Recognizing Vulnerability
Over the next five weeks, we will be exploring reasons we may feel distant from God. Seeing that this ministry is all about helping to create a connection with God, this week, we wanted to take you through some different practices to help you explore your life and the things that hinder you from experiencing God’s presence in your life.
Each day you will receive a scripture to read, a series of reflection questions, and a link to a worship song. Take time to read or listen through the scripture and note any key points that stick out to you. This is often how God speaks to us, so pay close attention and listen for those moments that make you excited, scared, convicted, or encouraged. The reflection questions supplied will guide you into a time of thinking about how and why it is important to seek God’s presence in our lives. And then finally there will be a link to a YouTube video with worship music. This is supplied to create time to pray and seek God. You can use your own music or sit in silence but be sure to close your time by asking God to draw near to you.
I pray that as you explore what it means to be close to God and why we sometimes feel distant, it creates a hunger for more of God’s presence in your life.
Scriptures (ESV):
Psalm 139
O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.
Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.
Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me!
They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in vain.
Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.
Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
Reflection Questions: How does David show vulnerability in this passage? What parts of the passage feel intimate? How are vulnerability and intimacy connected?
Song: "Holy Spirit Come" by Patrick Mayberry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoTNHiFq0p0
Each day you will receive a scripture to read, a series of reflection questions, and a link to a worship song. Take time to read or listen through the scripture and note any key points that stick out to you. This is often how God speaks to us, so pay close attention and listen for those moments that make you excited, scared, convicted, or encouraged. The reflection questions supplied will guide you into a time of thinking about how and why it is important to seek God’s presence in our lives. And then finally there will be a link to a YouTube video with worship music. This is supplied to create time to pray and seek God. You can use your own music or sit in silence but be sure to close your time by asking God to draw near to you.
I pray that as you explore what it means to be close to God and why we sometimes feel distant, it creates a hunger for more of God’s presence in your life.
Scriptures (ESV):
Psalm 139
O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.
Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.
Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me!
They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in vain.
Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.
Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!
And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
Reflection Questions: How does David show vulnerability in this passage? What parts of the passage feel intimate? How are vulnerability and intimacy connected?
Song: "Holy Spirit Come" by Patrick Mayberry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoTNHiFq0p0
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