listening to God, day 5

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

Opening Prayer:
Speak, O Lord, as we come to You, to receive the food of Your holy word.  Take Your truth, plant it deep in us; shape and fashion us in Your likeness, that the light of Christ might be seen today, in our acts of love and our deeds of faith.  Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us all your purposes, for Your glory. (Speak O Lord by Stuart Townend, Keith Getty)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 19

Scripture for the Day: Luke 10:38-42

Reading for Reflection:

You must adapt your word to my smallness, so that it can enter into the tiny dwelling of my finiteness—the only dwelling in which I can live—without destroying it.  Then I shall be able to understand; such a word I can take in without that agonizing bewilderment of mind and that cold fear clutching my heart.  If you would speak such an “abbreviated” word, which would not say everything but only something simple which I could grasp, then I could breathe freely again.

     O Infinite God, you have actually willed to speak such a word to me!  You have restrained the ocean of your infinity from flooding in over the poor little wall which protects my tiny life’s acre from your vastness.  Not the waters of your great sea, but only the dew of your gentleness is to spread itself over my poor little plot of earth.  You have come to me in a human word.  For you, the Infinite, are the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Encounters with Silence by Karl Rahner)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say

I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Come unto Me and rest;
Lay down, O weary one lay down,
Your head upon My breast.”
I came to Jesus as I was,
So weary, worn and sad;
I found in Him my resting place,
And He has made me glad.

I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Behold I freely give
The living water; thirsty one,
Stoop down and drink, and live.”
I came to Jesus, and I drank
From that life-giving stream
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
And now I live in Him.
 
I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“I am this dark world’s light;
Look unto Me, thy morn shall rise,
And all thy days be bright.”
I looked to Jesus, and I found
In Him my star, my sun;
And in that light of life I’ll walk
’Til pilgrim days are done. 

Closing Prayer:
Bless with your presence my life and ministry all this day long and when night comes grant your servant rest and peace.  Amen. (A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants)