PRAYERFUL PONDERIINGS: BE STILL

BE STILL

I Am! Your Saviour!
I’ll help you to heal
I’ll give you a love
To forgive and to kneel

I heard when you screamed
Declaring your doom
Come sit with Me where
Your strife has no room

I’ve been there, remember
I came to your place
I dwelled with your sin
I lived with disgrace

Now it’s your turn
Please come visit Me
Come to My place
Just sit and be

I died for your freedom
Your pain to release
I’ll give you strength
Comfort and peace

I have what you need
My ways may seem odd
Just Be Still ... and know
That I Am God …

PRAYERFUL PONDERING: COMMUNION

Dear Jesus

We want to be worthy to commune with You and with each other.
Take us on a journey to know and love You more!

When we take the broken bread
we accept YOUR brokenness
and receive healing and wholeness
for OUR brokenness.

As we drink from the cup
We receive YOUR forgiving and healing love
into our souls and bodies.

Lord
You were wounded
You were broken
So that You can heal us

We want to give You all our broken pieces of our lives
And ask that you pull them all together
And make us whole

We want to know You more
We want to love You more
Lord, make us like You

Amen

PRAYERFUL PONDERINGS: STAY HERE AND WATCH WITH ME

Jesus took Peter, James and John, and He began to be filled with anguish and deep distress. He told them, "My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and watch with me."

Matthew 26:37-38 (NLT)

In Gethsemane, Jesus was scared, sad and hurting. He knew He was about to face the greatest pain of His life and He needed the loving support of His friends. But they failed Him … right when He needed them most.

Are you aware of what your friends need from you? Do you make yourself available when they reach out to you? Are you aware of what you need from them or do you prefer to go through tough times alone? Hmmmm … Understanding that even Jesus needed/wanted to reach out for support from His friends when He was stressed – was one of the triggers that played a role in making me take a long, deep, prayerful look at my own independent nature.

Dear Lord
Again and again, I continue to learn from Your example. Help me to be aware of when the best loving support I could offer someone is just my presence. Help me to also recognize when I need to reach out and not be alone when I am struggling. Thank you for Your never ending presence in my life.
Amen

PRAYERFUL PONDERINGS: DARE TO BE LOVED

God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Soooo .. .. if it was not even Jesus’ job to judge us, what makes us think we have the right to tell anybody else how bad they are!?! I don’t know about you, but the more of my own sinfulness that God reveals to me, I have become VERY meek about wanting to take on Gods job of judgment.

Unconditional Love. Can YOU give it? Are YOU able to show “love-without-judgment” to someone, even when you know their true condition? Or are you more interested in pointing out their faults and wrong choices to them. Jesus promoted unconditional love as the number one thing to do! The moment we judge someone, we could be responsible for limiting their growth. Wow – now THAT is a guilty charge that I don’t want to be convicted of! When we love and accept someone “just-as-they-are”, we free them (and ourselves) from the guilt that judgment brings.

So … you think that is a tough ask? Well it’s actually the easy part! I find it much easier to accept someone else’s faults, than revealing my own. And yet, I too NEED to be loved unconditionally. People are only able to love the parts of me that I am brave enough to reveal. However it’s the parts of me that I am too scared/ashamed to reveal, are the parts that NEED to experience unconditional love! I can never expect to experience unconditional love, unless I am brave enough to reveal all my “conditions”.

Dear Lord
Thank you for being the ultimate example of unconditional love and for making it possible through your Spirit, to love others no matter what their conditions are. Help us to see others through Your eyes and to recognise their sins as not being an indication of how much they need our judgment, but how much they need You! Help us to be Your love to others. But Lord, we know it doesn’t stop there. Please fill us with Your strength to be bold and honest enough to reveal our own ‘conditions’ to others so that we too are not limited by our own, or others judgments of us. Lord, we give you permission to expose what dwells within us that prevents us from being free. Free to give AND receive unconditional love.
Father we love You!
Amen