E&W 9-8-13

Sacred Story

Encouragements & Wisdom: September 8, 2013

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Encouragements and Wisdom: September 8, 2013 (PDF).

E & W reflections are additional helps for your Sacred Story prayer journey. Reflect on them at week’s beginning or outside of your 15-minute prayer periods.

The Affirmations

My Sacred Story takes a lifetime to write

 
It is a cliché to say that life is not over till it is over. I doubt anyone would disagree with this fact. Yet often ignored is the fact that we have to work daily on our spiritual growth. Or more precisely, we must work daily to open to the artist who can transform our lives into a sacred story.

Think of your life as a work of art. The powerful image from Jeremiah 18 about the potter and the clay speaks to this: “Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.” In this passage God reminds Israel that a potter can destroy a bad work of art and rebuild a new one from the original clay. While that might seem a bit harsh to contemplate, we can view the potter and clay image through the lens of Christ Jesus who has come to restore what was lost.

Christ can take our lives, daily undermined by the weight of bad decisions, selfishness, and our own sin and weakness, and transform all of it into blessing. God, in Jesus, is the artist and it will take a complete lifetime for the Lord to work his miracles of grace in our sacred story. We will always be in need of the merciful forgiveness of the Divine Artist in Jesus. Once we see that Jesus needs to work daily in our lives, we then come to understand why “my Sacred Story takes a lifetime to write.”

Lord Jesus, you never tire of being our savior and you never get discouraged with our failures and weaknesses. We give you thanks for your great patience with us and we pray that we allow you, daily, to write our sacred story by your love and grace so that we may praise you in
Creation, Presence, Memory, Mercy and Eternity.

Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Return, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants!

(Psalm 90: 12-13)

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