Longing: By Faith: Prayers and Poetry

Longing

power and majesty

with love

prepare a home.

heart readied to receive

promise. Hungers

for city, faithful in journey

pursues longing.

Psalm 104:17, “Where the birds build their nests, And the stork, whose home is in the fir trees.”

Reflection Questions: Dreams: By Faith: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1. Have you ever considered what God’s vision is for you?

2. Do you find it difficult to see yourself through His eyes for you? Why?

3. What are some ways in which believers settle for some much less than a full walk with the Lord? Which apply to you personally?

Share: What is a blessing the God has given you when you followed a desire that came from Him?

Dreams: By Faith: Prayers and Poetry

Hebrews 11:16, “But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.”

Dreams

There is a portion in the poem Dreams, by Langston Hughes, that says: For if dreams die/Life is a broken-winged bird/That cannot fly.

Through life we often learn to keep our dreams close to us to protect them from public ridicule. Sometimes we even have to keep them from well meaning family and friends. However when we keep them even from ourselves, we can begin to live with a meager perspective.

How can we understand the difference between humility and fear when God puts gifts and blessings into our lives and encourages us to use them, but we don’t? Instead, is it non-acceptance of His grace—which none of us deserve anyway.

Does shame sneak into our lives when we don’t lift our sight high enough to desire and believe and act with obedience to a love that turned the world’s definition of blessings upside down.

“The thief comes only to steal and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly,” says Jesus.

Lord, please keep Your heaven in our souls so that our heart’s desires match with Yours and we live in Your abundance instead of our limitations. Keep us longing to dream of Your city.

Your thoughts,

Choose Path: By Faith: Prayers and Poetry

Choose Path

Forward or backward

decisions clamor

for resolution

design choices.

Further to vision

described by hope,

faith in possibilities, or

depend on past.

Familiar territory

despite pain, brokenness,

forever a companion.

Desire beckons. Choose path.

Psalm 104:16, “The trees of the Lord drink their fill, The cedars of Lebanon which He planted,”

Reflection Questions: Decision: By Faith: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1. What circumstances trigger a backwards look in your attitude?

2. Is the reason to not repeat mistakes, or a wish to return to old ways?

3. Does it affect yourself alone or does it include relationships around you?

4. When can a memory escape refresh you?

Share: How do you stop second-guessing from interfering with your direction?

Decision: By Faith: Prayers and Poetry

Hebrews 11: 15, “If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had the opportunity to return.”

Decision

Have you ever wrestled through a major life decision, taken the next step of faith, and known it has been the right choice? And then weeks or months, or sometimes even years, later begin to reflect on that decision and wonder if? Or should I turn back now?

And the answer is no, so you keep going forward. But the memories tug.

Memories are a joy and a blessing, unless we turn them into a longing to escape from today. Or become an obstacle when we re-live past pain and allow its emotional paralysis to infect us now.

And the past’s grip can keep us from new guidance and new opportunities.

We can let emotions alone rule our decisions. We can get stuck in the familiar because it somehow feels safe because it is knowable—controllable. Even the heartaches and disappointments can become a soft jail. 

And the strangers and exiles on this faith journey had no long-term blueprint.

Whatever the hold on their past once was, whether good or bad, they broke it to walk towards God’s definition of freedom. Not an easy walk—maybe even more challenging than they had ever done before.

And they walked with the Lord God, Jehovah. Emmanuel—God with us.

Your thoughts,

Search: By Faith: Prayers and Poetry

Search

always on the move

with mind and heart

hungry for more

searching for substance

a place to rest

secure, grow roots.

instead hummingbird

style flit and dip

with breakneck speed

afraid to stay and

see home.

Psalm 104:15, “And wine which makes man’s heart glad, So that he may make his face glisten with oil, And food which sustains man’s heart.”

Reflection Questions: A Hunger: By Faith: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1. In what areas of your life is your heart restless right now?

2. In what areas are you at perfect peace?

3. What is the difference between the two reactions?

Share: What word from the Lord calms your anxieties?

A Hunger: By Faith: Prayers and Poetry

Hebrews 11:14, “for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.”

A Hunger

Prophets and Pastors have often spoken of a deep hole within us that will remain ever empty until we recognize God’s love and presence.  And then sometimes when that chasm is filled the hunger to go deeper and deeper in relationship lingers.

When we receive a newborn in our families we experience pure delight and awe. It is amazing to see how each child snuggles into their family with his or her own version of recognition. He may take a unique cuddling position as he chooses each for dad and for grandma and if shifted when with that person into a possible different angle he immediately reacts with a tiny squawk. With mom any position is fine as long as he’s held by her.

This fragile child instinctively knows to whom he belongs and wholly trusts.

We may wonder why we so often seek You but don’t find You. Is it because You are infinite and since we don’t really comprehend, or can grasp infinity, we settle for substitutes? And don’t hear our internal squawk of dismay warning us that we are moving away from Your safe arms?

Lord, please create in each of us a heart hunger that knows and recognizes You so instinctively that we will turn away from emptiness and false imitations. Keep us in Your peace.

Your thoughts,

Strangers: By Faith: Prayers and Poetry

Strangers

To travel to a foreign land

is not always easy when

lack of adventure or

fear of change creates

tremors through our

clattering bones,

internal winds blowing

storm scent into veins.

Look up to catch a

glimpse—sheer beauty

above the broiling clouds;

a sigh, a longing

stretch out towards

promises,

take first step.

Psalm 104:14, “He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, And vegetation for the labor of man, So that he may bring forth food from the earth.”

Reflection Questions: Travelers: By Faith: Prayers and Poetry

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Reflection Questions

1. Do you desire roots or mobility in your living circumstances? Why?

2. What do you consider to be the advantages/disadvantages of each?

3. How does your choice influence your personal relationships?

4. What promise from the Lord do you cling to at all times?

     

Share: In what circumstance have you most felt to be a stranger? How did you handle the situation?

Travelers: By Faith: Prayers and Poetry

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Hebrews 11:13, “All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth.”

Travelers

To be a stranger for a brief day’s excursion, or a short trip, can be exciting and intriguing. It’s fun to be introduced to new tastes and smells and locale. It’s a short step out of familiar that offers a new perspective. We get to be a little anonymous. And if anything happens that jars us, we know we will be home in a few hours or a few days and it’s not a critical matter.

But to be a stranger in a long term everyday setting requires a whole different outlook. For some it is still an adventure to be embraced, and yet for others it has the potential to weary heart and soul into survival mode in order to simply endure.

Always risking miscommunication, or worse insult. Surface relationships because no one really trusts each other. The wearisome continually packing and unpacking goods and feelings, getting lost, feeling alone and isolated.  And sometimes all within your own family who holds a different viewpoint.

Yet when we cling only to stability of location or mind or heart we risk stagnation. Our comfort criterion turns into a cage. We protect ourselves from the unknown wilderness and miss out on the beauty in the distance.

When we hold onto Jesus’ hand we have both: the security of being completely known and the promises of the unknown before us. We travel lighter.

Lord, thank you for Your blessing of keeping us as strangers, so that we are always prepared to travel as You call. Even if it’s just across the street.

Your thoughts,