Devotions based on Juliet Benner’s Book, Contemplative Vision When we have times of joy and blessings, it is not hard to see God and His action in our lives. But when we are going through some chaotic times of struggle, we may feel abandoned and tempted to ask God where He is.   Even though it…

Devotions based on Juliet Benner’s book, Contemplative Vision Increased awareness of God can become a way of life for us. It can even bring us to the place of ceaseless prayer, that we are encouraged by Paul in I Thess. 5:17- 18. This unceasing prayer is unceasing openness to God as we live with an…

Devotions based on Juliet Benner’s book, Contemplative Vision Many times in the Bible we are invited to see…”O taste and see” ( Ps. 34:8), “Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord.”(Ex. 14:13), “Behold the beauty of the Lord” (Ps. 27:4) Jesus so often invited people to have the eyes of their hearts and…

Devotions based on Juliet Benner’s book, Contemplative vision After reading Juliet’s book, I am beginning to think we are all visually challenged as we miss so much of what is around us and in front of us. Our spiritual seeing is also conditioned by our physical seeing. When we are oblivious to the things our…

Devotions based on Juliet Benner’s book, Contemplative Vision “Contemplative prayer is simply a receptive form of prayer in which we open ourselves to God in stillness and silence.”  It is a time of being with God and just allowing the Holy Spirit freedom to move in our lives. This means we need to make space…

Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God As we truly open ourselves to God it has a great potential for transforming our inner life and bringing new freedom to us.  When we are still before God we often find that He reorganizes our inner landscape in ways that we can not imagine. Sometimes…

Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God Haven’t we all longed for a relationship with God that would be a part of our experience throughout the day regardless of what we are doing? Regardless of whether or not we happened to be thinking of Him  praying,or doing something else.  Jesus calls us friends…

Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God There is a prayer beyond doing and it is prayer of BEING. This is a prayer of simply being with God. It is an experiential knowing and resting in His presence. Usually this is called contemplative prayer and it is a way of opening our selves…

Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God Prayer is always personal and it is an expression of our heart and mind that is open to God in trust.  Most of us pray worded prayers and that is a good beginning point. The words we use will usually fit somewhere in the categories of…

Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God In prayer we bring the mind and the heart to God in openness.  Mary, the mother of Jesus did this when she was told by the angel she was going to bear the Christ child. She received the news with her heart at first and then…