Category: Sister Judy (Page 216 of 271)

Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God

Simply said Lectio Divina is 4 movements that involve reading and listening to a short passage of scripture several times. It begins with the first reading which is opening ourselves  to hear the words but also to listen particularly for the word or phrase that stands out for us.  We might notice a memory triggered or an experience that comes to our consciousness. But we sit in stillness to allow God’s word to form within us. After silence we go on to the second reading and this time we allow time to ponder it and hear it with both our head and heart. The third time we allow ourselves to respond to what has touched us. This response can be worded or unworded but it is a prayer if it is offered in openness to the Lord. The final reading is to simply allow ourselves to be with God in stillness. Just Rest in God and be with Him who has spoken to us through His word. I know I need to slow down as I read too quickly and too much at a time. I need to listen more intently and let the Word read me!

Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God

We probably have all struggled like the author who read the Scriptures but felt like they were not speaking to where he was at or giving him life. But he discovered an ancient way, Lectio Divina, which was a gift from God to him. It means divine reading or spiritual reading and is an approach to scripture for the purpose of finding a personal message from God.  . IT is not that we seek Information or motivation but communion with God. It is more than truths or information. It is a way of opening ourselves to God and to listening to His living word to us. Reading scriptures this way is reading with the heart and spirit open. We read slowly and reverentially, savoring what we hear and listening for His voice to our hearts. Our preparation is to be still and silent and to offer a prayer for the Spirit to help us receive the word. It is exciting to wake up each day and find a personal word from God for us.

Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God

As we open our hearts to God more and more we need to meet God on His terms not ours. He arranges the encounters!  Sometimes God seems hidden or silent,  and we feel like we are in a desert and very dry. This is not the result of sin but part of His plan. It is in such times of spiritual dryness that we learn there is nothing we can do to control God or produce His blessings. What ever blessings we do receive is gift of His grace to us.  As we wait in the dry places in simple faith, God increases our spiritual hunger and enlarges our soul to receive His love. Then we can see Him not just as a container of our projections and disordered desires but as God. We discover that faith is no longer dependent on our senses and we learn to trust His love in deeper ways.  Let us allow God to lead us by desire and work within us His grace.

Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God

Honesty is so important in trusting God and being open to Him. God is real and He wants us to meet him in the midst of our realities of life and our experiences. “Prayer is the encounter of the true self with the true God.”  Honest prayer can transform us since God has access to the truths of our lives. But so often we bring Him our lying, false self that we have constructed out of our defensiveness. But when we are honest we will discover our true identity as we bring our full self to God. “Genuine prayer is turning to God in the midst of the mess that is the reality of our inner world.”  We can say anything to God as long as we are honest. As Al always says, God loves us in our stink! Isn’t it great we can stand before him in our nakedness and be changed and healed and made whole?

Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God

Jesus gives us an invitation to come to Him just as we, without pretense. But openness to God demands our trust. Most of us are guarded and have pretense but He wants us to come in faith which is expressed in vulnerability and self-honesty. “Faith in God is leaning with confidence into God.”  It is trusting in His goodness. Trust and faith should frame our whole prayer experience. Prayer involves surrender, submitting to something God does in us.. If we trust and let go, God will give us a gift of prayer communion with Him.  Too often we focus on how we are doing or what we are getting out of prayer, and then we have taken our eyes off God and put them on our selves. Our job is just to make space to run to Him in openness and faith.  God does the rest.

Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God

It can be said that prayer is conversation, it is communion with God, it is being in love with God, it is God’s action in us.

In conversational prayer our relationship with Him is strengthened as we speak to Him throughout the day.  We are reminded that He is with us no matter where we are or what we are doing. But prayer is more than communication or mental activity for we can be praying to Him without speaking or consciously thinking of Him. Prayer is communion which is more intimate than conversation. It involves union in this present moment and has power to transform us from the inside out.  We don’t need to be talking but can simply BE with God. Communion with God leads to a deeper knowing of God’s love for us and our love for Him. “In essence, prayer is being with the Beloved.”  The more we are grounded in God’s love, the more prayer begins to flow from our hearts, not just our minds. Prayer is also God’s action in us.  Our part is to let His love transform our hearts, so it will flow out of us as a natural response. Let us make space for God with attentiveness and openness and not settle for anything less than knowing God in love.

Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God

“Prayer is the natural language of the soul.”  Prayer is not just something we do but more what God does in us with our consent. He takes the initiative and is always reaching out to us and seeks our response.

Prayer is much more than we can imagine and can include a meditative walk, celebration of communion, listening to Him as we read scripture, allowing music to draw our spirit to Him, sitting in silence, recalling our blessings with gratitude  etc. etc. All of life can be prayer when offered to God in faith and with openness. When our hearts aren’t open in faith to Him, it may look like prayer and sound like prayer but will not be genuine prayer.  “Genuine prayer always begins in the heart and is offered by an act of opening our self as we turn toward God in faith.”  Let us say yes to Him and open our whole selves to Him !

Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God

“Prayer is not simply words that we offer when we speak to God but an opening of our self to God.”  Can we even imagine what our lives would be like if we were always attuned to God and allowed His life to flow into us and through us?

In this life we probably live some where between being closed to Him and being completely open. We may hold back in our openness as it brings vulnerability of this kind of surrender. The Lord wants to remove our hesitations and blocks so we can become whole and live in openness before Him. Through prayer God touches and changes us, and as we respond to His life flowing into us He touches the world too. He wants to pray in us and through us. Prayer is not just something we do or feel we ought to do, but prayer can become a way of living our lives.  May we not just be people who pray but for whom our lives are prayer!

Devotions based on article in Conversations by Ruth Barton

As we care for our bodies it is like a spiritual practice that strengthens us in our spiritual journey as well. We are embodied human beings and our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Our body is sacred and it is the place God’s Spirit has chosen to dwell.  We are told to glorify God in our bodies and how do we honor our bodies and glorify Him?  David talks about his body and that it is fearfully and wonderfully made. We need to care for it more intentionally. When we walk around tired, overworked and depressed, we are not listening to what our body has to say to us. It is the first to know if we are stressed, over committed, uneasy etc. We may need to begin by eating better, drinking more water, getting more rest rather than using caffeine to perk us up etc. Even times of our exercising can be moments of significant connection with God. Ruth used her time of running and walking to pray and to engage in the examen. She reflected on her day and noticed the times when the Spirit was at work in her and the times when she had fallen short of love.  Maybe we think of prayer only on the soul level and not including our bodies. But we are to come to Him with all of who we are: our physicality, our emotions, our minds, our imaginations, our intuitions and all of our experiences. Sometimes our words seem inadequate when we pray and we pray with our bodies by lifting up our hands, moving, walking etc. Many of our retreatants mediate when they walk and are rejuvenated just being out in the beauty of creation with Him. Just knowing that God has chosen to make our bodies His dwelling place opens us up to be more aware of His presence so we can respond whole heartedly to Him!

Devotions from Conversations Magazine based on Christian George’s article

I wanted to write about the labyrinth as it is now warm enough to walk the one my cousin has just down the road. There is also one in a  Lutheran church in Prior Lake right in the floor of the church. Labyrinth walking is also known as prayer in motion. It is a physical discipline that reflects the spiritual desire to get at the heart of God. It is not like a maze that has dead ends and turnarounds, but it is a continuous path leading into and away from the center. The earliest known Christian one was found in Algeria around A.D. 325 but they belonged to every major civilization in history. We walk labyrinths to experience God in a physical and spiritual way. Some people recite a prayer as they walk, some listen to music, and others remain quiet.  Three stages for labyrinth walking are mentioned: purgation, illumination, and communion. Purgation is a stage of surrender— We give up our worries, frustrations, fears doubts etc. At each turn in the path, we lay down our individual sins and burdens before God. In illumination stage we may center our thoughts on scripture or an attribute of God and ask God to expand our understanding of it and increase our awareness. Each step is like a miniature meditation and when we get to the center many remain there for a while. The center of the labyrinth is where the doing of prayer becomes a being of prayer, much like Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus. Communion is the final stage and as we begin our journey out of the labyrinth we tune our hearts to worship. We praise God for who He is and acknowledge that we are not the center of the universe, He is!  When we leave the labyrinth we ask God to prepare us to reengage with the world and live out the gospel. Labyrinth walking is “a discipline for the sole and the soul’, and we can be confident that He who went on before us on the journey is traveling behind us and beside us as He draws us to Himself.