plans

Opening Prayer: O Lord, help me to be about your plans, not my own.  For your plans are to prosper me and not to harm me.  Your plans are the ones that give me a hope and a future.

Scripture: Jeremiah 29:11-14

Journal: Who is making your plans these days?  What are they?  What would it look like to submit to God’s plans for you?  Do you really believe they are to prosper you and not to harm you? 

Reflection: If you want to walk with God, you had best check your plans at the door.  Life with him is as beautiful as it is demanding.  It is an amazing dance, an awesome adventure, and a challenging journey.  It is a journey in which we are not in control, he is.  We do not charge ahead with our agenda and invite him to come along.  We follow his lead, he doesn’t follow ours.   

Our job is to stay attentive to his voice, in tune with his will, and aligned with his purposes.  Life with him is about his plans, not our own.  Fortunately, his plans are to prosper us, not to harm us.  His plans give us a hope and a future.  His plans, although they might demand a lot of us, are always for our good, our benefit, and our growth.  We just have to trust in him.

Pray

Closing Prayer: Help me, O Lord, to let go of my plans, so that I might embrace yours.

frustration

Opening Prayer: O Lord, help me to pay careful attention to my own frustrations, because they might just be there to teach me that my plans are not your plans, and my goals are not your goals.  Help, O Lord, to align my desires with your desires, so that I can do your will, and not my own, all the days of my life.

Scripture: Psalm 33:10-11

Journal: What is your level of frustration these days?  What is causing it?  What is God trying to teach you as a result?  How might your frustration level be connected to having different goals

Reflection: A wise saint once told me that frustration is always a result of blocked goals.  So, whenever we are frustrated, we need to determine what goal is being blocked, and decern whether or not that goal is legitimate.

That’s where prayer and reflection and alignment come in, because quite often the goals God has for us are very different from the goals we have for ourselves.  And when that is the case, he tends to frustrate or thwart our efforts because his plans for us are both best and eternal.

My desires, for example, might be for a life of comfort and ease, when he desires so much more for me than that.  He desires my growth.  He desires that I become humble and godly and loving, and those things never come easy.  In as loving a way as possible, God blocks and thwarts and frustrates in order to make us more into the people he dreamt us to be.

Pray

Closing Prayer: Thank you, O Lord, that you love me enough to thwart and frustrate me when I am settling for less than you desire for me.  Align my mind with your mind, and my heart with your heart, so that I can become more and more like you each day.

shepherd and sheep

Opening Prayer: God, my shepherd!  I don’t need a thing. (Psalm 23:1, MSG)

Scripture: Psalm 23:1-6

Journal: How are you experiencing the Lord as your shepherd these days?  What does it mean that you are his sheep? What is God saying to you today?

Reflection: The Lord is my shepherd; I am his sheep.  He will take full and complete care of me; I do not need to worry.  In a barren land, he finds me green pastures and makes me lie down.  In a dry and arid place, he leads me to still waters where I can drink and be refreshed and renewed.  He guides me in the good way, so I don’t get lost or confused, all for his name’s sake. 

Even when the stench of death surrounds me and darkness overwhelms me, I will not fear for he is right in the middle of it with me, protecting me and directing me with his staff and his rod.  His love and his power bring me so much peace and comfort. 

He sets a table for the two of us to share an elaborate and intimate meal together.  He pours fragrant and healing oil on my head to show me that I am loved and valued.  My heart, just like my cup at his table, is always filled to overflowing with abundance and delight.  He pursues me unceasingly with his goodness and his unfailing love, so that I may live in his house, with him, forever.

Pray

Closing Prayer: The Lord is my shepherd; I have all I need. (Psalm 23:1, NLT)