the grace of God, day 7

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

Opening Prayer:
I am sure that there is in me nothing that could attract the love of One as holy and as just as You are.  Yet You have declared Your unchanging love for me in Christ Jesus.  If nothing in me can win your love, nothing in the universe can prevent You from loving me.  Your love is uncaused and undeserved.  You are Yourself the reason for the love wherewith I am loved. (Knowledge of the Holy by A. W. Tozer)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 32

Scripture for the Day: Luke 7:36-50

Reading for Reflection:

I do not at all understand the mystery of grace—only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.  It can be received gladly or grudgingly, in big gulps or in tiny tastes, like a deer at the salt.  I gobbled it, licked it, held it down between my little hooves. (Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott)

The more we immerse ourselves in grace, the more likely we are to give grace. (In the Grip of Grace by Max Lucado)

 

     The greatest saints are not those who need less grace, but those who consume the most grace, who indeed are most in need of grace—those who are saturated by grace in every dimension of their being.  Grace to them is like breath. (Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now am found
Was blind, but now I see

T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear
And Grace my fears relieved
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed
 
Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come
Tis Grace that brought me safe thus far
And Grace will lead me home.
 
The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures.

When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we've first begun.


Closing Prayer:
Father, I love You Whom I do not know, and I embrace You Whom I do not see, and I abandon myself to You Whom I have offended, because You love in me Your only begotten Son.  You see Him in me, You embrace Him in me, because He has willed to identify Himself completely with me by that love which brought Him to death, for me, on the Cross. (Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton)