Our Longing Hearts

**Please take one minute to sit, breathe deeply and seek quiet.**

“Come Thou long expected Jesus, born to set Thy people free. From our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee. Israel’s strength and consolation, hope of all the Earth Thou art. Dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart.” – Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

    Jesus is the joy of every longing heart. Our hearts long for freedom - freedom from fear, from sin, from struggling and from striving. Our hearts need rest and they find their rest in freedom that comes from Jesus. Whether we know it or not we all long for freedom and for those of us who know Jesus, he is our joy. Our longing hearts find their rest in Jesus. This leads us to gratefulness and praise.

    There is always another place we can find rest. There will always be opportunity for us to be released from fear and sin and find rest.

    May we continually find our rest and freedom in Jesus and may we experience the joy that it is to know him.

**Please take as much time as is possible to sit and reflect.**

Submission

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**
   

With every Spiritual Discipline comes a corresponding freedom. The freedom that corresponds to the Discipline of submission is the ability to lay down the terrible burden of always needing to get our way. 

                                      -  Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster

    Many of us have a revolting, nauseating, knee-jerk reaction to the word “submission”. I do. Exploring this subject as a spiritual discipline gave me a better grounding for what this truly involves as well as what gift comes from it. We practice Disciplines not for the Disciplines sake but in order to open ways for God to transform us. We do the discipline and He transforms … however He chooses.

    Is it shocking that freedom can come from choosing to submit?

    What are your thoughts? How do you respond to the word submission? How do you unnecessarily demand you “get your way”?

**Sit again in silence for as long as is available to you.**

Grace +

**Sit quietly, eyes closed and in silence for one minute before reading.**

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do no submit again to a yoke of slavery.” The Apostle Paul, The Bible

    Anything but grace alone is grace +. Grace plus ____. We live our lives under grace and add laws to ensure us of our spirituality and spiritual state before God. For some reason we are drawn to working for something rather than receiving something. We are wired to believe that what you put in you get out. One of the things that Jesus Christ does when we trust Him is that He changes this hard-wiring. Because of Christ we stand on grace not on works. 

    Yet … we need help with the habit. We need help being transformed and moved out of this daily habit that our hearts, minds and bodies know as natural. We have been in slavery and Christ is calling us to freedom. It takes adjustment and the more we follow Him, the more it gets adjusted.

    Live into grace, into freedom and into the transformation that God promises.

**Sit again in silence for as long as is available to you.**

The Wilderness

**Sit quietly, eyes closed in silence for one minute before reading.**

“God is not taking you through the wilderness for you to die.”

    One of my pastors spoke these words to me about a year and a half ago as I was at the very beginnings of a wilderness time. These words came from the story of Scripture, from the book of Exodus and the life of Jesus. These specific words are not in Scripture but are in the stories of Scripture. You will find this truth in the story of the Israelites and the life of Jesus. God does not in fact take us through wilderness for us to die although it FEELS like it.
    Wilderness feels like death. It is full of pain, the unknown, abounding in confusion and sparse in hope. Wilderness causes us to long for past times, to see them greener than they truly were. Wilderness causes us to dream of escape, escape to anything, anywhere but here.
    In the wilderness we long to change our location and God longs to change us. We long to escape and He longs to free us. There is a difference between escaping and being freed. When we are in the places that we most do not want to be God seeks to transform us, shape us and draw us nearer to Himself. He seeks to transform us and as difficult as that is we need to trust Him. Trust that He has not brought us to the wilderness to die but to free us to live.
    Are you in a season of wilderness? What are your struggles?
    Have you had opportunity to speak openly and honestly with God? Please do, He wants to hear your heart. He also wants you to trust Him. In the midst of it all cling onto His goodness – the stories are throughout the Bible, they are throughout your life and the lives of those around you. He is good, He is with you and He has not brought you here to die.
    A special blessing on you as you wander in the wilderness.

**Sit again for as long as is available to you.**

Have more than two minutes? Can you relate to the Israelites in Exodus 17:1-3?

The Weight of Guilt

**Sit quietly, eyes closed, for one minute before reading.**

    How is guilt holding you down? Is there something weighing on your heart that is secret, hidden? I am talking true guilt. Guilt of something you have done ultimately against God, not guilt that someone has made you unnecessarily feel or maybe you have made yourself feel.
    To bring what is dark to the light can have overwhelmingly positive consequences and freedoms yet there is real battle and challenge to move from darkness to light.
    Take time and consider the weighty areas of your heart. Ask God to give you the strength to be honest with yourself and with Him. Let go and let Him graciously work.
    Is there something you need to confess? Talk to God, share this with a good friend and in the right time and seek forgiveness from the one(s) you have offended. Trust God in the midst of it all. Let freedom from the weight of guilt come.

Have more than two minutes?: These thoughts came from reading Genesis 37-45. If you have more than two minutes, go read the story of Joseph and consider what might have been going on in his brothers’ minds in chapter 45.

**Sit again in silence for as long as is available to you.**

Proving Ourselves

**Sit quietly, eyes closed, for one minute before reading.**

    I spend so much energy trying to prove myself. Prove that I am worth talking to, prove that I am good at something, prove that I deserve something. I want to prove myself worthy. I am worth your time, I am worth your energy, I am worth something.
    And so I do it with God. It is a lot more subtle than my relationship with people, but I do it with God too. I spend time and energy to prove I am worth loving, that I am worth having certain things. I perform for His approval yet His approval is in NO WAY dependent on my performance. God’s love and approval is not dependent on ANYTHING that I say, do or am. I’ve got nothing to contribute, nothing.
    This is freeing and scary. We do not get grace. His grace does not require anything and that is just weird to us … a foreign concept … it is strange … it is the exact opposite of how I work, yet it is how HE works. He works radically different than we do and is continually drawing us into His grace.
    How do you fight grace? How do you try to prove yourself worthy?

**Sit again in silence for as long as is available to you.**

The Joy of Every Longing Heart

**Please take one minute to sit, breathe deeply and seek quiet.**

“Come Thou long expected Jesus, born to set Thy people free. From our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee. Israel’s strength and consolation, hope of all the Earth Thou art. Dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart.” – Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

    Jesus is the joy of every longing heart. Our hearts long for freedom - freedom from fear, from sin, from struggling and from striving. Our hearts need rest and they find their rest in freedom that comes from Jesus. Whether we know it or not we all long for freedom and for those of us who know Jesus, he is our joy. Our longing hearts find their rest in Jesus. This leads us to gratefulness and praise.
    There is always another place we can find rest. There will always be opportunity for us to be released from fear and sin and find rest.
    May we continually find our rest and freedom in Jesus and may we experience the joy that it is to know him.

**Please take as much time as is possible to sit and reflect.**

Adventure

**Before you begin reading, sit down, breathe normally and be quiet for 1 minute.**
    When is the last time you went an adventure? When is the last time you embarked on a journey and did not know where it would lead? Was it easy for you or did you struggle to know how it would turn out, where you'd be going, the ETA at each mile marker?
    I am a planner. I like knowing where I am going, beating the time I think it will take me to get there and plotting out the course. I find fulfillment in accomplishment! There is nothing necessarily wrong with this but often I miss opportunities for adventure.  I miss opportunties to embark on the wonder, surprise and joy of an adventure.
    Adventures require freedom and often the most difficult freedom is freedom we give ourselves to even go. Do you give yourself freedom for adventure? Do you give God freedom to lead you on a journey full of wonder, joy and surprises or do you have the mile markers mapped out for Him?

PS God doesn't really follow our mile markers. ;)

**Sit quietly again for as much time as is available to you.**

Your Voice

**Before you begin reading, sit down, breathe normally and be quiet for 1 minute.**

Your voice.  My daughter is experimenting with her voice.  It is so fun to watch her explore her voice, the strength of it, the sound of it and the reactions she gets from others.  We all have a voice as well.  Some of us have lost our voice.  Maybe it has been drowned out or quieted.  Maybe it has not been given the freedom to speak.  Maybe we have not had the freedom to experiment with our voices to find them.  Maybe we are just too tired to use it.  God has given you a voice for something, someone.  May you find the freedom to experiment and explore your voice.  When it is found may it nourish and build up that which God has called you to speak for.

**Sit quietly again for as much time as is available to you.**