GREETING
Blessed are those who love you and enjoy your company, God;
for beauty, peace, joy, life and your love will be theirs forever.
Be our blessing today, God of grace and glory. We love you.
HYMN 465 “Holy Spirit, Truth Divine”
PSALM 42
PRAYER
(Consider some of the following concerns of people for prayers of thanksgiving, intercession, and petition. Follow with your personal prayer list.)
People with low self-esteem People who are full of themselves
People who have given up Proud and stuck-up people
People with no hopes or dreams Supposedly self-made people
People overwhelmed with inertia That God restore hope
For people who are shy, humbled or frightened That we wake up to God’s love
People who feel small and useless That we find our purpose
People who feel unimportant and unappreciated That we discover our creativity
Those suffering depression That we find our sense of adventure
Those considering or attempting suicide That God give “impossible” dreams
That God’s Spirit enter us That we realize our blessing in God
That God’s Spirit empower us That we lean on God’s strength
That God’s Spirit lead us That we borrow God’s courage
That God’s Spirit comfort us That we follow God’s vision
That God’s love gives our lives meaning _____________________________
That the coming kingdom become real to us _____________________________
That we realize our importance to God _____________________________
THE LORD'S PRAYER
SCRIPTURE LESSON
(Choose a passage of scripture to read. It can be a chapter, a paragraph, or a particular story. Daily lectionaries are available online or in print that assign a lesson each day from the gospels, epistles, Old Testament and psalms on a three-year cycle. Or you can create a plan to read a book of the Bible, or the whole Bible. Then follow the steps below.)
Read a passage of scripture. Read it out loud, very slowly and carefully as if for the first time. Continue reading until a word, phrase or sentence captures your attention. Stop there to repeat the word, phrase or sentence over and over, listening to it deeply in your heart.
Reflect on why the passage got your attention. Consider the area of your life to which this may apply. Is God saying something to you in this passage? Take time to listen carefully to whatever God may be saying to you.
Respond to God in prayer (or with journaling, music, art or whatever you choose) about what you have heard. Ask questions. Open yourself to God’s will for you.
Rest in God’s company. Be still and quiet. Move beyond thinking, practicing interior silence. Let yourself be open to God’s presence. Savor this moment with God.
PRAYER
You reveal some of your character, God, in the people whom you decide to bless.
Take, for example the poor in spirit. Who but you, God, cares for them?
They have been beaten and broken, and have totally given up.
They have no self-esteem. They have no dreams, and no hope.
They feel small and helpless, and are overwhelmed by inertia.
When they fall into a rut, they lack the spunk to get out of it.
They are like a fire that has been smothered and lacks oxygen.
The world uses and abuses them, with no concern at all for their welfare.
Those poor in spirit cannot defend themselves, and seldom try.
The world pushes them aside, or just runs right over them.
They are held in contempt and are objects of constant derision.
They are the cannon fodder thrown against the enemy in war.
They are the manufacturer’s bottomless pool of cheap labor.
But you, God, take these poor in spirit, and you give them the kingdom of heaven.
All that is good and right, all that is true and just, you pour out upon them.
You knock on their humble doors and go in to dine with them.
When they are abused and beaten, you hold them in your arms.
When they are exhausted and lean on you, you keep them going.
When they are sick, you sit with them, healing all that is wrong.
When they are dying, you open your kingdom to welcome them.
The poor in spirit are priceless in your eyes, and are treasured in your heart.
Even in this world, you wrap them in a quiet joy foreign to many.
You fill them with a peace reserved for residents of the kingdom.
You let them know you as intimately and completely as the saints.
You hold them in a love that declares that you would die for them,
and you have died for them, two thousand years ago on the cross.
God, what does this say about you? And, what does it say about our troubled world?
Open our hearts and minds to recognize your blessing of the poor in spirit.
Amen.
SILENCE AND COMMITMENT
(Pause to reflect and listen. Work to push out of your mind any distracting or irrelevant thoughts. Concentrate your thoughts on the words of the hymns and choruses you have sung, the prayers you have spoken and the scriptures you have read. Be aware of what you are feeling. Listen for anything that God might be saying to you in this time you have spent together. As God responds to your prayer-time, seek guidance for how you can best respond to God’s will. Then commit to serving God’s will for you.)
HYMN 480 “O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go”
CLOSING PRAYER
God who takes yesterday’s evil,
and turns it into today’s blessing,
help us to see what Christ sees
when troubles trample over us.
Help us live today trusting you
to know the way to all goodness.
Send us out in faith to see you
working to turn evil into good.
Reveal to us the many wonders
you initiate everywhere around us.
Help us hold to the eternal truth
that you will love and care for us,
and this day can bring us no evil
that you cannot turn to a blessing. Amen.
Copyright 2020. Robert D. Ingram, 32746 Jourden Rd., Albany, Ohio 45710 (dr.bobingram@gmail.com). Used by permission.
