Daily Office Readings for Monday of Proper 9: Year 2
Morning, Psalms 1, 2 and 3; Evening, Psalms 4 and 7;
Numbers 32:1 to 6 and 16 to 27; Romans 8:26 to 30; Matthew 23:1 to12:
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8: 26 – 27)
I think Paul really gets it right here. We do have a weakness when it comes to prayer. We do not know how to pray as we ought. These are the times we just need to sit quietly and ponder about God. The Spirit of God dwells within each believer. And that is really it, we don’t have to know what we are doing. All we have to do is believe, that is trust. The Holy Spirit of God walks on the path of our faith, our believing, right into our hearts, and responds to God from whom it came in the first place. We do not belong to ourselves. We belong to God. We do however have the privilege of knowing one another, and if we obey our Lord Jesus, we will love one another also.
Language is a wonderful thing. But it is not the end-all. There are feelings and emotions and expressions, as Paul says, “too deep for words.” I am a member of a Spiritual Companion Group where silence is the norm of our time together. I can’t say enough about how valuable the movement of the Spirit is as the Spirit moves and weaves through our group meetings when we say nothing.
The Spirit of God mingles within our hearts and actually moves our personality needle to more and more love. And, as Paul says, God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for us. Truly folks, all we have to do is back off and let God be God. We are on a journey but we are not driving. We are passengers. All we have to do is enjoy the ride and love one another.
Today we remember Priscilla and Aquila Co-Workers of the Apostle Paul and their information may be found at:Priscilla & Aquila.
As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and to serve, and to teach others to love and to serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
Let us pray:
O all-knowing and all loving God, whose Spirit moved about when there was nothing, and then moved over created waters, and then created all life, and then You walked among humankind. Your spiritual depth is more than we can understand. Help us to channel our spirits to your all-loving Spirit in our prayers beyond our understanding. Knowing that we don’t have to understand to have faith. Search our minds and enliven our spirits to have love for You and for one another. Amen
onewhoponders 