Presence

“Be still and know that I am God”. (Psalm 46:10).
Lord, may Your Spirit guide me to seek
Your loving presence more and more,
for it is there I find rest and refreshment from this busy world.

Freedom

Lord, You created me to live in freedom. May Your Holy Spirit guide me to follow You freely. Instil in my heart a desire to know and love You more each day.

Consciousness

We all need to take time out from our daily chores.
We know that our bodies need a rest.
When we come into Your presence, Lord,
our hearts and minds are refreshed, our spirits lifted.

The Word of God

¹⁷But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.” ¹⁸For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the Sabbath but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.

¹⁹Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own but only what he sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. ²⁰The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing, and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished. ²¹Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes. ²²The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, ²³so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. ²⁴Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come under judgment but has passed from death to life.

²⁵“Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. ²⁶For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself, ²⁷and he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man. ²⁸Do not be astonished at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice ²⁹and will come out: those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.

³⁰“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

Inspiration

St John’s Gospel, written after the other three gospels, is unequalled in making clear the divinity of Jesus and his close relationship with his Father in heaven. At the end of chapter 20 he states that this gospel was written that we may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God. Jesus told us he sought always to do the will of his Father. As followers of Jesus this should always be our aim.

Without God holding us in existence every moment of our lives, we simply would cease to exist. This working in us is the work of the whole Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. ‘Why, every hair on your head is counted.’ Let us pray to have complete trust in the unchanging love of God for every one of us.

Conversation

To communicate, we don’t always need to talk.
Can I imagine myself sitting quietly with Jesus?
I, looking silently at Him, and He at me.
How do I feel?

Conclusion

I thank God for His gift of love
as I go forth with joy and hope
to serve His people.

Amen