Teach Us to Number Our Days: Lent Daybook 25
Take a few deep breaths, settle your body, mind, and heart into a quiet space, and let’s begin with prayer.
Opening prayer: Heavenly Father, make me more like Jesus and more like the true self you’ve created as I savor your loving presence today. Please guide my thoughts and impressions by your Holy Spirit. Amen.
Look: Saturday (an interior view of Garstin's home), Norman Garstin - Source
Listen: Wisdom and Grace, Bifrost Arts - Bandcamp w/ lyrics | Spotify | YouTube
Read: Psalm 87, 90; Psalm 136; Jeremiah 13:1-11; Romans 6:12-23; John 8:47-59
Excerpts:
On the holy mount stands the city he founded; the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God.
Selah
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Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
You turn us back to dust and say, “Turn back, you mortals.” For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past or like a watch in the night. …
The days of our life are seventy years or perhaps eighty, if we are strong; even then their span is only toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away…
So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart. …
Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us and as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be manifest to your servants and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and prosper for us the work of our hands— O prosper the work of our hands!
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O give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever…
It is he who remembered us in our low estate, for his steadfast love endures forever; and rescued us from our foes, for his steadfast love endures forever; who gives food to all flesh, for his steadfast love endures forever.
O give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever.
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Thus said the Lord to me, “Go and buy yourself a linen loincloth and put it on your loins, but do not dip it in water.” So I bought a loincloth according to the word of the Lord and put it on my loins. And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, “Take the loincloth that you bought and are wearing, and go now to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.” … Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it. But now the loincloth was ruined; it was good for nothing. …
For as the loincloth clings to one’s loins, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the Lord, in order that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory. But they would not listen.
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Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies, so that you obey their desires. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. …
When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. So what fruit did you then gain from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the fruit you have leads to sanctification, and the end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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“…Whoever is from God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear them is that you are not from God. …
“Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.” Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.” So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.”
—Psalm 87:1-3; Psalm 90:1-4, 10, 12, 14-17; Psalm 136:3, 23-26; Jeremiah 13:1-4, 7, 11; Romans 6:12-14, 20-23; John 8:47, 56-59
Pray & Do: On Saturdays during Lent, we’ll spend about 15 minutes practicing a devotional exercise known as an examen. This is a spiritual discipline of prayer first modeled by St. Ignatius of Loyola. The prayer practice has remained a dynamic, deeply-meaningful way to develop our capacity to hear God and our own hearts as well.
Start with silence. Take some time to be silent, without any noise or distraction, to pause and calmly think about the first few days of Lent. I’ve come to call this time a selah pause.
The Hebrew word selah (see-lah) is repeated throughout the Psalms. The definition of this word is probably a musical reference, calling for a break in the singing of the Psalm. The Amplified Bible (AMP) adds the explanatory phrase "pause, and calmly think of that!" each time the word selah shows up in the Psalms.
There’s no need to strive for a profound insight during this time. Just be still.
If you begin to sense thoughts or feelings bubbling up in the quiet, notice them without trying to analyze them. You might breathe a simple prayer each time you're tempted to become distracted. For example, when you feel distracted or anxious, breathe in “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God” and exhale “Have mercy on me, the sinner.” Another option is to echo the psalmist: "Selah, pause, and calmly think of that.”
After about 5 minutes of silence, pray through the questions listed here:
Ask God for light. I want to look at my week with God’s eyes, not merely my own.
Give thanks. The week I’ve just lived is a gift from God. I give thanks.
Notice places you felt connected to the love of God, others, and yourself. I calmly think back on the week just completed, trusting the Holy Spirit to help me recall whatever’s helpful. I notice the places I felt most connected to the love of God and others.
Notice places you distanced yourself from the love of God, others, and yourself. I acknowledge what I’ve done or left undone that made it difficult for me to connect with the love of God and others.
Look forward to the week to come. I ask God where I need help and a greater connection with love for the coming week.
Trust God as your Heavenly Father to be present with you through Christ and by his Spirit. End your time with a simple prayer or chorus.
Go about your day and into the weekend with peace.
You might also enjoy: Examen For The End of the Week via Pray-As-You-Go
*Sunday Scripture readings are taken from Year A of the Book of Common Prayer 2019 (Anglican Church of North America). Daily Scripture readings are taken from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and include both Morning and Evening Psalms (Year 1)