Coherency

28 Jan 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , , , ,

These are the words of Jeremiah, Hilkiah’s son, who was one of the priests from Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. The LORD ’s word came to Jeremiah in the thirteenth year of Judah’s King Josiah, Amon’s son, and throughout the rule of Judah’s King Jehoiakim, Josiah’s son, until the fifth month of the eleventh year of King Zedekiah, Josiah’s son, when the people of Jerusalem were taken into exile.

The LORD ’s word came to me: “Before I created you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I set you apart; I made you a prophet to the nations.” “Ah, LORD God,” I said, “I don’t know how to speak because I’m only a child.” The LORD responded, “Don’t say, ‘I’m only a child.’ Where I send you, you must go; what I tell you, you must say. Don’t be afraid of them, because I’m with you to rescue you,” declares the LORD. Then the LORD stretched out his hand, touched my mouth, and said to me, “I’m putting my words in your mouth. This very day I appoint you over nations and empires, to dig up and pull down, to destroy and demolish, to build and plant.” ~Jeremiah 1:1-10 (CEB)

“Every morning at 6:45 I go to the small convent of the Carmelite Sisters for an hour of prayer and meditation. I say ‘every morning,’ but there are exceptions. Fatigue, busyness, and preoccupations often serve as arguments for not going. Yet without this one hour a day for God, my life loses its coherency and I start experiencing my days as a series of random incidents and accidents.

My hour in the Carmelite chapel is more important than I can fully know myself. It is not an hour of deep prayer, nor a time in which I experience a special closeness to God; it is not a period of serious attentiveness to the divine mysteries. I wish it were! On the contrary, it is full of distractions, inner restlessness, sleepiness, confusion, and boredom. It seldom, if ever, pleases my senses. But the simple fact of being for one hour in the presence of the Lord and of showing him all that I feel, think, sense, and experience, without trying to hide anything, must please him.” ~From Gracias! By Henri J.M. Nouwen

It is not so much that the time I spend with God is perfect. The point is that I make the effort to take time to be in his presence. When I make time in my schedule I place myself in a position to hear from Him and be touched by Him. Making time for Him brings a coherency to my otherwise hectic schedule.

Heavenly Father, Because of You I am fearfully and wonderfully made. You knew me before I was born. When I try to serve You, You see my heart and know my intentions despite my distractions or sleepiness. You bolster and strengthen me. You bring coherency to my living. You give me the words that I need to speak. You rescue me when a storm blows in. I thank You for Your presence in my life. Amen.

Those who have gone before

27 Jan 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , , ,

Moses was taking care of the flock for his father-in-law Jethro, Midian’s priest. He led his flock out to the edge of the desert, and he came to God’s mountain called Horeb. The LORD’s messenger appeared to him in a flame of fire in the middle of a bush. Moses saw that the bush was in flames, but it didn’t burn up. Then Moses said to himself, Let me check out this amazing sight and find out why the bush isn’t burning up.

When the LORD saw that he was coming to look, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!”

Moses said, “I’m here.”

Then the LORD said, “Don’t come any closer! Take off your sandals, because you are standing on holy ground.”  He continued, “I am the God of your father, Abraham’s God, Isaac’s God, and Jacob’s God.” Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.

Then the LORD said, “I’ve clearly seen my people oppressed in Egypt. I’ve heard their cry of injustice because of their slave masters. I know about their pain. I’ve come down to rescue them from the Egyptians in order to take them out of that land and bring them to a good and broad land, a land that’s full of milk and honey, a place where the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites all live.Now the Israelites’ cries of injustice have reached me. I’ve seen just how much the Egyptians have oppressed them. So get going. I’m sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. ”

 But Moses said to God, “Who am I to go to Pharaoh and to bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

God said, “I’ll be with you. And this will show you that I’m the one who sent you. After you bring the people out of Egypt, you will come back here and worship God on this mountain.” ~Exodus 3:1-12 (CEB)

“The Bible and saints who have gone before us give ample evidence of God’s consistent call to each of us. The Bible and the saints who have traveled this road before us also make clear the universal nature of God’s call to all humankind. No one is left out, exempted, or overlooked. All are of equal worth and all are called. While we may think of certain vocations as callings, God appears to consider all of life as our calling, and that includes every honorable vocation.

Regularly practicing disciplines of the holy life puts us in position to hear God’s call clearly. Those disciplines include prayer, fasting, community and personal worship, acts of mercy and compassion, and faithful living.

Hearing is an important step in saying yes to God’s call. But once we hear, we must still decide whether we will go where invited or sent. In other words, hearing may be the easy part of saying yes to God’s call. Once we have heard and counted the cost the most difficult task remains. However, with deep faith in the living God who calls us, the only reasonable response is to say yes. For in our best moments, we know God will ask us, only us, to say yes to an invitation that is right and good for us.  Listen closely, think deeply, pray fervently, and you will be lead to the right answer to God’s invitational call. In my experience the right answer is always yes. The good news is that even when I was unable to give the right answer, God was patient and gave me opportunity to grow in faith until I was able to say yes and to claim another part of my inheritance as a child of God.” ~ From A Guide To Prayer For All Who Seek God, Rueben P. Job

Hearing God’s call is an everyday experience for me. Answering Him is a moment by moment decision. First I need to hear his voice. Sometimes I need to look to others’ example to help me along my way.

Heavenly Father, help me to discern Your will in my life as I seek you though regular discipline of holy living. May the scriptures I read in the Bible help to tune my ears to hear Your Word. Amen.

Seeking

26 Jan 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , ,

The LORD proclaims: When Babylon’s seventy years are up, I will come and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. I know the plans I have in mind for you, declares the LORD; they are plans for peace, not disaster, to give you a future filled with hope. When you call me and come and pray to me, I will listen to you. When you search for me, yes, search for me with all your heart, you will find me. I will be present for you, declares the LORD, and I will end your captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have scattered you, and I will bring you home after your long exile, declares the LORD. ~Jeremiah 29:10-14 (CEB)

“[Jesus] has said: ask and you shall receive, seek and you will find. Unfortunately we ask for the ephemeral which isn’t really satisfying. We seek what is passing and will leave us empty- until we come to realize in truth we do not know what we truly want, where our true happiness lies. We need to seek a teacher, a prophetic voice- the guidance of one whom the Lord has sent, the Church who makes Jesus present to us today, Jesus who is all our hearts seek. Until we seek and find Truth we will in fact be in a desert chasing mirages, encountering delusions, finding all swaying and unstable.” ~From Living in the Questions by M. Basil Pennington

Help me this day O Lord to seek Your Truth in all I do. Guide my steps through this day so that I may better live for You. Amen.

Saying yes to life

25 Jan 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, this is the reason that I don’t stop giving thanks to God for you when I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, will give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation that makes God known to you. I pray that the eyes of your heart will have enough light to see what is the hope of God’s call, what is the richness of God’s glorious inheritance among believers, and what is the overwhelming greatness of God’s power that is working among us believers. This power is conferred by the energy of God’s powerful strength. God’s power was at work in Christ when God raised him from the dead and sat him at God’s right side in the heavens, far above every ruler and authority and power and angelic power, any power that might be named not only now but in the future. God put everything under Christ’s feet and made him head of everything in the church, which is his body. His body, the church, is the fullness of Christ, who fills everything in every way. ~Ephesians 1:15-23 (CEB)

“Daily personal prayer, examination of conscience, and participation in a faith-sharing group: these smaller practices can be of real benefit to us in sustaining the larger practice of saying yes to life, saying no to destruction. Together, they help us to understand, judge, and evaluate our daily choices and decisions in light of their relation to our daily choices and decisions in light of the relation to our ultimate happiness, as individuals and as humans in community. If we are to enhance and build up the capacities for a good, wholesome, and holy life, we must learn to say yes to what affirms and renews wholeness and life. And we must learn to say a related no to what induces and brings about destruction and ruin. In this practice, we are invited and challenged to make a fully conscious voice about who it is we are and who it is we shall become.” ~From “Saying Yes and Saying No” by M. Shawn Copleand in Praciting Our Faith, ed. By Dorothy C. Bass

Heavenly Father, I thank You for the faithful friends you have placed in my life that helps me to decipher Your will in my life. May I ever be willing to hear what You have to say. Amen.

Simplicity

24 Jan 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , , ,

They asked him, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You don’t know me and you don’t know my Father. If you knew me, you would also know my Father.” He spoke these words while he was teaching in the temple area known as the treasury. No one arrested him, because his time hadn’t yet come. ~John 8:12-20 (CEB)

“Simplicity and regularity are the best guides in finding our way. They allow us to make the discipline of solitude as much a part of our daily lives as eating and sleeping. When that happens, our noisy worries will slowly lose their power over us and the renewing activities of God’s Spirit will slowly make its presence known.

Although the discipline of solitude asks us to set aside time and space, what finally matters is that our hearts becomes like quiet cells where God can dwell, wherever we go and whatever we do.” ~From Making All Things New by Henri J.M. Nouwen.

The simplest truths can be the hardest to put into practice. Discipline helps to keep the worries at bay. Fears still lurk outside but making time for God helps to keep the stress at bay. The more I try to put into practice the things that the Bible tells me to do the more I realize I am finding myself.

Thank You Heavenly Father for sending Your son into the world so that we might get a glimpse at You. Thank You for choosing to dwell in my heart. Thank You for guiding my steps so that I could begin to realize who I really am, the daughter of a King. Amen.

Reorganization

22 Jan 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , ,

Seek the LORD when he can still be found; call him while he is yet near. Let the wicked abandon their ways and the sinful their schemes. Let them return to the LORD so that he may have mercy on them, to our God, because he is generous with forgiveness. My plans aren’t your plans, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my plans than your plans. ~Isaiah 55:6-9 (CEB)

“It is unlikely that we will deepen our relationship with God in casual or haphazard manner. There will be a need for some intentional commitment and some reorganization in our own lives. But there is nothing that will enrich our lives more than a deeper and clearer perception of God’s presence in the routine of daily living.” ~From “Ways of Prayer: Designing a Personal Rule” by William O. Paulsell in Weavings September/October 1987

I know that when I spend time with God first thing in my day the day just seems to flow better. It isn’t that bad things don’t happen because I spent time with God, but that I find it easier to turn to Him for guidance when the door of communication has already been opened for the day. Nurturing my relationship with Him keeps Him foremost in my mind when bumps in the road happen or when fear is sneaking in the back door again. Because my ears have already been listening for Him it is easier to hear His voice say “This is the way you should go.” (Isaiah 30:21) Because I have already looked to Him it is easier to see His blessings in my life.

Heavenly Father, I thank You for Your Presence in my life. I Thank You for Your guidance and the blessings that You bestow. Help me from slipping into a causal relationship. Instead help me to keep my life intentionally organized so that I have a clearer perception and a deeper understanding of You. Amen

Clinging

21 Jan 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , ,

 

God! My God! It’s you— I search for you! My whole being thirsts for you! My body desires you in a dry and tired land, no water anywhere. Yes, I’ve seen you in the sanctuary; I’ve seen your power and glory. My lips praise you because your faithful love is better than life itself! So I will bless you as long as I’m alive; I will lift up my hands in your name. I’m fully satisfied— as with a rich dinner. My mouth speaks praise with joy on my lips— whenever I ponder you on my bed, whenever I meditate on you in the middle of the night— because you’ve been a help to me and I shout for joy in the protection of your wings. My whole being clings to you; your strong hand upholds me. ~Psalm 63:1-8 (CEB)

“Nothing is real without deriving its reality from God. This was the great discovery of St. Francis when he suddenly saw the whole world in God’s hands and wondered why God didn’t drop it. St Augustine, St. Teresa of Avila, St John Vianney, and all the saints are saints precisely because for them the order of being was turned around and they say, felt, and- above all- knew with their hearts that outside God nothing is, nothing breathes, nothing moves, and nothing lives.

This makes me aware that the basis of all ministries rests not in the moral life but in the mystical life. The issue is not to live as well as we can, but to let out life be one that finds its source in the Divine life. ~From Gracias! By Henri J.M. Nouwen

It is a good reminder to not get caught up in trying to live as well as I can. Then my focus is on what I am doing. So quickly it seems sometimes that I go from wanting to do something because I feel led by God- to putting all my energy into what I am doing and I forget where my energy should be in the first place. On God. Any time my focus is on what I am doing, even if what I am doing is ultimately for him, I find myself back in the try-hard life forgetting that Jesus said that “his load” was easy.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for sending Jesus into the world to show me that our burdens should not be heavy. The key is simply to keep my focus on You. Amen.

Companions in the desert

19 Jan 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , , ,

We are God’s accomplishment, created in Christ Jesus to do good things. God planned for these good things to be the way that we live our lives. ~Ephesians 2:10

“Hospitality is the virtue which allows us to break through the narrowness of our own fears and to open our houses to the stranger, with the intuition that salvation comes to us in the form of a tired traveler. Hospitality makes anxious disciples into powerful witnesses, makes suspicious owners into generous givers, and makes closed-minded sectarians into interested recipients of new ideas and insights.

But it has become very difficult for us today to fully understand the implications of hospitality. Like the Semitic nomads, we live in a desert with many lonely travelers who are looking for a moment of peace, for a fresh drink and for a sign of encouragement so that they can continue their mysterious search for freedom.

What does hospitality as a healing power require? It requires first of all that the host feel at home in his own house, and secondly that he create a free and fearless place for the unexpected visitor. Therefore, hospitality embraces two concepts: concentration and community.” ~From The Wounded Healer by Henri J. M. Nouwen.

As I wander through life I stumble across other travelers looking for something. When I take a moment to visit I may find it to be a simply moment to freshen us to journey on or I may find a companion to travel life’s rugged roads for a longer period. I never know when I come across another traveler if it will be a brief encounter or deeper friendship. I am only asked to take notice of those whom I come in contact with as I travel along.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for the travelers You have sent along the way. I thank You for the community You have given me. Help me to be ever aware of others that You may want in my life. May I always be open to new traveling companions. Amen

House of sand

18 Jan 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , ,

You must be doers of the word and not only hearers who mislead themselves. Those who hear but don’t do the word are like those who look at their faces in a mirror. They look at themselves, walk away, and immediately forget what they were like. But there are those who study the perfect law, the law of freedom, and continue to do it. They don’t listen and then forget, but they put it into practice in their lives. They will be blessed in whatever they do. ~James 1:22-25 (CEB)

“’But I do not know how to awake and arise!’ I will tell you. Get up, and do something the Master tells you; so make yourself his disciple at once. Instead of asking yourself whether you believe or not, ask yourself whether you have this day done one thing because he said, Do it, or once abstained because he said, Do not do it. It is simply absurd to say you believe, or even want to believe in him, if you do not anything he tells you. If you can think of nothing he ever said as having had an atom of influence on your doing or not doing, you have too good ground to consider yourself no disciple of his.

But you can begin at once to be a disciple of the Living One- by obeying him in the first thing you can think of in which you are not obeying him. We must learn to obey him in everything, and so much begin somewhere. Let it be at once, and in the very next thing that lies at the door of our conscience! Oh fools and slow of heart, if you think of nothing but Christ, and do not set yourselves to do his words! You build your house of sand.” ~From Creations in Christ by George MacDonald

It isn’t that scriptures are too hard for me to understand, it is that sometimes it is hard to live out the scriptures I read. But there is a moment when I do make the sacrifice where I often find that the blessings I receive far outweigh anything I have done without. When I have been pushed out of my comfort zones to follow God’s will for my life I find a wealth of community that I would not have had if I had remained in my seclusion. As God stretches and molds me I have to remember that ultimately He is working all things not just to fulfill His plans for the Kingdom but also for my good.

Heavenly Father I thank You for stretching and molding me into more than I could ever be on my own. Continue to mold me in Christ’s image… give me the strength to just to the next right thing. Amen.

Deserts of the heart

17 Jan 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

At once the Spirit forced Jesus out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among the wild animals, and the angels took care of him. ~Mark 1:12-13 (CEB)

“A Strange life-giver, the Holy Spirit, for the life given is compassed about by desolation. The story of Jesus bears stark testimony to this unsettling truth. At the birth of Jesus the Spirit-guided words of Simeon prophesy desolation for Israel and for the heart of Mary as well (Luke 2:34-35). Immediately after his baptism, during which God calls Jesus ‘my beloved,’ the Spirit drives him into the wilderness of isolation, vulnerability, and temptation (Mark 1:12-13). And at the end of a life exquisitely responsive to every subtle rhythm of the Spirit’s leading, Jesus chokes out the unthinkable words, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Matt 27:46)

Christian tradition teaches that there are times when we, like Jesus, are led into arid soulscapes that bruise and disorient us. These places seem bereft of God’s presence and filled with temptations to lose heart in God’s goodness, care, and sovereignty. In this harsh ‘winter of abandonment’ (Johannes Tauler), Jesus’ anguished cry of desertion becomes our own. Desert and cross- places of excruciating separation from the God we have some to know but equally unbearable intimacy with the God we are yet to know, places bare of all human possibilities but pregnant with grace. ‘Lord,’ exclaims the scorned and ill young priest in a novel by Georges Bernanos, ‘I am stripped bare of all things, as you alone can strip us bare, whose fearful care nothing escapes, nor your terrible love.’ [We discover] the riches hidden in the poverty of desert and cross, symbols of God’s ‘terrible love.’ In the ‘fearful care’ of the Holy Spirit we are stripped bare but not left naked and exposed in desert wastes.” ~From “Editor’s Introduction” by John S. Mogabgab in Weavings September/October 1993

The Hebrews after their release from bondage traveled through a desert on the way to learning who they were as children of God. Doors to the past had to be shut in order for them to move into their new future in the Promised Land. Old habits and old ways of thinking had to be worked through in that isolation time in the desert. If I remember the Israelites when I find myself in times of “desert” I know that God is taking me to a place where I can begin anew. The desert isn’t a place of abandonment; it is the transition time from “what was” to “what will be”.

Lord, in the desert moments of life help me to remember that these are just momentary transitions of life. Just as the Hebrews had to spend time in the desert to ready their hearts to enter the Promised Land so I must spend time in preparation for the things You want me to do. Bolster me and strengthen me for the task of transformation to new life. Amen.

 

 

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