How to do Lectio Devina
Sisters, this is really your time with the Lord. This will be a challenge but so fruitful. There will also be a short reflection. Give this a chance and see where the Lord takes you.
There are a couple of different ways to do this but there is one way that I will point out. This is a simple way to pray. A great resource here is your prayer journal.
1: Read the whole Scripture: James 1:1-11
2: Reflect on it for a short time (3 min or more) and see if any particular verse stands out to you.
3: Read the verse that stood out to you again.
4: Reflect on it and see if a particular word stands out to you (3 min or more)
5: Reflect on the word and see what the Lord is trying to point out to you.
You can go back and read any verses that you stood out to you and just spend a short time in prayer (silence) and listening to what God wants to point out to you. God will show up. He always does.
Short reflection
“Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing* of your faith produces perseverance. And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
This just hits the nail on the head! So many promises made and so many resolutions that are being done. We may want to quit at times for various reasons but the Lord says here that when its hard, that’s when we rejoice! Wait, what? Rejoice? But my natural inclination is to complain, to cry, to get frustrated when something gets hard but to rejoice? I don’t know about that one.
5 days ago, my roommate and I said a pact that we would work out together. Everyday for 30 days we would do a 30 min work out video by Jillian Michaels. We want to loose weight and be healthy so why not? We made ourselves some visual aids to count down the days and so far have been successful. It doesn’t mean it has been easy. The second day I was so sore I wanted to quit. To just stop and let me body recover. I was SOOO tired in the first three days.
I didn’t expect this. Why? That’s a great question but I didn’t mentally prepare myself for what was going to happen. My body was changing. This was affecting me in more ways than just physical. Yes I was tired, but I was also hungrier, less patient, sore all over so I was thinking of myself and my body every time I moved and was wondering when this ‘pain’ would end.
When we start a change, we may expect a little change but sometime we have no idea of what we’re in store for. When we encounter that unforeseen hurdle in our lives, mental or physical, we are no longer in control. This is scary and this makes us want to stop, to quit, to throw in the towel because “this is not what I signed up for”.
But this is exactly what should happen. We shouldn’t be in control of what is to come, that what God is for. He sees the big picture and then we have to start to trust and sometimes in ways that are more uncomfortable and harder to do. When we are tested think of it as a good thing because if anyone wants us to not succeed and fail at what we are doing, it’s the devil. He will throw things at us that are unexpected but it’s good in a sense because we are getting closer to our destination! So yes count it joy when we are tested because it means we are getting closer to our destination to our goal and when we keep going, we are defeating the devil and praising God!
May we rejoice sisters when these resolutions and desires to become closer to Christ are hard because that just means we getting closer to the top of that Mountain! I’ll be praying for each of you! Let us run this race together and never quit! Falling and getting side tracked from our goal is not quitting but staying down and not getting back up to run the race is. When we fail, keep going, the Lord is always welcoming and merciful.
No matter what, you are loved!
