Opening Prayer: “Attention Israel! God, our God! God, the one and only! Love God, your God, with your whole heart: love him with all that’s in you, love him with all you’ve got!” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5, The Message)
Scripture: Deuteronomy 6:4-5
Journal: How willing are you to let God fully love you? Where are you resistant to his love, and why? How is your ability to love him with all your heart, soul and strength contingent on you being fully loved by him first?
Reflection: What if the main reason we fail to love God as we ought is because we are afraid to be fully loved by him? The scriptures make it clear that we love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19), so our love for him can only be a reflection of and response to our own first-hand knowledge of his divine love for us. Thus, if we fail to encounter and experience God’s love fully, then we will fail to love him fully in return.
But why on earth would we be afraid to experience the passion, depths,
and delight of God’s extravagant love? Who
knows? Maybe it’s too intense. Maybe we are afraid it will be too much for
us. As a dear friend of mine once said,
“If God was any more intimate with me, I don’t think I could stand it.” Or maybe it’s too demanding. Maybe it requires something of us that we are
not sure we will be able to give. That
kind of love can only be experienced through total surrender and wild abandon. Unfortunately, surrender and abandon have
never been our strong suit. Or maybe it’s
all about control. Maybe our hesitation
to be fully loved by God has more to do with the fact that his love just puts
us so out of control. As a friend and
mentor used to pray, “O Lord, I want to know the depths of your delight and
affection, but please promise to be gentle with me.”
We want passionate intimacy with God, but it also kind of scares us. We are drawn to it and hesitant of it at the
same time. Yet, our only hope of ever
being able to love God as we ought,
lies in us opening ourselves up to being fully loved by him. It will come only when we are able to truly
pray, “Here I am, O Lord, have your way with me.”
Pray
Closing Prayer: O Lord, unless I let you fully love me, I will never be able to fully love you. Give me the courage and the grace and the strength to let you have your way with me. Amen.
Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, why on earth would I every refuse to enter into your rest? Yet I do. Maybe it is because I’m so afraid of what will happen if I stop. But my real fear, I suppose, should be what will happen if I don’t. Lord, have mercy. Amen.
Scripture: Matthew 11:28-30
Journal: In what ways do you refuse the rest God offers you? Why? What would it look like to fully take Jesus up on his offer in Matthew 11:28-30? Will you?
Reflection: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
I have a sneaking suspicion that the reason we do not experience the
rest that Jesus offers is because we simply refuse to do so. I don’t know, maybe it’s pride, maybe it’s
fear, maybe it’s need, maybe it’s control, or maybe it’s all of the above, but
for some reason we consistently refuse the rest that God calls us to.
Just look at the scriptures. “This
is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel says: ‘In repentance and
rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would
have none of it.’” (Isaiah 30:15) Or, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Stand at
the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is,
and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.’ But you said, ‘We will
not walk in it.’” (Jeremiah 6:16) Or, “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for
the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own
work, just as God did from his. Let us,
therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by
following their example of disobedience.” (Hebrews 4:11)
But why on earth would we refuse to enter into God’s rest? I think Matthew 11:28-30 holds a bit of a clue. In order to enter into God’s rest we must first
come to him, which few of us seem to have
a problem with, and then we must take his
yoke upon us, which is much more difficult.
That’s because we can’t take on his yoke, until we have taken off our
own, whatever it may be. That seems to
be where the refusal comes in, we are simply unwilling to take off our own yoke
in order to take on the light and free and well-fitting yoke of Jesus. Therefore, we are forever burdened and weary
and exhausted from continually trying to do it ourselves.
Basically it all comes down to trust.
Do we really trust that God is enough for us, and that he will give us
everything we need? Love, affirmation,
significance, security, etc. And do we
really believe that God is wise enough and loving enough and powerful enough to
take care of things without us? Or maybe
that’s the issue, maybe we are terrified that he will. Who knows?
Whatever the case, each of us must face our own resistance to God’s
rest, as well as our refusal to enter into it.
And after we face it, we must name it.
Then we must repent of it. We must
be willing to take off our own yoke and take on his. Otherwise, we will never experience the rest
and the peace and the wholeness he created us for.
Prayer
Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to come to you and enter into your rest. Give me the strength and the grace and the courage to take off my yoke and take on yours. For only then will I know the rest and the peace and the wholeness you created me for. Amen.
Opening Prayer: O Heavenly Father, the one through whom all of fatherhood derives its name, give us, this day, the power and the strength to experience the life and the love and the fullness you created us for. We have absolutely no hope of doing that apart from you. Lord, have mercy. Amen.
Scripture: Ephesians 3:14-21
Journal: Are you living out of God’s strength and power these days, or out of your own? What would it look like to live a life that is empowered by God?
Reflection: What if the main reason we are not able to dwell with Christ in our hearts through faith, or stay rooted and grounded in his love, or grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, or be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God, is because we have not yet availed ourselves of his power to do so? What if the main reason we are unable to experience the life and the love and the fullness we were created for is because we keep trying to do it all in our own strength?
After all, the basis for this entire prayer is that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen us with power through his
Spirit in our inner being. All of
these amazing things are to be done out of his abundant resources, not our
own. He is the only one who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask
or imagine, according to his power that is at work in us. Until we begin to use his power, rather than
our own, we will be continually frustrated.
We will live lives that are so much less than the lives he imagined for
us.
His power is the power. His power is dynamis. It is the Greek
word we get the word dynamite from. It is power that has effect, power that
accomplishes what it sets out to accomplish, power that changes things, power
that transforms. But only if we use it. We must stop trying to do it all ourselves
and avail ourselves of God’s power. We
must live empowered lives. Only then
will we begin to experience the immeasurably
more than we ask or imagine that Paul is talking about.
Prayer
Closing Prayer: Lord, only through you, and your power, can we experience a life that is immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine. Work within us, through the power of your Spirit, to produce that life. Amen.
Opening Prayer: O Lord, when I look at what I deserve, because of my sin and disobedience, and what I have been given, because your abundant grace and unfailing love, I am filled with a deep sense of humility, joy, and gratitude. Thank you that you have given me your uprightness, your righteousness and your peace, even though I do not deserve it. That is definitely reason to brighten up, spin around, and shout aloud. Thanks be to God!
Scripture: Psalm 32:1-11
Journal: Would you say your life is marked more by gratitude or entitlement? Why? What does a life that is marked by gratitude look like? How do you cultivate such a life?
Reflection: The blessed life, according to King David, is one in which you know what you really deserve, as well as what you don’t. Gratitude is always the result of being given what you do not deserve. It comes from recognizing and acknowledging that you have received a gift. You have done nothing to earn or achieve the love and the grace and the forgiveness and the compassion that has been lavished upon you, it is the gift of God. And the receiving of that gift always brings about joy and celebration. It always causes us to rejoice (brighten up, in the Hebrew), to be glad (literally, to spin around), and to sing (shout aloud).
The opposite of gratitude is not necessarily ingratitude, but entitlement. Entitlement comes from thinking you deserve better, that you are owed something. It is a posture and an attitude that makes gratitude impossible. In fact, entitlement poisons the soul, always leading to ingratitude, as well as to all sorts of other ugly and horrific states of heart and mind: pride, arrogance, disregard, self-centeredness, and, ultimately, frustration, bitterness, and anger. Not particularly the blessed life that God had in mind.
So the question is, what will it be today, gratitude or
entitlement? The choice is up to you.
Prayer
Closing Prayer: O Lord, give me a spirit of gratitude, rather than a spirit of entitlement. Help me to always recognize your love and your grace in ways that help me to offer love and grace to others, as well as to myself. Amen.
Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you that it is for freedom that you set us free. Help us to live like it. Amen.
Scripture: Galatians 5:1
Journal: Who or what is robbing you of your joy and freedom these days? Why?
Reflection: Don’t give fear, anxiety, and insecurity the power to steal your joy, your laughter, and your freedom today. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”
Fear, anxiety, and insecurity are some of the main predators of the
spiritual life. They will eat up all of
your joy and your life and your freedom if you let them. Don’t let them; that’s the key. It’s why Paul tells the Galatians to “Stand
firm.” You are not powerless in this
struggle. You have the Spirit of God
living within you.
Prayer
Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, give me the strength and the grace and the courage to stand firm whenever something, or someone, tries to rob me of my joy and laughter and freedom. You desire me to live freely, and you give me the power to do so. Help me to live in that truth. Amen.
