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JULY 29, 2024
God, grant me the vision to recognize and the heart to welcome all that this day brings. Prevent me from overlooking its blessings by fixating on a distant tomorrow. Help me embrace the freshness of each moment with mindfulness and thankfulness. I pray in the name of the one who renews everything. Amen.
1 Corinthians 2:6-16
6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—
the things God has prepared for those who love him—
10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for,
“Who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?”
But we have the mind of Christ.
Do you find that throughout each day, a multitude of demands constantly compete for your attention?
At work your boss says, “Do this now!” Throughout the day Social media screams, “Look over here!” The people you love issue demands for your time. With all these voices, and many others, it can be hard to hear the quiet leading of God.
Connecting with God is a spiritual exercise. Like a muscle, it becomes stronger with regular practice. Let's face it there is a lot of noise in life, you and me could use some practices that would help us to turn down the volume of the noise and the voices that surround us, so that we may be able to turn up the volume on God voice.
I suppose it really comes down to the development of some "listening practices". These practices are spiritual because they help devlop a different kind of hearing. As 1 Corinthians 2 says, God can’t be seen with normal eyes or heard with normal ears. God can only be revealed through the Spirit.
The Good News is that we can practice tuning into God’s Spirit no matter where we are.
I know I often mention in our devotions Brother Lawrence, a seventeenth century monk, who learned to connect with God through his day-to-day labor. I think I am drawn to Brother Lawrence because I so easily distracted in my life. You may remember that Lawerence as he worked in the monastery kitchen, trained himself to view his work as something he was doing with God. While he washed dishes, he thought about how much he loved God and how much God loved him. The outcome of this practice was that it turned his work into an act of prayer. His work, even dishwashing, was something that he and God were doing together.
Here is a little something to try today as a way to practice tuning into or connecting with God through your work:
2. Before you start this task, ask God to be with you in your work.
Try to imagine the task as something that you and God are doing together.
3. Listen for any new insights, ideas, or emotions that come to your mind while working.
Let's Pray
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