Lent - Week 1, Day 7

Aha!  Seventh days are recaps. So, if you missed any of the videos this week, you can find all of them in here in one place.

So today, what I'd like you to do is think about each of the quotes and questions the brothers asked this week.  In case you've forgotten, the things to think about are:

Think back on your life. How has God’s love for you been mediated? Through whom has that happened? How has that happened, that you have come to know something about God’s love? And then conversely, where do you find in yourself any resistance? Is there something about you, who you are, how you are, as you are, the way you are, that you think precludes God’s love for you?

So which world is it that God loves? Is it the world, the creation in its original glory, or is it the world that is fallen, broken, imperfect, sinful?

So one prayer practice that you might try is you might come up with a prayer of self-offering, a prayer that offers the wholeness of your self beyond your particular feelings on any given day, beyond your perhaps desire to earn God’s love, and it can just be a prayer that offers your whole self, knowing that grace has prompted you to pray that prayer and that grace will follow upon that prayer after you’ve offered it along with your whole self.

God comes – as our verse reminds us today – not to condemn, but to save.  For God loves you as you are.  Listen for God’s voice to you today.

From what and from whom do you derive your sense of worth, your sense of who you are? How might this be different if you embraced as the central characteristic of your identity the fact that you are a beloved child of God?

Let us pray today for Jesus to grant us memories of those times when our fears have been dispelled by the perfect love which casts out fear, by the remembrance of God which has come to us either in our life of prayer or in our relationships with others.

And my question for you today is, what can you do to help yourself understand and believe that you are loved by God?  Think about the lessons the brothers have shared with us, and contemplate it as you listen to the following: