J
Jordache
Guest
For about 2 years now my church has been doing silent retreats at a convent nearby. They graciously allow us to use their grounds to hold a mini (3.5 hour) retreat. Today we began with Lectio Divina on Isaiah 9:6, 7. We ha a small group sharing time. Later we had a chance to head out so I climbed the hills behind the convent. It was beautiful. 70 degrees, clear skies, sunny, light breeze.
"Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end."
Out of the passage given, this was the portion that struck me. So I prayed through it and began defining both government and peace. Government is control, direction, guidance, strength, protection, and much more. I asked The Lord to define peace.
Peace is a state of heart. It struck me that the phrase is a state of mind so I asked The Lord about it. Peace is not a
state of inaction as many feel. It's a state of mind birthed first in the heart.
Then The Lord gave me a picture of peace in our lives. There was a rose with a golden center that constantly bloomed. When I stopped I asked The Lord, "how do I get it blooming again?" His response was "get back to reality". What's reality? Reality is God's government. It's His Kingdom.
As I went up into the hills I waited for The Lord to speak. Lately my pastor has been talking about breath prayers and its taken me a while to find mine. It eventually became "Jesus". As I thought about how that connected with my earlier revelation I realized that in recent past I've always had very specific prayers that I took to a king high up on His throne. The king was removed enough that he needed specific requests. But Jesus came as a baby with the government on his shoulders to live life beside us. He came as a personal God so that we didn't have to know what we needed. He came to be near enough to us to experience our lives with us and thus knows exactly what we need. It's not a list of requests but his very presence as God incarnate that we need.
"Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end."
Out of the passage given, this was the portion that struck me. So I prayed through it and began defining both government and peace. Government is control, direction, guidance, strength, protection, and much more. I asked The Lord to define peace.
Peace is a state of heart. It struck me that the phrase is a state of mind so I asked The Lord about it. Peace is not a
state of inaction as many feel. It's a state of mind birthed first in the heart.
Then The Lord gave me a picture of peace in our lives. There was a rose with a golden center that constantly bloomed. When I stopped I asked The Lord, "how do I get it blooming again?" His response was "get back to reality". What's reality? Reality is God's government. It's His Kingdom.
As I went up into the hills I waited for The Lord to speak. Lately my pastor has been talking about breath prayers and its taken me a while to find mine. It eventually became "Jesus". As I thought about how that connected with my earlier revelation I realized that in recent past I've always had very specific prayers that I took to a king high up on His throne. The king was removed enough that he needed specific requests. But Jesus came as a baby with the government on his shoulders to live life beside us. He came as a personal God so that we didn't have to know what we needed. He came to be near enough to us to experience our lives with us and thus knows exactly what we need. It's not a list of requests but his very presence as God incarnate that we need.