becoming

Opening Prayer: O Lord, show me the wonders of your great love; keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.  For you are my God.  Amen.

Scripture: Psalm 17:7-8

Journal:  Which of these three phrases is most relevant in your life and world these days: Show me the wonders of your great love, Keep me as the apple of your eye, or Hide me in the shadow of your wings?  Why?  How is prayer helping you to become?

Reflection: Prayers are tools, but with this clarification: prayers are not tools for doing or getting, but for being and becoming. (Answering God by Eugene Peterson)

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Show me your unfailing love in wonderful ways. By your mighty power you rescue those who seek refuge from their enemies. Guard me as you would guard your own eyes. Hide me in the shadow of your wings. (Psalm 17:7-8, NLT)

fret

Opening Prayer: Lord, help me to not get so caught up in fretting and worrying today that it keeps me from delighting in you.  Amen.

Scripture: Psalm 37:1-8

Journal: Where in your life are you fretting?  What effect is it having on you?  How can you turn from fret to delight and trust?

Reflection:

spinning

it is so easy for me to get lost inside myself at times

to get stuck in a slow spiral of darkness and death

unable to break free

consumed

trapped in a maze ever deepening

a decaying orbit destined to crash in a dark land

void of light and life

stuck or marooned or stranded

seemingly unable to break free

from the gravitational pull

is it a choice that keeps me in this place

is it as simple as saying no

as interrupting the death spiral

and turning back to a more beautiful way

of being and of seeing

is it simply a choice to return home

to my best and truest self

the one you whispered into being

to turn the ear of my soul

back toward your lips

to hear a more reliable voice

the voice of truth and love and delight

the only voice it seems

that can stop the spinning

only you o god can break the tether

only you can stop this spinning

and restore hope and joy and peace

to my desperate soul

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord, help me not to get so busy and preoccupied spinning around in my own little world today that I forget to pay attention to you and fail to love others.  Amen.

longing

Opening Prayer: As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? (Psalm 42:1-2)

Scripture: Psalm 42:1-11

Journal: What is the state of your soul these days?  What are your deepest longings?  How are you longing for God?  How do you offer that to him in prayer?

Reflection: There is much more to being human than simply surviving; there is God—looking for God, pleasing God, getting God’s help.  We are unfinished creatures—longing, reaching, stretching towards fulfillment.  We express these desires for completion in prayer.  Prayers articulate our seeking after the best.  Prayers give voice to aspiration towards the highest. (Answering God by Eugene H. Peterson)

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. (Psalm 42:11)

stewards of grace

Opening Prayer: Lord God, thank you that you have made us stewards of your divine mysteries.  May we always take that responsibility seriously.  That the world might know the abundance of your grace.  Through Christ.  Amen.

Scripture: Ephesians 3:1-6

Journal: How have you been a steward of God’s grace recently?

Reflection:

     the life of ministry

the stewardship of God's grace
that was given to me for you.
~Ephesians 3:2

grace must be revealed
and then received
before it can be
passed along

i wonder why
that is so hard for us
this receiving

it cannot be achieved
but only given
and for some reason
that drives us crazy

but we cannot give
what we never been given
and receiving is an integral part
of the process of being
good stewards of god's
inexhaustible grace

therefore
o god
we beg you
make us good stewards
of the divine riches
of your grace
today and every day

help us to
fully receive it
for ourselves
that we may

freely offer it

to others

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O Lord, my God, You know my weakness and failings, and that without Your help I can accomplish nothing for the good of souls, my own and others’. Grant me, therefore, the help of Your grace. Grant it according to my particular needs this day. Enable me to see the task You will set before me in the daily routine of my life, and help me work hard at my appointed tasks. Teach me to bear patiently all the trials of suffering or failure that may come to me today. Amen.

grace has appeared

Opening Prayer: New every morning is your love, great God of light, and all day long you are working for good in your world.  Stir up in us the desire to serve you and to devote each day to your Son, or Savior Jesus.  We praise you with joy, loving God, for your grace is better than life itself.  Once again you have sustained us through the darkness and blessed us with life in this new day.  Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.  In your tender compassion the morning sun has once again risen upon us, to shine on us in our darkness and to guide our feet into the paths of peace.  For this and your many mercies, we give you thanks.  Amen.

Scripture: Titus 2:11

Journal: How has God’s grace appeared in your life recently?  How is it doing a work within you?  How is he asking you to show grace to those in your life and world?

Reflection:

          grace

i was not looking for it

nor was i expecting it

yet there it was

it just appeared

right out of the blue

it took me by surprise

and filled me with delight

grace had appeared

it just showed up

on my doorstep

uninvited

and now has

taken up residence

within me

that is the nature of grace

it just appears

that's what it does

it can't be

commanded or controlled

it can't be

manipulated or manufactured

it can only be

given and then received

it can only be

conceived and then born

within us

all we can do

is be open and hopeful

willing to let grace

have its way with us

whenever and wherever

it chooses to appear

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Show us your grace, O God, that we might show it to others.  Amen.

new

Opening Prayer: O Lord, our God, thank you that you are always doing a new thing within and among us, whether we can perceive it or not.  Work you good work in us and through us, both this day and every day. Amen.

Scripture: Isaiah 43:18-21

Journal: What new thing is God doing within or around you these days?

Reflection: The life of faith is not only about what God has done—although that is certainly important—or even about what he will do, for that matter.  Isaiah is very clear to tell us that it is about what God is doing; that’s what he is calling us to pay particular attention to.  God is always up to something.  The good news of the gospel is that God is always at work, doing a new thing within and among us, whether we can yet perceive it or not.  The real question is: Do we really believe it’s true?  For if we do, it will significantly change how we go about living our lives.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O Lord, help me to let go of the former things, whatever they might be.  Those things that drag me down and tie me up.  Those things that keep me from being free and whole and completely yours.  For only when I let go of the former things will there be room within me to perceive, and receive, the new thing you have already begun doing in my heart and soul.  Amen.

beautiful in its time

Opening Prayer: Thank you, O Lord our God, for planting eternity in our hearts.  Thank you for birthing the Divine Life in our souls.  May it well up within us and pour forth from us to all who cross our paths today and everyday.  Amen.

Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3:1-11

Journal: How has he made everything beautiful in its time for you?  How have you witnessed that?  How does that give you hope for your current season of life?  How in touch are you with the eternity he has planted in your heart?  What can help nurture that awareness?  How will you cultivate the divine life within you this day, this week, this month, and this year?

Reflection: For the miracle of God comes not only from above; it also comes through us; it is also dwelling in us.  It has been given to every person, and it lies in every soul as something divine, and it waits.  Calling, it waits for the hour when the soul shall open itself, having found its God and its home.  When this is so, the soul will not keep its wealth to itself, but will let it flow out into the world.  Wherever love proceeds from us and becomes truth, the time is fulfilled.  Then the divine life floods through our human relationships and all our works.  Then everything that is lonely and scattered and seeking for the way of God shall be bound together by divine power. (When the Time Was Fulfilled by Eberhard Arnold)

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord God, regardless what the current season of my life may look like, help me hold onto the hope that you can and will make everything beautiful in its time.  Help me to trust you, O Lord, in the meantime.  Amen.