to enter into it.

(Reflections on the Word by Ken Gire)

 

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: It is Well

When peace like a river attendeth my way;

when sorrows like sea billows roll

Whatever my lot Thou hast taught me to say;

It is well, it is well, with my soul

Refrain:

It is well….with my soul…it is well, it is well with my soul

My sin O the bliss of this glorious thought;

my sin not in part but the whole

Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more;

praise the Lord, praise the Lord O my soul

And Lord haste the day when my faith shall be sight;

the clouds be rolled back as a scroll

The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend;

even so it is well with my soul

Closing Prayer
Father, heal my wounds and make them a source of life for others; as you did with your Son Jesus. In whose name we pray. Amen. (JLB)