Begin your prayer time by lighting a candle or by ringing the opening bell in the right hand column at the website here. Allow the ringing of the bell to draw you into sacred space with God. Take a few deep breaths, breathing in God's love and presence, breathing out any distractions, plans or worries.
Lord, Jesus Christ, teach me to pray.
Prepare yourself for the reading of the scripture passage by quieting yourself and asking God to speak to you in this passage. Read the passage slowly with both the mind and the heart, at least two times.
A Reading from the Gospel according to Mark [6:1-6]
Jesus left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house.” And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he was amazed at their unbelief.
According to the scripture, it was the people’s unbelief that took almost all of the power out of the situation so that Jesus could do very little amongst them. We see in this passage that what Jesus is able to do in the world depends in some measure on what we believe about him.
It seems that most of us Christians have two different lives. We have our spiritual lives which usually take place at church, when we spend time in prayer and scripture reading or take part in a bible study or class. And then we have our ordinary lives, our secular or worldly lives of work, recreation, entertainment, doing chores and spending time with family and friends. We have a hard time thinking of those occasions as every bit as spiritual as the time that we spend actually thinking about God or our religion. Is God any more present with us when we are praying than when we are sitting in a meeting? Is God truly more present when we are in church than when we are doing the dishes or cleaning out the garage? Could it be possible that God is just as present when we are sitting in the movie theater watching the latest Hollywood blockbuster as He is when we are reading devotional material? Acts 17:28 says, “In him we live and move and have our being”. Read that again. “In him we live and move and have our being.” As long as we are, we are in him. And Romans 8:38-39 says, “I am convinced that nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus”. (paraphrased) And that “nothing” includes our busy distracted lives. God is a part of those. The people in the scripture passage today also had two lives and they refused to allow the power that they were witnessing within Jesus be a part of their life.
While God is always, always present with us, it is our unbelief or simply our forgetfulness that keeps us from fully experiencing the power of God in our lives.
Prayer practice: Letting all things be sacred.
I invite you to look over the rest of your day and pick a very mundane task that you know you will be doing. Ideally choose something that you know you will be doing multiple times. It could be driving in the car, working at your desk, doing the dishes, or even brushing your teeth. Now, visualize that situation in your mind. Imagine that as you perform that activity God or Jesus is right there with you. Would you do those activities differently if you really believed that God was sitting or standing right beside you? Allow yourself to believe that when that activity is done well, with your full attention, and in God’s presence, it becomes sacred. Spend a moment or two with your visualization. Now, as you go about your day, remember to actually practice that visualization.
Bidden or unbidden, God is present. ~Erasmus
We never summon God. God is already here. We simply turn ourselves toward God.
Write in your journal some of your thoughts about the sacred and the ordinary. Do you have any sense of God’s presence in the “ordinary” parts of your day? Would you like to?
Loving God, May you be a part of every moment of my life today. May I truly live and move in You. Amen.
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