Credit: I’m Pricilla
This daily post is designed to help you live into our New Room Society covenant of practicing daily prayer together. Below is this week’s theme and daily practice.
Week 11: Word
God’s people have always had a special reverence for words, especially the words of Scripture. Have we lost the reasons for that? If so, what has it cost us?
“The Word of Scripture should never stop sounding in your ears and working in you all day long, just like the words of someone you love. And just as you do not analyze the words of someone you love, but accept them as they are said to you, accept the Word of Scripture and ponder it in your heart, as Mary did. That is all. That is meditation… Do not ask ‘How shall I pass this on?’ but ‘What does it say to me?’ Then ponder this Word long in your heart until it has gone right into you and taken possession of you.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Jesus people have a number of odd characteristics, and one of them is the notion that words have a special kind of life to them.
Not only does God speak things into existence (Genesis 1), but God in human flesh is also called “the Word”:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1-10, Authorized (King James) Version (AKJV)
One of the two primary United Methodist liturgies is called Word and Table, reminding us each time we worship that God is living and active among us in important ways through the proclamation of scripture and participation in communion.
We easily fall into argument over scripture, but how easily do we simply… fall into scripture?
This week you’re invited to immerse yourself daily in God’s Word.
Sunday: Read, Reflect, Respond, Rest
As you embark on a week devoted to reading, visualizing, and meditating on God’s word, consider these four steps in the traditional lectio divina process: Read, reflect, respond, rest.
In your life and ministry, which of these four acts takes up the majority of your time? To which do you devote the least amount of time? Why is that?