One question I wrestled with was, "What one thing do I want from God?" I continue to go back to God with this question.
Spend this week meditating on Psalm 42 as you meditate on this passage as yourself, "What do I want from God?" There are some more reflection questions below that you might find helpful. I have found that God is there in my own longing. God and His Spirit must have initiated my own longing for Him. If you find yourself wanting or longing for God, try and discern his presence in the midst.
Psalm 42
1 As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
4 These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.
5 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and 6 my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. 8 By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me- a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God my Rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?"
10 My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me, saying to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
11 Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
If you want to identify me,
" Ask me not where I live
Or what I like to eat,
Or how I comb my hair
But ask me what I am living for,
In detail and ask me
What I think is keeping me
From living fully for the thing
I want to live for"
Thomas Merton, My argument with the Gestapo
Suggested Questions for Reflection
• What are you longing for in your relationship with God?
• Where are you experiencing God in your life right now?
• What is at the root of your most deepest and persistent longing?
• Who are you longing to be?
• Where are you not living out of your true identity in Christ?
Monday, January 19, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Prayer of Recollection
The prayer of recollection is a prayer to separate one from their own strength and cling to the robe of God. The prayer opens one's soul and prepares one to meet God in truth and to be open to the false-self and personal Idolatry in the presence of God’s love.
Psalm 131:2
But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
Psalm 116:7
Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.
John 17:22,23,26
I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.
Ephesians 3:16-19
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Prayer of Recollection
Adapted from John H. Coe
I. I affirm that I am a finite physical body.
My body is right here. It can't be anywhere else. {I reflect on how my body is feeling at the moment, e.g., tired, sore, full, hungry, or whatever.} My body is limited. It needs rest and care. I can only do so many tasks at once. I cannot meet everyone's wishes. I cannot meet even my own ambitions and desires. I am grateful for the fact that I am not God. Only God can meet all the needs that surround me.
(Confess any idolatry.)
II. I affirm that I am a finite spirit.
A. Disregard all the potential idols of your soul.
I confess my idolatries and false identities. I expose and invalidate all the ways I have tried to find my identity in the wrong way or have tried to find my value in my roles and functions and abilities. I affirm that I am not defined by my abilities, my virtues, or my vices. At my deepest place, I am not my behaviors, my feelings, my personality quirks, my gifts and talents, my good or bad choices. I am not defined by how I perform or what other people think of me.
At the core of my spirit, I am not a father or a mother. I am not a husband or a wife. I am not a daughter or a son. I am not a friend. I am not a student. I am not a kind person. I am not an angry person. I’m not a……….
B. Affirm the reality of your soul’s true identity.
I affirm the truth of my soul's true identity. I am God’s beloved created for union with Him. In my deepest place, I am a naked spirit clothed in the righteousness of Christ. I am precious in God's eyes. From all eternity, God calls me His beloved. He holds me in an everlasting embrace.
III. Examine how you have been approaching God
Have I been praying to God as if He was a genie? Have I been praying to God know that He, too, has a will? Has my will alone been consulted? Have I been using God as an idol to meet my needs? Have I been acknowledging him as if He is the Good Shepherd of my life?
I have not been praying to you as if you were really here holding me in love all day. I have not prayed to you as if you really love me as I am, your beloved. I have not sought your will or relied on you; I have relied on myself again all day.
Please forgive me for my idolatry. Help me to hide in your loving embrace and seek your will and direction throughout the day. Help me become secure, abiding in that loved place with you, that I may go out from here to love and serve others without confusion about who I am or what you would have me do
Resolve to keep your heart and mind attentive to God. Align your will to His will. Be receptive, silent, and still.
Psalm 131:2
But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.
Psalm 116:7
Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.
John 17:22,23,26
I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.
Ephesians 3:16-19
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Prayer of Recollection
Adapted from John H. Coe
I. I affirm that I am a finite physical body.
My body is right here. It can't be anywhere else. {I reflect on how my body is feeling at the moment, e.g., tired, sore, full, hungry, or whatever.} My body is limited. It needs rest and care. I can only do so many tasks at once. I cannot meet everyone's wishes. I cannot meet even my own ambitions and desires. I am grateful for the fact that I am not God. Only God can meet all the needs that surround me.
(Confess any idolatry.)
II. I affirm that I am a finite spirit.
A. Disregard all the potential idols of your soul.
I confess my idolatries and false identities. I expose and invalidate all the ways I have tried to find my identity in the wrong way or have tried to find my value in my roles and functions and abilities. I affirm that I am not defined by my abilities, my virtues, or my vices. At my deepest place, I am not my behaviors, my feelings, my personality quirks, my gifts and talents, my good or bad choices. I am not defined by how I perform or what other people think of me.
At the core of my spirit, I am not a father or a mother. I am not a husband or a wife. I am not a daughter or a son. I am not a friend. I am not a student. I am not a kind person. I am not an angry person. I’m not a……….
B. Affirm the reality of your soul’s true identity.
I affirm the truth of my soul's true identity. I am God’s beloved created for union with Him. In my deepest place, I am a naked spirit clothed in the righteousness of Christ. I am precious in God's eyes. From all eternity, God calls me His beloved. He holds me in an everlasting embrace.
III. Examine how you have been approaching God
Have I been praying to God as if He was a genie? Have I been praying to God know that He, too, has a will? Has my will alone been consulted? Have I been using God as an idol to meet my needs? Have I been acknowledging him as if He is the Good Shepherd of my life?
I have not been praying to you as if you were really here holding me in love all day. I have not prayed to you as if you really love me as I am, your beloved. I have not sought your will or relied on you; I have relied on myself again all day.
Please forgive me for my idolatry. Help me to hide in your loving embrace and seek your will and direction throughout the day. Help me become secure, abiding in that loved place with you, that I may go out from here to love and serve others without confusion about who I am or what you would have me do
Resolve to keep your heart and mind attentive to God. Align your will to His will. Be receptive, silent, and still.
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