Canaan’s Rest represents a quiet place “set apart” for the purpose of hearing God's voice, growing in intimacy with the Lord, and being renewed in soul and spirit.
Hope you had a good weekend! We enjoyed a meal after church yesterday served by the youth who are raising money to go to FLY. Today I plan to do to Aldi’s and Exercise class and a Halloween party here. The community room is already decorated, and Al and I are going as Kansas State fans. Not scary but he will wear his jersey with pajama pants!
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Recently a friend and I had a question to write about in the 2 weeks when we would get together again. We take turns choosing a question and since it was my turn I asked, which spiritual disciplines help you the most in your life with the Lord? What things seem to draw you closer and what disciplines may you want to incorporate into your life? During those 2 weeks I began reading a book by Albert Haase, a Franciscan priest. The book, The Persistent God, was filled with spiritual disciplines that help us be mindful of God’s presence and His divine invitations. Some of the ways I have even taught in the past, but I sense a need to have a fresh desire to be open to new ways of being aware of the Lord and faithful in prayer throughout my day. The question asked by the author, “Is your prayer making you prayerful? Does our prayer time result in how open we are to others in sharing His love. Hummm! If not, maybe we need to find a new way of being prayerful, and there are so many.
One such spiritual discipline that I was reminded of is called the Examen and it is a very old tradition (over 500 years old) but I have not thought of doing it for some time. A Jesuit priest, Ignatius, was the one who proposed it and suggests we do it twice a day for about 15-20 minutes. There are 5 steps to it but if we sense God’s grace on a certain one, we can linger there for the entire time, as we make it our own.
Step one begins with gratitude, and we think over our past hours and how God may have blessed us, and we spend time thanking him. Perhaps we got an uplifting email of hope, we thank the Lord. Step 2 is to ask the Holy Spirit to heal us of our blindness, deafness, and hard-heartedness as we review our life since we last prayed. Step 3 is to listen to those times God was present and challenging and urging us to respond in a particular way that would manifest His love. Was He present in our daily routine? Step 4 is all about forgiveness and expressing sorrow for regrets we may have in how we responded and then listen for His response of compassion and forgiveness. Step 5 is to renew and reaffirm our intention to be prayerful and attentive to the Lord’s invitations in our ordinary moments.
This is only one spiritual discipline and there are so many but the real question is, am I awake to the Lord’s presence and will I recognize the many ways He will come to me today?
Challenge for today: Be intentional about seeking to know how God is manifesting His presence to you today.
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