New Year - New Us

January 6, 2010


NEW YEAR - NEW US


With all the topsy-turviness of life in these times, (see prior blogs) Jackie and I have begun some new patterns to stabablize and hear the Lord's voice better.

Here's one....

Set aside the last alert-and-together hour of the day for a time together or with household members, that, with flexibility and the prompted direction of the Holy Spirit, includes a combination of the following:

* You and the members of your family that can be or choose to be present. No force on anyone.
* A comfortable, suitable room, uninvaded by extraneous noise and traffic. (Do you need to post a sign on the door? :)
* An hour, available to be used - so this does not become a brief perfunctory action.
* Your most used Bible - the one you use for personal devotions. (We have also been bringing the current spiritually relevant things that we are reading, in case we sense a prompt to share them.)
* The freedom given to each other to speak out loud, to sing, to be emotionally transparent and deeply honest.
* A notebook so that you can write down things that come to mind as important, or things that you together sense the Lord is doing in your midst.

The Hour:
* Pray over the gathering place and dedicate it for the time set aside to be especially the Lord's.
* Gather and get comfortable.
* Begin, most often, by getting quiet and comfortable with the gathering.
* As led by the Spirit - pray, sing, read, be still, write, just listen, talk, confess, implore the Lord - all of these movements of the heart as frequently, long or short, simple or complex, spoken or sung, standing or kneeling or just sitting still. Lingering or leaving....but following the heart and soul and Spirit.
* Interact with one another about what is going on as appropriate.
* And at the end, be sure to include:
summarizing ("What will we take away from this time?) and
a final time of being still
(Just to see if the Lord has a bit more of something to speak into each one.)

Need more strength for challenging times?

Try Psalm 77 - (be sure to check out the Message version)

David