yes, day 3

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

Opening Prayer:
"I belong to the Lord, body and soul," replied Mary, "let it happen as you say." (Luke 1:38 JBP)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 77

Scripture for the Day: Luke 1:39-56

Reading for Reflection:

Hearing is an important step in saying yes to God’s call.  But once we hear, we must still decide whether we will go where invited or sent.  In other words, hearing may be the easy part of saying yes to God’s call.  Once we have heard and counted the cost the most difficult task remains.  However, with deep faith in the living God who calls us, the only reasonable response is to say yes.  For in our best moments, we know God will ask us, only us, to say yes to an invitation that is right and good for us.  Listen closely, think deeply, pray fervently, and you will be led to the right answer to God’s invitational call.  In my experience the right answer is always yes.  The good news is that even when I was unable to give the right answer, God was patient and gave me opportunity to grow in faith until I was able to say yes and to claim another part of my inheritance as a child of God (Rueben P. Job in A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God) 

 

 

This yes is an inner assent of the will.  It is a willingness to receive the grace and the guidance of God.  It can be so deep and far-reaching as to cause a real conversion of life, a real repentance, a turning around to go in a completely new direction.  It always involves, says Luther, the daily death of the person we have been in order to fulfill our reason for being alive: to accomplish God’s will in our time and place. (Faith, the Yes of the Heart by Grace Adolphsen Brame)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

 

            Come, thou long expected Jesus

Born to set thy people free

From our fears and sins release us

Let us find our rest in thee

Israel’s strength and consolation

Hope of all the earth thou art

Dear desire of every nation

Joy of every longing heart

 

 

Joy to those who long to see thee

Dayspring from on high appear

Come thou promised rod of Jesse

Of thy birth we long to hear

O’er the hills the angels singing

News, glad tidings of a birth

Go to him your praises ringing

Christ the Lord has come to earth

 

 

Come to earth to taste our sadness

He whose glories knew no end

By his life he brings us gladness

Our Redeemer, Shepherd, Friend

Leaving riches without number

Born within a cattle stall

This the everlasting wonder

Christ was born the Lord of all

 

 

Born thy people to deliver,

Born a child and yet a King,

Born to reign in us forever,

Now thy gracious kingdom bring.

By thine own eternal spirit

Rule in all our hearts alone,

By thine all sufficient merit,

Raise us to thy glorious throne.

Closing Prayer
I have heard your call, my Lord, and respond with a yes that arises from the depth of my being. I know that if I follow close to you, nothing shall be able to separate me from your love. Amen. A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God by Norman Shawchuck and Rueben P. Job)