Week #5 – Desire

Invocation:
Lord, I do not know what to ask of You; only You know what I need. I simply give myself to You; I open my heart to You. I have no other desire than to accomplish Your will. Teach me to pray. Amen.

Weekly Scripture Reading: Psalm 1

Daily Scripture Reading:
Monday Philippians 3:7-11
Tuesday Psalm 63:1-8
Wednesday Luke 9:46-50
Thursday John 12:1-8
Friday 1 Peter 2:1-10
Saturday Romans 8:18-25
Sunday John 7:37-44

Selections For Meditation

Personal Meditation

Prayer
Use your prayer this week to affirm that your deepest desire is to know Him and to serve Him. Seek Him first and believe that all the other things that you need will be added to you.

Hymn: “Oh! To Be Like Thee”

Oh! To be like Thee, blessed Redeemer
This is my constant longing and prayer.
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh! To be like Thee, full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

Oh! To be like Thee, while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and heaven above.

Oh! To be like Thee, Oh! To be like Thee,
Blessed redeemer, pure as Thou art!
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.
-T. O. Chisholm-

Benediction:
God, be in my head and in my understanding; God, be in my eyes and in my looking; God, be in my mouth and in my speaking; God, be in my heart, and in my thinking; God, be at my end and at my departing, Amen.

Selections for Meditation:

* It is vitally important at the outset to emphasize that there is no need for a secluded log cabin I order to lead a life of prayer. Prayer is interior. The log cabin is the human heart in which we must learn how to pray. Solitude sometimes helps prayer, and for special occasions, is the cradle of prayer, and powerful prayer at that. But for the average Christian, prayer doesn’t need a geographic spot. Prayer is a contact of love between God & man.
Married people don’t need a bedroom to make love. You can make love anyplace and “making love” does not necessarily mean what people think it means! Making love can mean looking into each other’s eyes or it can mean holding hands tightly. It can mean being aware of each other in the midst of a crowd. So it is with prayer. In the intense stillness of a loving heart, all of a person strains toward the beloved, and words — simple, gentle, tender — come forth, audible or inaudible as the case may be.
-From Christian Spirituality of the East for Western Man by Catherine Hueck Doherty-

* I find myself asking what I am getting out of this retreat, but I realized today that that is the wrong question. This retreat is not for me, but for Him. It is to give Him, at least for a little while, the fullest attention and love that I can, freed as I am from many other cares and concerns that ordinarily clutter my life. Lord, help me to let go and rest quietly at Your feet in complete attention to You. And then my life will be refreshed and renewed.
-From O Holy Mountain by
M. Basil Pennington-

* But there is a deeper, internal simplification of the whole of one’s personality, stilled, tranquil, in childlike trust, listening ever to eternity’s whisper, walking with a smile into the dark.
This amazing simplification comes when we “center down,” when life is lived with singleness of eye from a holy center where the breath and stillness of eternity are heavy upon us and we are wholly yielded to Him. Some of you know this holy, recreating Center of eternal peace and joy and live in it day & night. Some of you may see it over the margin and wistfully long to slip into that amazing Center where the soul is at home with God. Be very faithful to that wistful longing.
-From A Testament of Devotion by
Thomas R. Kelly-

* When we come to the Lord the most important thing is our desire. The Lord will reveal Himself and enter into our lives to the extent we believe this is really possible and want it. “Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find.” No one respects our freedom as completely as He does. “Behold I stand at the door and knock and IF one opens it I will come in.” He never pushes the door open. He waits for us to open it. This is what we do in our time with the Lord — we open the door of our mind and heart for Him to enter. And He will.
-From A Place Apart by M. Basil Pennington-

* Desire is not merely a simple wish; it is a deep seated craving; an intense longing for attainment. In the realm of spiritual affairs, it is an important adjunct to prayer. So important is it, that one might say, almost, that desire is an absolute essential of prayer. Desire precedes prayer, accompanies it, is followed by it. Desire goes before prayer, and by it, is created and intensified. Prayer is the oral expression of desire. If prayer is asking God for something, then prayer must be expressed. Prayer comes out into the open. Desire is silent. Prayer is heard; desire, unheard. The deeper the desire, the stronger the prayer. Without desire, prayer is a meaningless mumble of words. Such perfunctory, formal praying, with no heart, no feeling, no real desire accompanying it, is to be shunned like a pestilence. It’s exercise is a waste of precious time, and from it, no real blessing accrues.
And yet, even if it be discovered that desire is honestly absent, we should pray, anyway. We ought to pray. The “ought” comes in, in order that both desire and expression be cultivated. God’s Word commands it. Our judgment tells us we ought to pray — to pray whether we feel like it or not — and not allow our feelings to determine our habits of prayer. In such circumstance, we ought to pray for desire to pray; for such a desire is God-given and heaven-born. We should pray for desire; then, when desire has been given, we should pray according to its dictates. Lack of spiritual desire should grieve us, and lead us to lament its absence, to seek earnestly for its bestowal, so that our praying, henceforth, should be an expression of “the soul’s sincere desire.”
-From The Necessity of Prayer
by E.M. Bounds-

* To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul’s paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too-easily-satisfied religionist, but justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart. St. Bernard stated this holy paradox in a musical quatrain that will be instantly understood by every worshiping soul:

We taste Thee, O Thou Living Bread,
And long to feast upon Thee still:
We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead
And thirst our souls from Thee to fill.

Come near to the holy men and women of the past and you will soon feel the heat of their desire after God. They mourned for Him, they prayed and wrestled and sought for Him day and night, in season and out, and when they had found Him, the finding was all the sweeter for the long seeking. Moses used the fact that he knew God as an argument for knowing Him better. “Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight”; and from there he rose to make the daring request, “I beseech thee, show me thy glory.” God was frankly pleased by this display of ardor, and the next day called Moses into the mount, and there in solemn procession made all His glory pass before him.
-From The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer-

* Here, then, Jesus is confronting His disciples with a promise which is also a challenge and a demand. What He meant by righteousness we shall later have to investigate, but He is saying here: “Do you desire righteousness with that intensity of desire with which a starving man desires food, and a man parched with thirst desires water?” This is a challenge and demand with which Jesus continually confronted men. It was with this challenge that He confronted the Rich Young Ruler (Matthew 19:16-22; Mark 10:17-22; Luke 18:18-23). The young man came to Jesus pleading to be enabled to find eternal life, real life. He was an attractive character for, when Jesus looked at him, He loved him. In answer to Jesus’ questions, he claimed that he had kept all the commandments from his youth and on. Jesus then confronted him with the demand that he should go and sell all that he had and give the proceeds to the poor. In effect, Jesus was saying to him: “Do you want eternal life as much as that? Are you prepared to sacrifice the luxuries of this life to gain eternal life?” And, when the matter was put that way, the young man went sorrowfully away. It was with this challenge that Jesus confronted one of the men who wished to follow Him. The man said that he would follow Jesus anywhere. Jesus answered: “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man hath no where to lay his head” (Luke 9:57-58). In effect, Jesus said to that man: “Do you want to follow me enough to face a life like that?” It was this challenge that Jesus confronted His disciples with when He told them that they must love Him more than father or mother or any other of their kin (Matthew 10:37; Luke 14:26). In effect, He said to them: “Do you want to become my disciple enough to give me the unconditional first place in your life?”
-From The Beatitudes and the Lord’s Prayer for Everyman by William Barclay-

Week #4 – Discipline

Invocation:
Heavenly Father, sanctify my body and soul, my thoughts and my intentions, my words and actions, that whatsoever I shall think or speak or do, may be by me designed for the glory of Your name, and by Your blessing may it be effective in Your work. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Scripture Reading: Psalm 26

Daily Scripture:
Monday John 3:25-36
Tuesday Luke 12:35-48
Wednesday Matthew 25:14-30
Thursday Romans 12:1-2
Friday Luke 2:41-49
Saturday Deuteronomy 27:1-8
Sunday 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12

Selections For Meditation

Personal Meditation

Prayer
May your prayer this week lead you past bent knees and reverent spirit into the determining choices of your daily living. Let it bring your will to bear on all the things that lead you away from serving God.

Hymn: “Sweet Will of God”

My stubborn will at last has yielded;
I would be Thine and Thine alone;
And this the prayer my lips are bringing,
“Lord, let in me Thy will be done.”

I’m tired of sin, footsore and weary;
The darksome path hath dreary grown,
But now a light has risen to cheer me;
I find in Thee my star, my sun.

Thy precious will, O conquering Savior,
Doth now embrace and compass me;
All discord’s hushed, my peace a river,
My soul a prisoner bird set free.

Shut in with Thee, O Lord forever,
My wayward feet no more to roam;
What power from Thee my soul can sever?
The center of God’s will my home.

Sweet will of God, still fold me closer,
Till I am wholly lost in Thee.
Sweet will of God, still fold me closer,
Till I am wholly lost in Thee.
-Mrs. C. M. Morris-

Benediction
Lord, let my life be orderly, regular, temperate; let no pride or self-seeking, no covetousness or revenge, no little ends and low imaginations pollute my spirit and unhallow my words and actions. Let my body be a servant of my spirit and both my body and spirit be servants of Jesus, doing all things for Your glory here. Amen.

Selections For Meditation:
*So we need delay no longer. It is time to begin. However stumbling or uncertain the beginning, it is worthwhile. And the beginning is more than the first stab or the first several stabs. Prayer is a matter of keeping at it. The rewards will come no other way. Thunderclaps and lightning flashes are very unlikely. It is well to start small and quietly. No need to plan heroic fasts or all-night vigils. You should have it firm in your mind that prayer is neither to impress other people nor to impress God. It’s not to be taken with a mentality of success. The goal, in prayer, is to give oneself away. The Lord loves us — perhaps most of all — when we fail and try again.
-From Clinging — The Experience of Prayer
by Emilie Griffin

*Prayer tomorrow begins today or there will be no prayer tomorrow. The penalty of not praying is the loss of one’s capacity to pray! The promise of tomorrow is the hunger of today. As man reaches out to the stars and touches ever-expanding space, he is drawn to the discovery and value of his inner space. Prayer no longer lies on the edge of life. It moves into the core of the person’s life and meaning. Without prayer, there is no way, no truth, no life.
. . . Prayer is a journey, a path that is created only by walking it. It creates and reveals oneself in the process. There are many ways of prayer, some new, some to be rediscovered. Writing is a way of discovering one’s own gift of prayer. Scripture, Penance and Communion are Christ’s way of praying in us. Discovering His gifts is to discover Him and those closest to Him. Eventually one is led out to the desert where one discovers the new creation and becomes a new creature.
-From Prayer Is a Hunger by Edward Farrell-

*The denying ourselves, and the taking up our cross, in the full extent of the expression, is not a thing of small concern: It is not expedient only, as are some of the circumstantials of religion: but it is absolutely, indispensably necessary, either to our becoming or continuing His disciples. . . . If we do not continually deny ourselves, we do not learn of Him, but of other masters. If we do not take up our cross daily, we do not come after Him, but after the world, or the prince of the world, or our own fleshly mind. If we are not walking in the way of the cross, we are not following Him: we are not treading in His steps; but going back from, or at least wide of, Him.
-From The Works of John Wesley, Sermon
XLVIII, On Self Denial by Albert C. Outler-

*It is imperative that those who are to teach religion and guide souls should steadily enlarge their conception of and capacity for God; yet how many adult Christian workers go on, as they should do, steadily expanding toward eternity? The one thing, I suppose, which more than any other testifies to our spiritual vitality? If we do not grow thus, the origin of that defect is and can only be in the poverty of our own inner lives of prayer and mortification, keeping that spiritual vitality at low ebb. Prayer & mortification are hard words; but after all, that which they involve is simply communion with God and discipline of self. They are the names of those 2 fundamental and inseparable activities which temper the natural resources of man to His supernatural work; and every Christian worker must have in his life the bracing and humbling influences of such continuous self-surrender and self-conquest. They involve a ceaseless gentle discipline; but being a disciple means living a disciplined life, and it is not very likely that you will get other disciples, unless you are one first.
-From The House of the Soul and Concerning the Inner Life, by Evelyn Underhill-

*God does not demand that we give up our personal dignity, that we throw in our lot with random people, that we lose ourselves and turn from all that is not Him. God needs nothing, asks nothing, and demands nothing, like the stars. It is a life with God which demands these things.
Experience has taught us that if knowledge of God is the end, then these habits of life are not the means but the condition in which the means operates. You do not have to do these things; not at all. God does not, I regret to report, give a hoot. You do not have to do these things — unless you want to know God. They work on you, not on Him.
You do not have to sit outside in the dark. If, however, you want to look at the stars, you will find that darkness is necessary. But the stars neither require nor demand it.
-From Teaching a Stone to Talk by
Annie Dillard-

*One way to recollect the mind easily in the time of prayer, and preserve it more in tranquility, is not to let it wander too far at other times. You should keep it strictly in the presence of God; and being accustomed to think of Him often, you will find it easy to keep your mind calm in the time of prayer, or at least to recall it from its wandering.
-From The Practice of the Presence of God,
by Brother Lawrence-

*Some of us are more naturally night people or morning people. Our situations further influence what time is best to set aside. The advantage of early morning is the way it sets our attentiveness for the day. The advantage of evening is the way it reintegrates and settles us down for the night. It is ideal to set aside 10 minutes to an hour both morning and night, giving more or less time as our situation allows.
Most important though is not the number of times or duration, but our deciding on some time and duration and sticking to it, at least for a trial period of a few weeks. This means that once we’ve decided to do it, we treat it like brushing our teeth: it is just something we “do,” without agonizing over it each time. Brushing our teeth, once it’s a habit, is very simple. So is prayer time. If we leave open a crack for “re-deciding” every day, then it becomes complicated. We’ve undercut the very simplicity that prayer time can reveal.
When you feel resistance to prayer time, just lightly “see” the resistance, and get on with it. Don’t judge your resistance. Don’t even judge yourself if your resistance is so great that you give up your discipline one day. Judgment complicates our resistance and turns what is simple into a heavy struggle. Just gently notice what has happened, smile, and go back to your discipline the next day.
-From Living Simply Through the Day
by Tilden H. Edwards-

Week #3 – Addressing God

Invocation
O Lord of Hosts, You are Lord alone. You have made the heavens and the earth and all living things that dwell there. Your hand is the soul of every living thing. I would come before you with worship and honor this day. In the name of Christ I pray. Amen.

Read Psalm 84

Daily Scripture
Monday Luke 10:25-28
Tuesday Matthew 6:1-4
Wednesday Exodus 20:1-17
Thursday John 1:1-18
Friday Proverbs 8:22-36
Saturday Romans 5:1-11
Sunday Luke 18:9-14

Selections for Meditation

Personal Meditation

Prayer
Let at least the beginning of your prayer time this week be spent in remembering the wonder of God into whose presence you are coming.

Hymn – “O God, Our Help in Ages Past”
(Isaac Watts)

O God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast, And our eternal home.

Under the shadow of thy throne, Still may we dwell secure;
Sufficient is thine arm alone, And our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood, Or earth received her frame,
From everlasting thou art God, To endless years the same.

O God, our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come,
Be thou our guide while life shall last, And our eternal home.

Benediction
Father, you clothe the sky with light and the depths of the ocean with darkness. You work wonders among the sons of men. Give me eyes to see your handiwork this day. Amen.

Selections for Meditation:
* Let us think of our prayers, yours & mine; think of the warmth, the depth and intensity of your prayer when it concerns someone you love or something which matters to your life. Then your heart is open, all your inner self is recollected in the prayer. Does it mean that God matters to you? No, it does not. It simply means that the subject matter of your prayer matters to you. For when you have made your passionate, deep, intense prayer concerning the person you love or the situation that worries you, and you turn to the next item, which does not matter so much — if you suddenly grow cold, what has changed? Has God grown cold? Has He gone? No, it means that all the elation, all the intensity in your prayer was not born of God’s presence, of your faith in Him, of your longing for Him, of your awareness of Him; it was born of nothing but your concern for him or her or it, not for God.
-From Beginning to Pray by Anthony Bloom-

* Now this general principle has its special application to prayer. Nothing could be more intensely individual than the prayers of the Bible. Nobody tries to commune with God in any one else’s way. Some pray kneeling, Like Paul (Acts 20:36); some standing, like Jeremiah (Jeremiah 18:20); some sitting, like David (2 Samuel 7:18); some prostrate, like Jesus (Matthew 26:39). Some pray silently, like Hannah (1 Samuel 1:13); some aloud, like Ezekiel (Ezekiel 11:13). Some pray in the temple (2 Kings19:14); some in bed (Psalms 63:6); in the fields (Genesis 24:11-12); on the hillside (Genesis 28:18-20); on the battlefield (1 Samuel 7:5); by a riverside (Acts 16:13); on the seashore (Acts 21:5); in the privacy of the chamber (Matthew 6:6). Moreover, all sorts of temperaments are found at prayer; practical leaders like Nehemiah, who in the silence of his spirit, seeks God’s help before he speaks to the king (Nehemiah 1:3, 5); poets, like the writer of the 27th Psalm, who love communion with God; men of melancholy mind like Jeremiah, “Hast Thou utterly rejected Judah? Hath Thy soul loathed Zion?” (Jeremiah 14:19); and men of radiant spirit like Isaiah, “Jehovah, even Jehovah is my strength and song; and he is become my salvation”(Isaiah 12:2). There are as many different ways of praying as there are different individuals.
Consider the prayer of St. Augustine: “Let my soul take refuge from the crowding turmoil of worldly thoughts beneath the shadow of thy wings; let my heart, this sea of restless waves, find peace in thee, O God.” And then in contrast, consider the prayer of Lord Ashley, before he charged the battle of Edge Hill: “O Lord, thou knowest how busy I must be this day. If I forget thee, do not thou forget me.”
We need always to remember, therefore, that there is no one mold of prayer into which our communion with God must be run. Let each man pray as best he can.
-From The Meaning of Prayer by Harry Emerson Fosdick-

* Jesus teaches us to approach God as “Father.” In the Old Testament, God is not often spoken of as “Father”: in fact, there are only 14 places where it occurs. They refer to God as the Creator with unique relationship to Israel, his firstborn (Deuteronomy 14:1). In the prophets, there is a sharp contrast made between God’s fatherhood and human faithlessness. But it is the whole community which addresses God in this way. There is no evidence that anyone in Judaism addressed God as “My Father.” Yet this is precisely what Jesus did in all His prayers — some 21 times. Altogether we find the word Father used for God in the mouth of Jesus 170 times in the Gospels. There is only 1 prayer of Jesus, the cry from the cross, in which “My Father” is missing. Also, Jesus used the Aramaic “Abba.” Thus, in the Garden of Gethsemane he prays: “Abba, Father, all things are possible to thee; remove this cup from me; yet not what I will but what thou wilt” (Mark 14:36). “Abba” was a very familiar form of address, rather like “Daddy,” a childlike form. In the Gospels then, “Father” is the description of God. Jesus is clearly encouraging a relationship with God which is marked by childlikeness. -From True Prayer by Kenneth Leech-

* Unless we can find the right name for God, we have no free, real, joyful, open access to Him. As long as we have to call God by general terms like “The Almighty,” “The Lord God,” as long as we have to put “the” before the word to make it anonymous, to make it a generic term, we cannot use it as a personal name. But there are moments when the sacred writers, for instance, burst out with something which has the quality of a nickname, something which no one else could possibly say, which is at the limit of the possible and impossible, which is made possible only because there is a relationship. Remember the Psalm in which, after more restrained forms of expression, suddenly David bursts out, “You, my Joy!” That is the moment when the whole psalm comes to life. Saying “O Thou our Lord,” “O You are the Almighty” and the like, was stating to God facts about Him, but bursting out and saying “O You my Joy!” Was quite a different thing. And when we can say to God, “O You my Joy!” Or when you can say “O You the pain of my life, O You who are standing in the midst of it as torment, as a problem, as a stumbling block!” Or when we can address Him with violence, then we have established a relationship of prayer.
-From Beginning to Pray by Anthony Bloom-

Week #2 – Going Inward

Invocation
O God, in all ages you have imparted yourself to man and set alight the fire of faith in his heart, grant to me the faith which comes from search. Cleanse my life from all that negates and crushes out faith, and fill it with the purity and honesty which foster it. Cleanse me from the evil which makes unbelief its friend, and drive it far from me, so that, being willing in all things to do your will, I may know the truth which shall set me free. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. -Samuel M. Shoemaker in Daily Prayer Companion-

Read Psalm 139

Daily Scripture Readings:

Monday Isaiah 55
Tuesday John 3:1-8
Wednesday 2 Corinthians 4:7-18
Thursday Matthew 15:1-20
Friday John 15:1-17
Saturday Ephesians 3:1-21
Sunday Matthew 11:25-30

Selections for Meditation

Personal Meditation

Prayer
Your prayers this week should be to recognize the reality and depth of your inner being and to ask God to meet you there. For Him to come to abide in this realm of your hopes, values, joys, hurts, and loneliness.

Hymn: “It Is Well With My Soul”

When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, tho’ trials should come,
Lest this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin — oh, the bliss of this glorious thought —
My sin — not in part but the whole —
Is nailed to His cross and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll,
The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend.
Even so — It is well with my soul.

It is well — with my soul.
It is well, It is well with my soul.
-H. G. Spafford-

Benediction
Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all I ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within me, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Paul in Ephesians 3)

Selections For Meditation:
* Theories about religious experience are merely tools, aids by which to test one’ own experience. Each step of one’s own is worth more than all the knowledge and insight of others.
But how does one arrive at such steps? Certainly not by waiting for the experiences. The inward journey is an exercise, something that is cultivated; it requires concentration and attentiveness. Above all, the inward journey requires the greatest sincerity of which we are capable. It entails a risk — the risk of shame if nothing is there, the risk of emptiness if one does not change as a result, the risk of one’s own person — and this risk is no less than that encountered on the way to another person. For us moderns, perhaps, fear of being ridiculous in our own eyes is the greatest shame. -From Death by Bread Alone by Dorothee Soelle-

* As we start learning to pray, I would like to make it clear that what I mean by “learning to pray” is not an attempt to justify or explain this in a speculative way. Rather, I would like to point out what one should be aware of, and what one can do if one wishes to pray. As I am a beginner myself, I will assume that you are also beginners, and we will try to begin together. I am not speaking to anyone who aims at mystical prayer or higher states of perfection, because these things will teach themselves. When God breaks through to us or when we break through to God, in certain exceptional circumstances, either because things suddenly disclose themselves with a depth we have never before perceived or when we suddenly discover in ourselves a depth where prayer abides and out of which it can gush forth, there is no problem of prayer. When we are aware of God, we stand before Him, worship Him, speak to Him. -From Beginning to Pray by Anthony Bloom-

* People who pray, really pray, don’t talk about it much. After you have looked into the matter carefully, you may be able to puzzle out who is really praying. In general, though, prayer is something of an underground. Is it because people who pray are too possessive about their experiences to share them? On the contrary, people who pray usually share their experiences generously. But on the whole they don’t advertise their prayer lives. Perhaps the energy that might be used in talk goes to prayer instead.
In order to find a person who prays, you have to look for clues: charitableness, good temper, patience, a fair ability to handle stress, resonance, openness to others. What happens to people who pray is that their inward life gradually takes over from their outward life. That is not to say that they are any less active. They may be competent lawyers, doctors, businessmen. But their hearts lie in the inner life and they are moved by that.
-From Clinging — The Experience of Prayer by Emilie Griffin-

* It is difficult to write or speak of theHoly Spirit. We are rather hesitant to claim the Spirit as “ours” in spite of our ease in praying “our” Father, “our” Lord, “my” Jesus. There is a reserve, a humbleness, a muteness before the Spirit. Perhaps it is the adjective “Holy” prefixed to the Spirit that makes us reluctant to say “our” Holy Spirit, “my” Holy Spirit. To say “Father” or “Son” is to speak in terms of definite, clear, human images and correlatives having some tangible reference. The Spirit does not lend Himself to such tangible human categories, descriptions or definitions. Our vocabulary, our language, even our theology clouds the Spirit and conceals more than reveals. Light cannot be put into a bushel or the ocean into a bucket. It is the Spirit which gives life to the word; the word itself is often deadly.
The Spirit is elusive, unobtrusive, as imperceptible as time and season, growth and age. Yet man has a deep sense of Spirit from the breath of his life, the pulse of his heart, the stirring of his conscience, the restlessness of his soul. In this, modern man is not far removed from primitive man. Aloneness, silence, darkness, sleep and death touch us too deeply to allow us to forget the mystery of the absolute. How intuitive ancient man was in sensing that the Spirit was in all things.
-From Surprised by the Spirit by Edward J. Farrell-

* Each of us is the artist of his own life. The materials we are given to work with, the conditions we work under and what happens to us, are part of the drama of what we shall do with our lives. But materials and conditions and events are not, in themselves, the determining factors. Whether a man arrives or does not arrive at his own destiny — the place that is peculiarly his — depends on whether or not he finds the Kingdom within and hears the call to wholeness — or holiness, as another might say. The man who hears that call is chosen. He does not have to scramble for a place in the scheme of things. He knows that there is a place which is his and that he can live close to the One who will show it to him. Life becomes his vocation.
From Journey Inward, Journey Outward by Elizabeth O’Connor

* There are no “mere” men. Moral splendor comes with the gift of life. Each person has within him a vast potentiality for identification, dedication, sacrifice, and mutuality. Each person has unlimited strength to feel human oneness and act upon it. The tragedy of life is not in the fact of death but in what dies inside us while we live.
-From Human Options by Norman Cousins-

* It is late evening. We are alone, perhaps for the first time since we woke. Bits & pieces from the day dart in & out of our consciousness. Little desires and fears for tomorrow scatter us further. The more that rushes through our minds, the more complicated and anxious life seems. Maybe TV will help settle us down — or the newspaper or computer — or some work — or a big snack. Less seems to gnaw at us then. Life stays put for a moment. We feel in control again — we’re “doing” something — anything.
The aftereffect of the doing leaves us less anxious, but more drugged. We’ve exchanged a gnawing anxiety for a dulled sensibility. Maybe, at least, we can sleep now. We do, on the surface. But not below. Our dreams are troubled. Fragments of life whir round & round without a center. We wake tired, and struggle out for another round.
You and I share such an “underlife.” It usually is bearable; it even seems “normal,” out of sheer habit. Sometimes it is even fun. But it is not fulfilling. We are grown for more than that. When this becomes most clear, when the whole daily round feels most wearisome, we hear ourselves crying out in the Psalmist’s lament:
“How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? (Psalm 13:1)
How long will, must I tromp through this dense jungle half crazed and blind before the clearing appears?
-From Living Simply Through the Day by Tilden H. Edwards-

Week #1 – Authentic Experiences

Invocation
Eternal God, You have been the hope and joy of many generations, and who in all ages has given men the power to seek You and in seeking to find You, grant me, I pray You, a clearer vision of Your truth, a greater faith in Your power, and a more confident assurance of Your love. Amen.
-John Baillie in A Diary of Private Prayer-

Read Psalm 46

Daily Scripture
Monday 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Tuesday Genesis 32:22-31
Wednesday Philippians 3:7-12
Thursday John 4:1-26
Friday 1 Corinthians 2:6-16
Saturday Jeremiah 17:5-10
Sunday Job 42:1-6

Selections for Meditation

Personal Meditation

Prayer
Let your praying this week be for a true sense of being heard. Do not particularly pray for feeling or for specific answers. Rather pray for the quiet confidence that you are in conversation with your Heavenly Father.

Hymn “I Know Whom I Have Believed”
by D. W. Whittle

I know not why God’s wondrous grace
To me He hath made known;
Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love
Redeemed me for His own.

I know not how this saving faith
To me He did impart,
Nor how believing in His Word
Wrought peace within my heart.

I know not when my Lord may come,
At night or noonday fair,
Nor if I’ll walk the vale with Him,
Or meet Him in the air.

But I know whom I have believed,
and am persuaded that He is able
To keep that which I’ve committed
Unto Him against that day.

Benediction
Heavenly Father: Let me see Your glory, if it must be from the shelter of the cleft of the rock and from beneath the protection of Your covering hand, whatever the cost to me in loss of friends or goods or length of days, let me know You as You are, that I may adore You as I should. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
-A.W. Tozer in The Knowledge of the Holy-

Too much of modern day Christianity concentrates on the outward obligation of what is seen and is visible rather than on the inward obligation of what is unseen and is hidden. These weekly devotionals for 2019 have come out of a concern that we Christians should give time and attention to the hidden, inner life with God. If we are going to enter more deeply into the visible arena, into the realm of the spiritual, we will have to make a conscientious effort to move past the superficial in order to enter into a deeper knowledge of God. The beginning of such an effort must be the construction of a pattern in our lives in which the voice of God has access to us. We need to develop a personal habit. As we are generally creatures of habit, we need a routine, a discipline, to cultivate the inner life. It is the purpose of these devotionals for 2019, to help you establish such a pattern or routine, which is why I have used the word disciplines in the title.
In my spiritual journey of almost 50 years, I have come to see that deeply committed Christians of many different traditions have handed down tools & resources to help us as we take steps toward such disciplines. Throughout Christian history we have received from them various spiritual principles, rules, disciplines, and practices that have helped believers in the quest for a deeper knowledge of God. There have been liturgies, lectionaries, prayer books and many different guides for the hours and days of one’s spiritual journey and they all arose from the need to develop a disciplined, ongoing relationship with God.
One of the common threads of all of these tools of spirituality was the recognition of the need for constancy in the establishing and deepening of a person’s spiritual relationship with God. And underlying the writings of all those whose works have stood the test of time is the theme of faithfulness and regularity in the development of spiritual practices.
Unfortunately for most of us, we are often ignorant about the use of such disciplines in days gone by. And although it sees like there is a lot of materials to be used, it is also very true that we have not exposed ourselves to the things that are available to us and despite the variety of excuses for our lack of use of these disciplines and materials, our ignorance of them seems to have roots in at least 2 philosophical areas.
One of them is that as Christians in our 20th century western culture, we have grown up being so pragmatic in our philosophy of living that the developing and nurturing of our spiritual life often begins to revolve around the same values that govern other parts of our lives: “What will get this done efficiently? What is the most cost productive? Is this a resourceful use of my time in light of my agenda for today?” — and as a result, many of us feel quite sure, both from the hunger in our hearts and from the lack of Christian fruits in our lives, that we are far from a life rooted in the deep resources of God. Times of trial and other adverse circumstances may sometimes cause us to renew our intentions and resolves in this regard for a while, however, with the return of better times, or simply under the myriad pressures of life itself, we gradually relax our grip on our resolutions and return to our more pragmatic, “real-world” concerns.
Regretfully, the 2nd of those powerful areas is our prejudice against other traditions. Our unwillingness to cross the boundaries of tradition quite often leaves us to make our way into the depths without availing ourselves of the counsel and wisdom of those across the centuries who have made similar journeys fruitfully and victoriously. Indeed, we often find ourselves attempting to make our spiritual pilgrimage entirely on our own.
For example, we do not even have a common term that we all understand that can be used to describe the process. For many of us, devotions is the term most often used. Terms like inner life, spiritual formation, spiritual life, interior life, and others simply do not have the same common meaning to us, if they have any meaning to us at all.
A remarkable similarity and continuity to both the hindrances and helps to spirituality across the centuries exists. Journals and writings of early and present-day saints and saintly people record the struggles and the victories in virtually all the matters pertaining to the implementation of our inner intentions. All those writings have something to say to all who would take up the journey into the inner life.
For these weekly devotionals, I have collected samples of hymns, scriptures, and readings that will provide insight and guidance for the formation and nourishment of the inner life. My hope is that the daily or weekly services will provide a foundation upon which you can begin to build strong disciplines into your life.
While some of the material has been gathered during the study and research for these devotions, a lot of the material has come from books and readings and writers who , through the years, have provided health and hope to my spirit. Likewise, much of the scripture is taken from those verses and passages that came to my mind in thinking about the weekly subject I had chosen.
One more word needs to be spoken to those who would strive to take up a discipline for the inner life. To maintain a discipline of meditation and prayer, you must commit yourself to the way of faith. The injunction to live “by faith” the life you are now living is applicable in the disciplined life as well. To begin in prayer today may have no visible fruits tomorrow. But that is no reason for stopping. One who begins on Monday to train for a marathon surely wouldn’t stop training because his muscles still ached on Friday. More than likely, you will start out enthusiastically in the life of prayer, only to find that you enter some dry, desert-like time after a few days along the way. KEEP GOING!! Remember that these are disciplines that you have undertaken in response to a call to move deeper into your life with God.
The call to walk with God is a call to a life of prayer and devotion. The cost of answering, the cost of following, must be counted as best we can. But because we don’t know where it will lead us, we must be prepared to add a great deal more to what we already know to be the cost. The cost will always be greater than our ability to measure it.
The words of Jesus to those who would join Him on the journey are found in John 1:39 – “Come, and you will see.” And that is the order of things in answering the call to follow God on the journey into the inner life. We are not given the privilege of “seeing first” and then deciding if we are willing to make the journey. However, the process of following God can be trusted. The prayer of the psalmist must become our prayer:

“I rise before dawn and cry for help; I wait for Thy words. My eyes anticipate the night watches, that I may meditate on Thy word.”(Psalm 119:147-148)

May these weekly devotions be a faithful companion to you on your journey to the inner life!