Beloved ashes

Verse for the day: “You are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3.19c

Prayer for the week:  Dear Lord, the sacrifice acceptable to you is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.  Now teach me this Lord, for I cannot learn it on my own.  I ask this in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Bible reading for the day: Song of Solomon 1.6; 2.7.16-17   (note: As a younger man, I was too immature to comprehend the profound beauty of the Song of Solomon. It is a long love poem, a dialogue, between the beloved and the Lover, between a believer who has “not kept her own vineyard” and the Lord who yet calls her his beloved. In these excerpts, “She” the beloved, speaks. She has sought love too early… and learned to wait for the one True Lover.)

She

⁶Do not gaze at me because I am dark,
    because the sun has looked upon me.
My mother's sons were angry with me;
    they made me keeper of the vineyards,
    but my own vineyard I have not kept!

^2.7 I adjure you,O daughters of Jerusalem,
    by the gazelles or the does of the field,
that you not stir up or awaken love
    until it pleases…

¹⁶ My beloved is mine, and I am his;
    he pastures his flock among the lilies.
¹⁷ Until the day breathes
    and the shadows flee,
turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle
    or a young stag on cleft mountains.

Prayer (based on T.R.I.P. method**):  Gracious and almighty Father, thank you: I have sinned and not kept my own vineyard, yet you call me your beloved. I am yours and you are mine… thank you! Deliver me from the trap of awakening, stirring up love before it pleases you. Come Lord, as you please, and have your loving way with me, climb all over me… tread joy and new life into me; in Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Hymn: follow this link to a beloved hymn that gives further voice to today’s conversation with the Lord: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjfToqk5w5g

Benediction: “the Lord have mercy on you, according to his steadfast love; according to his abundant mercy he blots out your transgressions.”  Psalm 51.1

*There are many patterns for devotions.  This pattern has been followed by God’s people for centuries.

**The T.R.I.P. approach to prayer is based on the way Martin Luther prayed and taught others to pray.  It was later developed by Walter and Ingrid Trobisch and then adapted by Mount Carmel Ministries (Alexandria, MN www.dailytext.com).  The method is founded on scripture and easy to remember:                                                                                       T: thanksgiving

                                                          R: regret (repentance)

                                                          I: intercession (asking God to take a specific action)

                                                          P: plan or purpose

Reading a biblical text and then applying this method gives one a sound, simple way to form one’s prayers...not to mention that it helps one learn how to faithfully reflect on God’s Word and talk to God.