Reflection: Witness: Listen: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1.     Do you struggle to discern the Spirit’s voice?

2.     What helps you recognize the witness He alone can give?

3.     How has reading Scripture brought clarity to a new understanding by the Spirit’s leading?

Share: What does “walking with the Spirit” look like for you?

Witness: Listen: Prayers and Poetry

Reading: Romans 8:16

“It is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”

“What is truth?” Pilate asked Jesus making clear his own opinion was that truth varied from a variety of opinions. Regardless of authenticity.

False witnesses still abound today. Sometimes so much so that we don’t even trust ourselves. We know when we need guidance and clarity but there are too many voices offering answers. Even those with good intentions but are just as much in error as we are.

Often we might still our busy schedules for a portion of quiet and stillness but realize we can’t quiet ourselves. Our thoughts continue to race with possibilities, or keep circling a problem with no solution. Or deliberately resist the word we are asking for because it will require a change that we resist.

Even in chosen silence we can manage to keep the Spirit’s witness at arm’s length.

Yet, if we are willing to let go of the fear and anxiety and trust His words then His wisdom and discernment will sustain and guide us.

Then we can truly be still in our spirit and be calm and ready to hear the Spirit’s voice bearing witness to whom we belong. Giving witness always to our new heritage of grace. Ongoing wisdom.

“Let me not go timidly, half-heartedly, carelessly, presumably.”  Charles Spurgeon

Lord, please help us to truly listen to Your Spirit.

Psalm of Worship: Proverbs 8:15

“By me kings reign, and rulers decree what is just.”

Life: Listen: Prayers and Poetry

Reading: Romans 8:10

“But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”

Lord, please keep us true to Your words of life.

We are so stuck in our sinfulness that we let circumstances guide our reactions instead of remembering the forgiven life You have bought for us.

Forgive us for continuing to focus on failure and exhaustion and resentment.

Thank you for new life. For new hope. For new beginnings.

Please keep us hungry to seek Your heart’s path.

Keep us abiding in You and sharing the life You give us with others.

Teach us what righteousness really is by Your grace and enable us to walk its path every day with faith and gratitude.

Psalm of Worship: Proverbs 8: 9

“They are all straight to one who understands and right to those who find knowledge.”

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Reflection: Belong: Listen: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1.     Do we really understand that we live in the Spirit?

2.     How can that make a difference in our daily routines? Choices? Relationships?

3.     Do you sometimes feel like an imposter at the ball—not really deserving the invitation?

4.     Or are you in astonishment at the new life bringing hope and grace?

Share: What word helps you to hold onto this promise?

Belong: Listen: Prayers and Poetry

Reading: Romans 8:9

“But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.”

Credentials. Associations. Family. Activities.

To whom do we belong?

We are all considered admired or tainted by others who examine who they think we are. And perhaps too, by whom we think we are, because of our heritage, education, and life decisions. A mix of personal choices and passed down history.

Our version and perception of ourselves is clouded by both past and present. But the Lord’s view of each of us is different. He sees us as His creation woven in the womb, as who we are in His redemption, as who we will be as we live by His Spirit. Psalm 139

We focus on all that is wrong—all the loss and failures we so often repeat. Our sight is blurred when we trust only in ourselves—in the flesh.

“I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:19 (NRSV)

His Spirit breaks through our charred hearts and faithless will. He sets us on His path. New hope—new beginnings—new heritage.

Thank you, Lord, for searching out each of each to belong to you. Thank you for Your ongoing protection in Your Spirit. Please keep us listening to Your nudges of life and keep us from falling back into old ways.

Psalm of Worship: Proverbs 8:8

“All the words of my mouth are righteous; there is nothing twisted or crooked in them.”

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Live: Listen: Prayers and Poetry

                       Live

                        Life peace

                        Love hope

                        Light faithfulness

                        Open-ended Spirit

                        gifts offered daily

                        when we choose

                        to follow His offering

                        strength to turn away

                        despair fear

                        decay neglect

                        darkness chains.

                        Mind, heart, soul

                        restored

                        walk new path in

                        Wonderment.

                       

Reflection: Mindset: Listen: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1.     Do your thoughts naturally go to negative or positive?

2.     When crisis looms is prayer your instinctive reaction? Why or why not?

3.     Where is prayer in your life when days are good?

4.     What thought patterns do you need to change this week?

Share: What scripture verse has given you hope in a crisis?

Mindset: Listen: Prayers and Poetry

Reading: Romans 8:5

“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.”

We usually recognize when we go into automatic pilot mode for chores and meetings, for greeting strangers, or dealing with polite surface chitchat when in public settings. We all have built-in coping methods for impersonal situations. Over the years some of them become instinctive.

But how often do we recognize our inner coping modes within our hearts and thoughts on a normal day-to-day schedule. Instead we might notice that we are overtired or grumpy, craving sweets, feeling anxious over a minor comment or thought.

What pilot mode is our heart synchronized toward? What voice are we listening to throughout each day? What words keep us grounded?

Blessed by the Lord with His Spirit daily. Moment to moment mindset if we choose to listen to soft prompts and discernment. But too often we forget to pay attention until a crisis—a moral or spiritual battleground erupts and then we seek guidance.

We wonder why peace eludes us. Why we struggle so often over so many situations that weaken our daily lives.

But when we remember to set our minds on His Spirit, we have hope regardless of circumstances. Even in the midst of a day’s drudgery or a battleground. And extra joy with loved ones and pursuits. The wonder of life through His lens.

Lord, please set out minds on Your power and Your presence today.

Psalm of Worship: Proverbs 8:4

“To you O people, I call, and my cry is to all that live.”

Decision: Listen: Prayers and Poetry

                       Decision

                        Law now fulfilled

                        choice now to accept

                        live each day either

                        by flesh or by Spirit

                        leave self cravings

                        that manipulate

                        larger instead of

                        restoration by

                        love’s eternal caress

                        crossroad decision

                        leaves permanent markings.

Reflection: Portal: Listen: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1.     What significance does the position beside the gates imply for wisdom waiting?

2.     What heart actions do we need to take to choose Spirit living?

3.     How does sin continue to harass in spite of the Spirit’s presence?

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Share: What gate are you trying to enter today?

Portal: Listen: Prayers and Poetry

Reading: Romans 8: 4

“So that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

Fulfillment. Decision. Choice. Hesitate. Why?

The requirement has been fulfilled—a done deal—whether we participate or not. Grace still waits for our willingness to commit. No coercion. No forced action.

The door is open and the good news is cried out to all who will hear. And yet we often linger, wait a bit longer to choose whether to accept, to enter into a new relationship that will upend our lives forever.

Still in shock at the magnitude of love? Still trying to absorb a gift that cannot be grasped and managed into our self-control? Still clinging to the possibility that we can be fixed by our own determination?

So we hesitate at the gate. Wondering. Hoping. Waiting for courage to accept.

Maybe we take the first few steps thinking we can do both. Listen to wisdom prompts but then adjust them to our personal style—still be in charge. Limited by the power we can recognize. We try to hide pieces of our hearts, just in case this new relationship fails.

Except then we are still not walking in fellowship freedom because we know not to fully trust ourselves and we don’t know how to trust the unknown path before us.

A daily crossroad. A daily decision. A daily opportunity. Walk in the Spirit.

Lord, show us how to listen and to trust where Your Spirit leads.

Psalm of Worship: Proverbs 8:3

“Beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries out.”

Word: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

           Word

            Sword words

            wielded by Spirit

            bring two-edged

            perception

            removing sin’s cancer

            restoring life’s truth

            only under salvation’s

            helmet can we

            stand and face.

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            With courage.

Reflection Helmet: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1.     When have seemingly ordinary words been used against you?

2.     When have you unintentionally used words against another person?

3.     How was the damage restored in either situation?

Share: How has the Spirit clarified words for you this week?

Spirit: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

           

            Spirit

           

           

            Astonishment, ridicule

            disbelief often

            reactions towards

            unexpected

            especially when

            miracles are shared.

            And so, this time

            denial impossible

            rushing Spirit flows

            unhindered

            example concrete

            manifold witness.