Simply Pray

Hey everyone! I know it's been a LONG time since my last post, but God has been up to absolutely wild and incredible things which have left me with zero time to share!

One of the "bigs" I would love to share with you is the video below :O) It is a session God let me share at a Women's Retreat and then again two weeks later ... What He did was like nothing He had done in our relationship before I wanted to share that with you :O) Also, if you came to one of these sessions, I would LOVE to get your feedback and hear how it's going for you. The video is at this link:
http://blip.tv/file/2140021

I am no professional AT ALL so this video was made by someone sweet enough to record it and then another wonderful friend uploaded it for me :O) YAY FOR FRIENDS!!!!!

If after you watch the video (note AFTER ;) ) you want to read the notes I wrote to sum this up they are below, but PLEASE watch the video first and respond as God leads you through the session. Let HIM lead your time ... not me.

Love love to you all :O)
Anna


Lectio Divina: Divine Conversation, the Embrace of God
1 Lectio: Prayerful, slow, heart-centered reading of a sacred text.
a. This is the most crucial step … centering your heart to hear what God wants to talk to you about. Before you open the Bible, be honest with God. Talk to Him about how you are feeling, what you are thinking. Lay it all out - completely honest. THEN ask Him to line your heart up with His. This gives Him complete freedom to talk to you as He desires.
b. “How do I choose what to read?” Honestly, it doesn’t matter what passage of the Bible you read. You are asking God to speak to you and He will regardless of where you are in the Bible. He may not speak to you about what you are asking Him, but He will speak to you about what you need to hear first. He really does know your needs better than you do. Trust Him with the timing of His answer. If you feel you want to explore a certain book of the Bible, go for it. If you want to look at a certain subject go to the back of your Bible and look in the index for that topic – choose a passage from the list that is there. OR go to Biblegateway.com and enter that word. From there a list will pull up of every time that word is mentioned in the bible. From there just choose the verse you want to look at. There is no right or wrong here. If you do choose a verse this way, be sure to read the two to three verses before and after that verse to get the idea of what the passage says. You never want to take a verse by itself because it may misconstrue the actual meaning.
c. “How long should the passage be?” Less is more. I wouldn’t read more than one chapter at a sitting. If you started reading and feel especially impacted read the next few verses to finish that thought and then stay with that section of verses. You definitely do not need to read an entire chapter.

2 Meditatio: Deliberate pondering of the message in the text.
a. Read the entire passage.
b. Read the passage again and write down everything it says about God. This includes Lord, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, God, I AM.
c. Read the passage a third time and write down anything that causes any kind of an emotional response.

3 Oratio: Responding to God’s message with honest, sincere prayer.
a. Talk to God about what you have just written, specifically the things that caused any kind of an emotional response. That is something the Lord wants to talk to you about! i. Example: If I wrote down, “God is just” and it impacted me emotionally in a positive way I would say something along the lines of, “Lord, I LOVE that you are just! It is so good and comforting and sweet to me to know that you WILL take care of things! I can let go and trust that justice WILL be done!” and if there is a specific thing I’m talking about like an injustice you have experienced, something you’ve heard about, etc elaborate specifically with the Lord. If it impacted me in a negative way I would say, “Lord, this says you are just but in … situation I haven’t seen this!!! Please please please be true to your Word and help me to trust you that you WILL be. Thank you that you ARE just and I can trust that you ARE working things out and I don’t have to be the one to do it. I can trust that you WILL work it out! Please show me if you want me to have any part in this. And as I trust you please flood me with your peace about the situation.”

4 Contemplatio: Allowing the prayer to dissolve into wordless, thoughtless contemplation, or simply resting in the Divine presence. The embrace of God.
a. If your time with God was:
i. Sweet - soak it in!!! Sit there and enjoy it with Him!! He longs for you to and it feels so good to do that!
ii. Painful - in that God pointed out some stuff in your life and it stung - Please let me remind you that there is NO condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:18). That means that if you have turned your heart to God, through Jesus Christ, the rest of our lives is about the Lord helping us become exactly who He created us to be and it is GLORIOUS!!! The Lord disciplines the one He loves (Hebrews 12:6) so sometimes our time with Him will be about Him pointing out things in us that aren’t according to what He desires for us and that may really sting, but it is for our GOOD. If it seems hard to remember His love in that moment, just remember that God loved you so much that He sent His only son so that you may know Him. That is no small thing. (John 16)
iii. Confusing - that is okay. Please continue to sit with Him until you feel released to go. You are truly sitting in the presence of God … linger. Even if you didn’t receive a ‘direct, clear word’ from Him be encouraged! The Lord says that His word NEVER returns empty/meaningless (Isaiah 55:11)! Ever! So even if it wasn’t for ‘this time’ trust that there was a reason you learned this today. The Lord WILL use the Word He just wrote on your heart.

My final “Lectio Divina” encouragement: Give God your active “Yes!” Whether it is in being obedient to what you have read in the Bible, or in being obedient to what you feel God is prompting you to do … when you give Him the freedom to shape your heart and your life He will do ABSOLUTELY wild things! I pray you saw just a glimpse of that in our time together. I did absolutely nothing and could have done nothing to plan any of what God has done with this session. Every single piece of it was simply me saying “Yes” to Him and trusting Him whatever that meant … it has been GLORIOUS!! Scary? Yes! But ultimately AMAZING and I would have missed it if I hadn’t given Him my “yes” and kept giving it as He gave me opportunity.

I beg you and encourage you to do the same. One of my favorites is in the book of Mark where there was a father who asked Jesus to heal his son. Jesus asked the father if he believed he could heal the son and the father very honestly said, “I believe. Please help overcome my unbelief.” It is very honest and okay to say that to the Lord as we grow in our relationship with Him. He knows it can be scary and just because you are scared doesn’t mean you are wrong. Be honest with your doubts and fears, and then choose to trust Him and do as He is prompting anyway. As you give Him your active “yes” He will do things in you and through you that you would have never imagined! (Ephesians 3:20)

Love, love, love to you. Anna