Day 7 of Tour Devos - God is Faithful

This is a series of Devotions I wrote for our church’s high school choir tour. I hope they bless you!

Before you start reading this devotion, pray to God, thanking Him for this day and the gift of life. Tell him about what you are experiencing. Thank Him for the gifts that He has given you. Then pray that God will help you be more aware of His presence in your life so you can be a better apprentice of Christ.

God is Faithful

Take a moment for your soul to catch up to your body.

Breathe in for 4 seconds

Hold for 7 seconds

Breathe out for 8 seconds

In 2015, my life fell apart. Things were great on the outside, but inside, I just didn’t feel right. So I met with a dude named Clare. He is one of the most calming presences I’ve ever met. When I talked to Clare, it felt like I was the only person in the world. He just locked in with care and listened. He helped me navigate a lot of unhelpful thought patterns. He is a rock in a sea of chaos.

 If you know me, I struggle with waiting until the last minute and being on time. I’m sorry for the frustrations I cause you. I would often be 2 minutes late to my meetings with Clare. Every time he welcomed me with a loving smile and a hug. Then we would sit down, and he would say, “Take a moment and let your soul catch up to your body.”

In a world of hurry and for my anxious self, those words were like Aloe Vera[1] for my soul. It was soothing. It gave me peace. That space to exist without judgment allowed me to open up to Clare and make sense of the chaos of my brain.

Clare is a symbol of faithfulness. He showed up and listened. No matter how messy my life was, he was there. When I was anxious, he was calm. When I was down, he was with me to pick me up. I’m forever grateful for Clare.

God, you saw this long before I ever knew

And your peace is waiting here to see me through

My deliverance is only found in You

So I will surrender

You are faithful still

You have carried me through deeper waters

Walked beside me through the fire

Faithful still

You have have closed the mouth of bigger lions

Conquered even greater giants

Gone before me and You always will

You are faithful still

-by KingsPorch

Beautiful words.

Read Lamentations 3:22-24 

The word faithfulness is a Hebrew word that means firmness and steadiness. It’s used in Exodus 17:12 where Aaron and Hur hold up Moses’ arms and keep them steady (read the story, it’s cool!) It’s the image of being unmoved. This word is used throughout the Bible to talk about God’s total dependability.

Totally dependable

Who is someone who is totally dependable?

The answer is no one completely. Because people bail all the time. Some people are really dependable, but totally? No one.

Below is a graph to show you the faithfulness of Moses, Israel, Israel’s Kings, Peter, the Church in Corinth, and Me and You.

We are good for a while, and then we bail on God. We are good again, usually because something happens that makes us realize we need God. Then we get comfortable and bail on God again. This is the human condition. Sin is the worst.  

Lamentations was written by the prophet Jeremiah. He has the worst nickname ever: the weeping prophet. You want to be known as the dude who cries all the time? Not me. But why? Jeremiah is the prophet that God picked to call out Judah’s sin and say that God was going to wipe out Judah (the southern kingdom), Jerusalem, and the Temple. Horribly sad!

In 586 BC, Babylon came and destroyed everything. Babylon takes the smart people and exiles them to Babylon and leaves everyone else in chaos. Lamentations is all about the aftermath of the destruction. It’s terribly sad. The people who didn’t get shipped to Babylon had to deal with famine, violence, and the collapse of society.

If I had to warn about the destruction, witness it, and then write about the aftermath, I would have wept too.

But there’s hope. Because God told Jeremiah, he would restore Israel and bless the whole world through that nation/family! The Jews came back to Jerusalem and then 500 years later, a baby was born in Bethlehem. You know, the saving king!

With sadness and hope, Jeremiah proclaims that God is faithful, because he was to…

Abraham

 Issac

Slaves in Egypt

David

Daniel

Rack, Shack, and Benny

Mary

Paul

And now you.

Though things today aren’t the greatest, God is still faithful! Jesus died on the cross. He rose again. He ascended into Heaven, and He is coming back again!

Praise the Lord for he is faithful!

How is your faithfulness to God right now?

What is going on in your life that makes God feel close or distant?

What is your favorite example of God’s faithfulness?

This may be hard, but I want you to think of all the gifts that God has given you. Name little things too. How has God been faithful to you in the good times and the bad? (I’ll get you started)

Oxygen, gravity, pillows, Jesus’ death and resurrection… (your turn)

[1] Aloe Vera is what your grandma or mom puts on your sunburns.

Day 6 of Tour Devos - Lectio Divina - Ephesians 2:1-10

This is a series of Devotions I wrote for our church’s high school choir tour. I hope they bless you!

Before you start reading this devotion, pray to God thanking Him for this day and that He has given you life. Tell him about what you are experiencing. Thank Him for the gifts that He has given you. Then pray that God will help you be more aware of His presence in your life so you can be a better apprentice of Christ. 

Today we are going to practice the Spiritual Habit of meditating on God’s Word to help us listen to God. It’s called Lectio Divina. It’s a style of reading and meditating on God’s Word that makes us listen to what the Spirit wants to tell us. This practice should take you 15 minutes. 

Ephesians 2:1-10 

The cry of the prophets to ancient Israel was the joy-filled command to "Listen!" "Sh'ma Israel: Hear, O Israel!" In Lectio Divina we, too, heed that command and turn to the Scriptures, knowing that we must "hear" - listen - to the voice of God, which often speaks very softly. In order to hear someone speaking softly, we must learn to be silent. We must learn to love silence. If we are constantly speaking or if we are surrounded with noise, we cannot hear gentle sounds. The practice of Lectio Divina, therefore, requires that we first quiet down in order to hear God's Word to us. This is the first step of Lectio Divina, appropriately called Lectio - reading.

1.      Lectio - reading/listening 

Turn to the text and read it slowly, gently. Savor each portion of the reading, constantly listening for the "still, small voice" of a word or phrase that somehow says, "I am for you today." Do not expect lightning or fanfare. In Lectio Divina God is teaching us to listen to Him, to seek Him in silence. He does not reach out and grab us; rather, He softly, gently invites us ever more deeply into His presence.

2. Meditatio - meditation

Once we have found a word or a passage in the Scriptures, which speaks to us in a personal way, we must take it in and "ruminate" on it. The image of the ruminant animal like a cow quietly chewing its food again and again was used in antiquity as a symbol of the Christian pondering the Word of God. This image is meant as a reminder that we must take in the word - that is, memorize it - and while gently repeating it to ourselves, allow it to interact with our thoughts, our hopes, our memories, our desires. This is the second step or stage in Lectio Divina - meditation. Through meditation we allow God's Word to become His word for us, a word that touches us and affects us at our deepest levels.

3. Oratio - prayer 

Then speak it to God. Whether you use words or ideas or images or all three is not important. Interact with God as you would with one who you know loves and accepts you, and give to Him what you have discovered in yourself during your experience of Meditatio. Experience yourself as the priest that you are. Experience God using the word or phrase that He has given you as a means of blessing, of transforming the ideas and memories, which your pondering on His word has awakened. Give to God what you have found within your heart.

4. Contemplatio - contemplation

Finally, simply rest in God's embrace. And when He invites you to return to your pondering of His word or to your inner dialogue with Him, do so. Learn to use words when words are helpful, and to let go of words when they no longer are necessary. Rejoice in the knowledge that God is with you in both words and silence, in spiritual activity and inner receptivity.