GREETING (Psalm 8:1, 3-5)
O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?
Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honor.
HYMN 109 “Creating God, Your Fingers Trace”
PSALM 97
PRAYER
(Think back to the beginning of this day. Start there, and mentally walk through the day again, while you thank God for the day's blessings and God's continuous work of love. Confess and repent of those times when you forgot, ignored or rebelled against God. Continue to pray with your personal prayer list.)
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
Breath of Life, do you breathe your life into our dust?
To dust we will return without your gift every few seconds.
What constant effort and attention you bestow on us.
And yet we constantly take our next breath for granted.
What is this hand-full of dust that you dote on us so?
Whether we sleep or wake, run or rest, you breathe into us.
Even in the face of open rebellion and disobedience,
you do not withdraw, but persevere in granting us this life.
It is not to meet your need that you gift us with life.
What purpose have we? We incessantly break and destroy.
Can it be for love that you fill our lungs with sky?
We are so very unlovable, so often hateful, mean and selfish.
If you love us, the source for it can only be in you,
emanating from your will and embedded in your nature.
From the depths of your being the love must arise
to gift our bodies with your breath and sky, life and Spirit,
hoping, always hoping, that one day we might notice,
and turn to you in gratefulness with new love rising in us.
Well, God, in this moment your creatures have noticed,
and declare to all the world your goodness and eternal grace.
This dust thanks you for life, and the ocean of sky.
This dust has discovered love for the One who loved first. 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 101 “From All That Dwell Below the Skies”
CLOSING PRAYER
God, as you completed your astounding creation,
you saw the days and declared each of them good.
Now look at this day we have created with you,
and in your mercy and grace declare it good also.
May this humble offering add to your goodness,
our faith, our hope, our obedience and our love.
All these things you first created in our hearts,
to spill out and fill all creation with their blessing.
God of goodness, grant us a good night’s rest,
and let our dreams be of an even better tomorrow. Amen.
Copyright 2020. Robert D. Ingram, 32746 Jourden Rd., Albany, Ohio 45710 (dr.bobingram@gmail.com). Used by permission.
Copyright 2020. Robert D. Ingram, 32746 Jourden Rd., Albany, Ohio 45710 (dr.bobingram@gmail.com). Used by permission.
Copyright 2020. Robert D. Ingram, 32746 Jourden Rd., Albany, Ohio 45710 (dr.bobingram@gmail.com)
