ulterior motives

Opening Prayer: Forgive me, Lord Jesus, when life becomes more about me than it is about you, when it becomes more about my plans than about yours, when it becomes more about getting my way that doing your will.  Forgive me when my kiss becomes an attempt to get what I want, rather than an expression of my delight and affection.  Amen.

Scripture: Luke 22:48

Journal: What are your true motives in coming to Jesus today?  What kind of “kiss” are you giving him?  What is his response?

Reflection: “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” (Luke 22:48) It’s sad how often I come to Jesus with ulterior motives.  And it’s comical to think that somehow I’ve convinced myself that he doesn’t see right through it.  And yet, like Judas, he loves me anyway.  Amazing Love!  How can it be?

Pray

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, you kiss us with the kiss of Divine Affection, and yet we kiss you with a kiss of betrayal or manipulation or demand.  Forgive us.  Help us to give you the love and adoration you deserve, both this day and every day.  Amen.

 

let him kiss me

Opening Prayer: O Lord, you are my Lover.  No one loves me like you do.  Nobody loves me with the passion and tenderness and tenacity and pursuit that you love me with.  So kiss me, O Lord, with the kisses of your mouth—for your love is more delightful than wine.  Amen.

Scripture: Song of Songs 1:2-4

Journal: What do these verses stir up within you?  When was the last time someone kissed you?  How did it make you feel?  How does it make you feel to know that God desires to kiss you with the kisses of his mouth today?  Will you let him?

Reflection: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth—for your love is more delightful than wine.” (Song of Songs 1:2)

There is a big difference between kissing someone and being kissed by them.  One expresses my desire for intimacy and affection, and the other expresses the desire and delight of the One who loves me.  It feels really good to be desired, doesn’t it?  It does something beautiful in us.  That’s why I’m so glad that this line of poetry from the Scriptures is worded the way it is: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.”  For in this Divine Romance, he is the active one, not me.   He is the initiator; I am the recipient.  He is the pursuer; I am the pursued.  He is the lover; I am the beloved. All I can do is open myself up to his passion and his embrace, which requires a beautiful vulnerability. 

So, kiss me with the kisses of your mouth, O Lord, and give me the courage and the passion to receive them.

Pray

Closing Prayer: O Lord, help me to have the courage and the passion to completely open myself to you.  Amen.

jesus made them

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, help us to know that even in the storms of life, you are still at work, accomplishing your purposes, both in and through us.  Thank you.  Amen.

Scripture: Matthew 14:22-33

Journal: Why do you think Jesus made the disciples get into the boat, even he knew exactly what he was sending them into?  What do you think he was trying to accomplish?  When is the last time Jesus showed up in the midst of one of your “storms?”  How did it change you?

Reflection: “Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of them to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd.” (Matthew 14:22)

Did you catch that?  Jesus made the disciples get into the boat.  He knew full well exactly what he was sending them into and yet he made them get in the boat—without him—and head to the other side.  He was totally aware that he was sending them into the middle of a huge storm.  Why on earth would he do such a thing?  Maybe because he was trying to accomplish something in them. 

It was done both intentionally and purposefully.  He didn’t see them as he watched from the mountainside and think to himself, “Oh dang!  I didn’t see that coming.”  No, he was actually trying to accomplish something in them that could be accomplished no other way.  He was leading them beyond where they were.  Jesus always calls each one of us beyond where we are.  He sent them into the storm so they would come out knowing him better.  He sent them into the storm so that at the end of the whole episode they would be standing in awe with their mouths wide open saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

A wise saint once said that “There is an intent of God behind the content of life.”  The painful content of this life all entered the world as a result of the fall: storms, floods, hurricanes, death, disease, diagnoses, violence, abuse, addiction, depression, anxiety, and fear.  The list goes on and on.  Jesus did not create the storm, he just sent them into it.  He used the storm to give them a bigger picture of who he was.  He is big enough even to use life’s most brutal and evil content, to accomplish his intent, both in and through us.  He uses it to invite us to a deeper and more beautiful life with and for him. 

It happened with the disciples, and my guess is that it has happened with you.  When’s the last time God sent you into a massive storm just so you would see and know how big and awesome and wonderful and loving and powerful he really is?  When was the last time you stood in awe saying to yourself, “Truly you are the Son of God”?   

Pray

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, truly you are the Son of God!

speed kills

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, although you did so much, you were never in a hurry.  You were never moving so fast that you forgot to see and notice and touch and care for people.  You were never in so much of a hurry that you neglected your time with the Father, or failed to pray.  Help us, Lord Jesus to be more like you.  Amen.

Scripture: Proverbs 19:2

Journal: How does hurry affect your life?  What is the real reason you hurry?  What would it look like to ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life?

Reflection: “Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way.” (Proverbs 19:2, ESV) He who hurries his footsteps errs. (Proverbs 19:2, NASB) Enthusiasm without knowledge is no good; haste makes mistakes. (Proverbs 19:2, NLT).

Who, or what, determines the direction you go each day?  And who, or what, determines the pace at which you go that direction?  These are big questions, but questions, I’m afraid, that we spend far too little time reflecting upon.  Somehow, we have bought into the lie that bigger and more and faster are better.  We have gotten so caught up in trying to do everything, that we actually accomplish nothing of eternal significance.  The most important things, and processes, in life cannot be rushed.  They cannot be manufactured; they can only be grown over time.  If we want to know God deeply and well, it is just going to take time.  “A long obedience in the same direction,” as Eugene Peterson so beautifully stated. 

Simply put, hurry is the enemy of spiritual life.  When asked what someone must do to have a relationship with God that is vibrant and fruitful and alive, Dallas Willard once said, “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”  Or, as the psychologist Carl Jung once put it: “Hurry isn’t of the devil, hurry is the devil.” 

In other words, speed kills.  Speed breaks down and burns out.  Speed is reckless and sloppy.  Speed keeps us from being able to see what we need to see and hear what we need to hear.  It keeps us from being able to notice and pay attention.  Speed makes us miss the point; it keeps us from being able to enter into what God is doing, both within us and around us.  Ultimately, speed is all about us, and not about God.  If we do not watch our speed, eventually we will end up in big trouble.

Jesus, though he did so much, was never in a hurry.  That is why he was able to enter into conversations with people even though he was being pulled in a million directions.  He let the Father determine what he did and did not do, who he did and did not spend time with.  It wasn’t determined out his own of need—or theirs, for that matter—but out of the larger purposes and direction of the Father. 

That’s why he was able to stop in the middle of a crowded street to hear the story of a nameless, bleeding woman, even though he was in route to heal a dying little girl.  That’s why he was able to wait four days after he heard his friend Lazarus was on his deathbed.  That’s how he could show up at a pool filled with hundreds of desperately needy people and only heal one of them.  That’s how he had time to go through Samaria to have a long conversation with a woman at a well, who no one else in her town would talk to.  That’s how he could respond to his disciple’s statement that “everyone in town is looking for you” with the statement, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also.  That is why I have come.”  That’s why he could wait until the fourth watch of the night to go out to the disciples on the raging sea.  And I could go on and on.

Jesus did not allow hurry to take his life captive.  And neither should we.  If we want to have any hope of being his presence and his hands and his voice in this dark and desperate world. It will be because we took the time to be with him, and listen to him, first.  And if we never slow down, that is not possible.

Slow us down, O Lord, so we can do the work you have given us to do, and not merely our own.  Amen.

Pray

Closing Prayer: Slow us down, O Lord, so we can do the work you have given us to do, and not merely our own.  Amen.