When God comes seeking

11 Dec 2013 Leave a comment

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

Mary got up and hurried to a city in the Judean highlands. She entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. With a loud voice she blurted out, “God has blessed you above all women, and he has blessed the child you carry. Why do I have this honor, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. Happy is she who believed that the Lord would fulfill the promises he made to her.” ~Luke 1:39-45 (CEB)

“God tells Zechariah through an angel’s visit that he and his wife will know the joy of having a child, but Elizabeth comes to that knowledge without an angel or a dream or any special sign to help her believe. She knows the incredible joy of having her disgrace wiped away, but she also experiences the added joy of recognizing that God is about to do something even more wonderful, and not just for her and Zechariah personally but for the whole world. She realizes that God comes to us individually. And that reality is remarkable. God could herd us all together like flocks of sheep and redeem us in groups. God could sap whole congregations and speed up the process of saving the world. But God wants relationships with each of us and chooses to come to us one by one…

Elizabeth is overwhelmed when she realizes that the mother of the Messiah has come to her personally. A righteous and blameless person, she finds that fact of being sought by God difficult to grasp and impossible to explain. We ordinary folks who intimately know ourselves to be less than righteous and less than blameless find it even more difficult to understand that God seeks us out and wants relationship with us! Because relationships are built one person at a time, God invests time and energy in each one of us, knowing each one of us is unique and infinitely valuable.” ~From While We Wait by Mary Lou Redding.

While we wait we sometimes forget that we can be found. The Christmas story has many windows of God entering personally into the lives of His people. The Advent season is a time of waiting, but in that waiting we find hope. We are reminded that God never leaves us alone in our darkness. Although we cannot always “see” Him, the darkness is as light to Him. (Psalm 139:12) We may be “blind” to Him but we are never lost to Him.

Heavenly Father, I thank You for sending Jesus into the world to find the lost, the sick, the blind. I thank You Jesus for loving us so much that you were willing to physically come down here to be with us, not just to tell us of the Father’s love but to show us that love. I thank you Jesus for being willing to be that candle in the dark for us, guiding us to the true Light. May I feel that Love this Advent season through relationships that You have given me. Amen.

My soul dances

03 Dec 2013 Leave a comment

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

For in [Christ] every one of God’s promises is a “Yes.” For this reason it is through him that we say the “Amen,” to the glory of God ~2 Cor. 1:20 (NRSV)

“God’s apparent lack of restraint when it comes to creating things is but a symptom of a deeper ‘problem’: God lacks restraint when it comes to loving, too. In fact, God is most unrestrained when it comes to loving. Put another way, God cannot love except abundantly.

We see this abundance of God’s love demonstrated throughout [Hebrew Scriptures] The Chosen People turn away from God again and again. What does God do? Does God throw up his divine hands in disgust and cry, ‘Enough already!’ and zap those Israelites into kingdom come? No, God continues to love them, taking them back again and again and again. There seems to be no end to God’s love. There is no end to God’s love.” ~From Abundant Treasures by Melannie Svoboda

My soul dances in delight, O Lord, for You have visited me with unspeakable promise, which You alone can perform. Amen.

In training

25 Nov 2013 Leave a comment

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

Train yourself for a holy life! While physical training has some value, training in holy living is useful for everything. It has promise for this life now and the life to come.   ~1 Timothy 4:7b-8 (CEB)

“Our Spiritual life is his affair; because, whatever we may think to the contrary, it is really produced by his steady attraction, and our humble and self-forgetful response to it. It consists in being drawn, at his pace and in his way, to the place where he wants us to be; not the place we fancied for ourselves.” ~From The Spiritual Life by Evelyn Underhill

Draw me ever closer to You O Lord. Steady my life. Help me to fill that hole that can only be filled by You. Help me to align my pace with Yours so that I may better understand Your will. Help me to see myself with Your eyes. Amen.

Do you love me?

18 Nov 2013 Leave a comment

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

When they finished eating, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”

Simon replied, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.”

Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”  Jesus asked a second time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

Simon replied, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.”

Jesus said to him, “Take care of my sheep.”  He asked a third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was sad that Jesus asked him a third time, “Do you love me?” He replied, “Lord, you know everything; you know I love you.”

Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. ~John 21:14-17 (CEB)

“Two millennia ago at an early morning breakfast by the Sea of Tiberius, Jesus had only one question for Peter: ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Jesus did not ask him about his effectiveness, or his skill, or anything but his love. Three times Jesus asked, ‘Simon, do you love me?’ Peter struggled for an adequate response to that probing query. Finally, he blurted out, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Assured of his heart, Jesus gave Peter work to do: ‘Feed my lambs.’

The same question is asked of us. The same work is given to us.” ~From Prayer: Finding the Heat’s True Home by Richard J. Foster

Lord, creator of heaven and earth, you know my every thought. Yet you still call me to serve You. Guide my steps this day to not follow my own leading, but to turn to Yours instead. Help me feed Your sheep. Amen.

Guided by the Shepherd

14 Nov 2013 Leave a comment

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But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. Isaiah 43:1 (ESV)

“For a long time, I prayed the words, ‘The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want. Fresh and green are the pastures where he gives me repose. Near restful waters he leads me to revive my drooping spirit.’ I prayed these words in the morning for half an hour sitting quietly on my chair trying only to keep my mind focused on what I was saying. I prayed them during the many moments of the day when I was going here or there, and I even prayed them during my routine activities. The words stand in stark contrast to the reality of my life. I want many things; I see mostly busy roads and ugly shopping malls; and if there are any waters to walk along they are mostly polluted. But as I keep saying: ‘The Lord is my shepherd. . . .’ and allow God’s shepherding love to enter more fully into my heart, I become more fully aware that the busy roads, the ugly malls, and the polluted waterways are not telling the true story of who I am. I do not belong to the powers and principalities that rule the world but to the Good Shepherd who knows his own and is known by his own. In the presence of my Lord and Shepherd there truly is nothing I shall want. He will, indeed, give me the rest my heart desires and pull me out of the dark pits of my depression.” ~From Here and Now by Henri J. M. Nouwen

Good Shepherd who knows me and claims me as His own, I thank You for Your scriptures that helps me find words when I am at a loss for my own. Shepherd my steps as I move through my routine activities this day. Keep me focused on truth. Help me feel Your Holy Presence when my spirits droop so that I may find true rest for my soul. Amen.

Living, today

08 Nov 2013 Leave a comment

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

Who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith–of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire–may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. ~1Peter 1:5-9 (NIV)

“Life, the contemplative knows, is a process. It is not that all the elements of life, mundane as the may be, do not matter. On the contrary, to the contemplative everything matters. Everything speaks of God, and God is both in and beyond everything.

Having the faith to take life one piece at a time- to live it in the knowledge that there is something of God in this for me now, here at this moment- is of the essence of happiness. It is not that God is a black box of full tests and trials and treats. It is that life is a step on the way to a God who goes the way with us. However far, however perilous.” ~From Illuminated Life by Joan Chittister

Almighty God, in the everyday ordinariness, may I see you. May I live this moment to its fullest so that my every waking moment glorifies You. May the regrets from yesterday or the worries for tomorrow not take away from the beauty that is, today. Amen.

Led moment by moment

04 Nov 2013 Leave a comment

by jennifermcintyreblog in Devotions Tags: , , , , ,

“And now, O sons, listen to me:

blessed are those who keep my ways.

Hear instruction and be wise,

and do not neglect it.

Blessed is the one who listens to me,

watching daily at my gates,

waiting beside my doors.

For whoever finds me finds life

and obtains favor from the Lord,

but he who fails to find me injures himself;

all who hate me love death.” ~Proverbs 8:32-36

“To the degree that we Christians surrender ourselves freely to the leadership of Jesus Christ through the mystical oneness we enjoy with him and in him, to that degree we can say we are Christians, living members of his body. We will know experientially that we live in his light by the gentle love we have toward each person whom we meet in each moment.

Thus we will be led from moment to moment into greater light as we see, by increased faith, hope and love, God’s loving presence in all events. Complete abandonment and childlike trust are the Holy Spirit’s gifts to those who are ready to die to their false selves and begin to live in the truth of the new creatures that they are and have always been in the eyes of the heavenly Father.” ~From In Jesus We Trust by George A. Maloney

Heavenly Father, You created me and called to my heart wooing me closer to You. Pour out Your Holy Spirit on me today so that I may be a wise steward of the gifts You have bestowed on me. Amen.

Instrument of God

30 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

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

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. ~Romans 6:12-14 (CEB)

“I know that many wiser and better Christians than I in these days do not like to mention heaven and hell even in a pulpit. I know, too, that nearly all the references to this subject in New Testament come from a single source. But then that source is our Lord himself. People will tell you it is St. Paul, but that is untrue. These overwhelming doctrines are dominical. They are not really removable from the teaching of Christ or of his Church. If we do not believe them, our presence in this church is great tomfoolery. If we do, we must sometime overcome our spiritual prudery and mention them.” ~From Fern-Seed and Elephants by C.S. Lewis

Help me this day O Lord to live as You would have me. Help me to be Your hands and feet to this hurting world. Help my focus this day be on You and not me. Amen.

To truly see

28 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

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

And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? ~Mark 8:34-37 (CEB)

“Spirituality is about seeing. It’s not about earning or achieving. It’s about relationship rather than results or requirements. Once you see, the rest follows. You don’t need to push the river, because you are in it. The life is lived within us, and we learn how to say yes to that life.” ~From Everything Belongs by Richard Rohr

Heavenly Father, help me to see with my spirit so that I may hear Your words speaking to my heart. Help me to have a full relationship with You. Help me to be Your hands and Feet in the world. Amen.

Open to God

26 Oct 2013 Leave a comment

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No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God. ‘Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” ~John 6:42-51 (CEB)

“If we are to experience God, we must be open to God, to the mystical, to the divine, appearing in our lives. And we must have an openness that is free of any preconditions about how that will happen. Looking for God in a godly form is the great historical mistake.” ~From In Pursuit of the Great White Rabbit by Edward Hays

Open my eyes O Lord, to see You in the world around be. Open my heart to fill Your love. Open my ears to hear Your whispers of love to my heart. Amen.

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