PAUSING
Find a quiet place where you can be alone. Take a few seconds or minutes to pause and be still; to breathe slowly, and to re-center any scattered thoughts or desires onto the presence of God.
PRAYING
Heavenly Father, I invite You to shape my mind, body, and soul with Your words and works. Show me where I'm clinging to comfort and lead me into greater wonder today.
ENCOUNTERING HIS WORD
"At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire..." - Hebrews 12:26-29
When I think about the way God reveals himself (as told in Scripture), I a reminded of his gentle passing breeze with Elijah. He wasn't speaking through an earthquake, he wasn't found in wind or fire, but in a "gentle whisper". I think of Jesus and His similar gentleness as he healed the blind and lepers; the inclusive ways he invited children to draw near. Grace is God's language. But God evidently isn't always quiet. He isn't just grace. According to the author of Hebrews, He can come as a consuming fire. He can come through shaking and hard truths. While we tend to mostly equate the gentleness and grace as loving acts, God's consuming fire is just as loving. It's a love that seeks to burn away all that is hurtful and unloving in me.
REFLECTING AND PRAYING
Jesus is the perfection of both truth and grace. That sort of loving communication allows us to feel safe even as we might hear hard truths. Surrounded by God's love, what is a hard truth that He wants you to hear today?
GODS PROMISE
"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." - 2 Corinthians 3:17-18
Find a quiet place where you can be alone. Take a few seconds or minutes to pause and be still; to breathe slowly, and to re-center any scattered thoughts or desires onto the presence of God.
PRAYING
Heavenly Father, I invite You to shape my mind, body, and soul with Your words and works. Show me where I'm clinging to comfort and lead me into greater wonder today.
ENCOUNTERING HIS WORD
"At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire..." - Hebrews 12:26-29
When I think about the way God reveals himself (as told in Scripture), I a reminded of his gentle passing breeze with Elijah. He wasn't speaking through an earthquake, he wasn't found in wind or fire, but in a "gentle whisper". I think of Jesus and His similar gentleness as he healed the blind and lepers; the inclusive ways he invited children to draw near. Grace is God's language. But God evidently isn't always quiet. He isn't just grace. According to the author of Hebrews, He can come as a consuming fire. He can come through shaking and hard truths. While we tend to mostly equate the gentleness and grace as loving acts, God's consuming fire is just as loving. It's a love that seeks to burn away all that is hurtful and unloving in me.
REFLECTING AND PRAYING
Jesus is the perfection of both truth and grace. That sort of loving communication allows us to feel safe even as we might hear hard truths. Surrounded by God's love, what is a hard truth that He wants you to hear today?
- Identify any areas of your life where you have built false comfort in thinking you can live without trusting in God. Pray for God to shake you free from self sufficiency.
- Pray that as our world continues to shake and change, that unbelieving nations would turn to Jesus as never before.
GODS PROMISE
"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." - 2 Corinthians 3:17-18