calling, day 4

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

Opening Prayer:
Help me, Oh God, to listen to what it is that makes my heart glad and to follow where it leads.  May joy, not guilt, Your voice, not others, Your will, not my willfulness, be the guides that lead me to my vocation.  Help me to unearth the passions of my heart that lie buried in my youth.  And can help me to go over that ground again and again until I can hold in my hands, hold and treasure, Your calling on my life.  Amen. (Windows of the Soul by Ken Gire)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 25

Scripture for the Day: Jeremiah 1:1-19

Reading for Reflection:

     We skip down the hallways of our youth, you and I, stopping now and then to catch our breath.  And every now and then we catch something else.  A glimpse of the future.  Our future.  A glimpse we caught when we came across a window suddenly flung open in front of us, its gossamer curtains lifted by the breeze redolent with the future, filling our lungs with refreshing air and our heart with hopeful dreams.

     At that window we hear something like somebody calling our name, only in a language we can’t quite understand, so we don’t recognize who it is who is calling us or to where we are being called.

     But we recognize the name.

     Even in a foreign language, names translate closely to the original.  Whoever it is calling us is calling us by our true name.  Whispering to us a secret.  Telling us who we are.  And showing us what we will be doing with our lives if only we have eyes to see, the ears to hear, and the faith to follow.  (Windows of the Soul by Ken Gire)

There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in.  (The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene)


Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: All for Jesus

All for Jesus, all for Jesus!
All my being's ransomed pow'rs:
All my thoughts and words and doings,
All my days and all my hours.

 

Let my hands perform His bidding,
Let my feet run in His ways;
Let my eyes see Jesus only,
Let my lips speak forth His praise.

 

Chorus: Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I've proved Him o'er and o'er Jesus,
Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust Him more!

 

Worldlings prize their gems of beauty,
Cling to gilded toys of dust,
Boast of wealth and fame and pleasure;
Only Jesus will I trust.

 

Since my eyes were fixed on Jesus,
I've lost sight of all beside;
So enchained my spirit's vision,
Looking at the Crucified.
(Repeat chorus)

 

Oh, what wonder! How amazing!
Jesus, glorious King of kings,
Deigns to call me His beloved,
Lets me rest beneath His wings.
(Repeat chorus)

Closing Prayer:
Go forth as God’s servant.  Remember God’s presence often and draw strength from the knowledge that the One who calls and sends also sustains.  Amen.  (A Guide to Prayer by Rueben Job)