Christian Reflection and Prayer

STRENGTH TRAINING

Scripture:

Isaiah 35:1-4
New Living Translation (NLT)
Hope for Restoration
35 Even the wilderness and desert will be glad
in those days.
    The wasteland will rejoice and blossom with
spring crocuses.
2 Yes, there will be an abundance of flowers
    and singing and joy!
The deserts will become as green as the
mountains of Lebanon,
    as lovely as Mount Carmel or the plain of
Sharon.
There the Lord will display his glory,
    the splendor of our God.
3 With this news, strengthen those who have
tired hands,
    and encourage those who have weak knees.
4 Say to those with fearful hearts,
    “Be strong, and do not fear,
for your God is coming to destroy your enemies.
    He is coming to save you
.
Reflection:

Gaining weight is easy. Sometimes I feel like I just
look at chocolate and my body immediately gains
weight. Working out is not easy for me. My body
rebels against it. I admire people who get up early
in the morning and run no matter what the weather
is like. It is also amazing how some personal
trainers stick with people who inwardly believe it
will never work.

Commitment is not a bad word. It is extremely
rewarding to be motivated just by the sheer
fulfillment of seeing someone transformed. Inside
and out. The Holy Spirit is our personal trainer.
He is committed to seeing us strong inside and out.
He also wants us to strengthen others who are weak
and have lost their way. Look around you. Is there
someone who needs a spiritual personal trainer to
commit their success? Will you allow God to show
you how you can be one?

Prayer:

Lord, help me to see those who are weak around me
strength in the to be someone else's oasis in the desert.
Amen

(Covenant Home Alter, author Gricel Medina)

Scripture
:
James 5:7-10
New Living Translation (NLT)
Patience and Endurance
7 Dear brothers and sisters,[a] be patient as you
wait for the Lord’s return. Consider the farmers who
patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring.
They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen.
8 You, too, must be patient. Take courage, for the
coming of the Lord is near.
9 Don’t grumble about each other, brothers and
sisters, or you will be judged. For look—the Judge is
standing at the door!
10 For examples of patience in suffering, dear brothers
and sisters, look at the prophets who spoke in the
name of the Lord.
 
Reflection:

I have always been fascinated the sound of rain it has
a soothing and therapeutic affect on me Hearing it
during the night special treat for me. My soul
welcomes it as a symbol of blessing and provision. It
is one of those things we cannot control, but we are
so grateful when it comes. I have found that it is during
the times of spiritual drought that I appreciate the rain
most.

During a time when I was in a very dry place, a very
unlikely person came into my life. We did not have a
lot in common it was hard to appreciate this person,
and our journey together was at times overwhelming.
But our mutual need for rain brought us together. And
it was that person who compelled me to cry out for rain.
Rain comes at all seasons-when we expect it and when
we don't. Today, let us ask the Holy Spirit for rain. Allow
it to fall afresh on you when it does, say some water.
You may need to bring it to a thirsty soul.

Prayer:

Lord, help me to appreciate the time of rain. Show me
how to remember that you are present in all seasons.
Amen

(Covenant Home Alter, author Gricel Medina)

(Prayer 1)

The resistance to praying is like the resistance of tightly
clenched fists. This image shows a tention, a desire to
claim tightly to yourself, of greediness which betrays fear.
A story about an elderly woman brought to a psychiatric
center exemplifies this attitude. She was wild, swinging
at everything in sight, and frightening everyone so much
that the doctors had to take everything away from her.
But there was one small coin which she gripped in her
fist and would not give up. In fact, it took two people to
pry open that clinched hand. It was as though she would
lose her very self along with the coin. If they deprived
her of that last possession, she would have nothing more
and be nothing more. That was her fear.

When you are invited to pray, you are asked to open your
tightly clenched fists and give up your last coin but who
wants to do that? A first prayer, therefore, is often a
painful prayer because you discover you don't want to let
go. You hold fast to what is familiar, even if you aren't
proud of it. You find yourself saying: "That's just how it is
with me. I would like it to be different, but it can't be now.
That's just the way it is, and this is the way I'll have to
leave it." Once you talk like that you've already given up
believing that your life might be otherwise. You’ve already
let the hope for new life flow by. Since you wouldn't dare
to put a question mark after a bit of your own experience
with all its attachments, you have wrapped yourself up in
the destiny of fax. You feel it's safer to cling to a sorry
pass than to trust in a new future. So you fill your hands
with small clammy coins which you don't want to surrender.

(Reflections on Prayer. Taken from the book
"With Open Hands" by Henri J. M. Nouwen)