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Showing posts with label Listening to God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Listening to God. Show all posts

Friday, April 25, 2014

Simon, do you love me?

By Heidi



File:V&A - Raphael, Christ's Charge to Peter (1515).jpg
Christ's Charge to Peter by Raphael (Wikimedia Commons)
 
 
Do you pray with the Scriptures?  When you read them, do you allow a word or a scene from the passage to speak to you in your heart and draw out from you a prayer?  It is essential for each of us enter into prayer in this way.  Yet, it is a direction that many "voices" - from the world, and from your own ego - will dissuade you from; because it will reveal your idols, your weaknesses.  
 
The Lord seeks to lead us out of those "Egypts" in each one of our souls.  To do so demands much; it demands a love that endures all things, hopes all things and to be completely truthful, I do not have that love yet.  That is important for me to understand, not for me to despair but so that I can live in His truth, endure in His light and be drawn up into a more perfect love by following His voice.

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”  Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”  Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He then said to Simon Peter a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”  Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”  Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.”  Jesus said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”  Peter was distressed that Jesus had said to him a third time, ‘Do you love me?’ and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”  Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.  Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” He said this signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.  And when he had said this, he said to him, “Follow me.” 
John 21: 1-19

Continue reading at Heidi's blog Journey to Wisdom.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Do not refuse to hear

By Nancy Shuman



File:Michelangelo Caravaggio 040.jpg
The Calling of Matthew by Caravaggio (Wikimedia Commons).


Letter to the Hebrews:  "Do not refuse to hear Him Who speaks."  (12:25)

I am struck by the word "refused" used here.  I mean:  imagine God speaking to me and me not just missing the call - but actually refusing to hear it!

Actually, I can imagine that all too well.

It doesn't take a long memory, on my part, to see myself with head ducked, eyes downcast, pretending I don't know what is being asked of me.  I've never heard a physical "voice" from God, but I have detected the gentle call of One inviting me to live as He asks, to treat others as He wishes, to give Him a moment of prayer.

But gosh, I'm so busy.  Maybe later, just a little later. 

If Jesus were standing right in front of me, would I say "Nice to see you, but you caught me just dashing out the door.  Oh, and I meant to tell you - I had a reason for not doing what you asked the other day... after all, what would people have thought?  And oh... excuse me just a minute, will you?  I think I heard the phone....."

The thing is - Jesus IS standing right in front of me.  Right now.  He is closer than I could possibly imagine. 

How will I respond?


Nancy originally posted this on her blog The Breadbox Letters.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

God is at work in our prayer

By Nancy Shuman



Jesus Christ in Capernaum by Rodolfo Amoedo (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons).



As I've been praying, and writing about, and trying to live lectio divina over these last weeks, there is one part I'd almost forgotten.

Lectio is not a one sided activity.  I read, I talk to God, I commit to Him.  And then....

Something happens.

This is not always a "felt" something.  It may not be perceived by me at all.  But when I am speaking with Jesus and reading His Word and committing myself to live for Him, an amazing thing is going on.  Jesus is actually here.  Not just in my imagination, not by an act of wishful thinking, but He is genuinely here.

I can forget this breathtaking reality when my prayer has been dry or weighed down with distractions.  But Jesus is actually here, regardless of how I feel.  AND...

He is doing something.  Sometimes He brushes my spirit with His presence, sometimes He breathes a word of Scripture into my life, sometimes He lets me see a path I might be called to take.  But always He is here, and always He is acting.


Continue reading at Nancy's blog The Cloistered Heart.