Today we invite you to participate in something we do often, a Breath Prayer. 

Find a comfortable place around your home where you will be able to focus for 5 minutes without distraction. 

Once settled, begin taking deep breaths– as you inhale say “I will rest” and on the exhale “in you”. 

Feel free to close your eyes if that helps you focus and try to do this prayer for 5-10 minutes. 

Allow yourself to relax and focus on the phrases and your breath.

Scripture: Click Here to read Colossians 3:1-11 (In both NIV & The Message)  

Read the passage over slowly, prayerfully and attentively a few times. As you do, allow God to highlight a word, phrase or verse – something that jumps out at you personally.

Observations: Think about what is being said, by who, and why they might be saying it the way they are. What is the surrounding context? What other background information do you have? How and where do you see the heart of Jesus in this? Don’t make conclusions or applications yet, just observe everything you can.

Application: Now consider how this passage might apply personally to your life. In what way does it speak to your own circumstances? How can it help you? How does it challenge you? How does it call you to love both God and others better? How does this word from God apply directly to your day-to-day life and how you are learning to follow Jesus?

Prayer: Now that you’ve read and reflected on God’s word and begun the process of application to your life, simply talk to God about it all. Share what’s swirling in your head and heart, allow space to listen for what the Holy Spirit is wanting to say to you in return as well.

Today we invite you to listen to the song “Oh but God” by Davy Flowers. As you listen, let yourself truly take in the words. This song is both a prayer for our lives and a true testament of Gods goodness. Sit with that and then pray and talk with God about what came up while you listened.

Click Here for the YouTube link

Today we invite you to experiment with listening for God. 

Find somewhere in your home and get comfortable. Set a timer for 10 minutes and be still. Allow yourself to quiet your mind and invite God in. Make yourself open and available to hear from God. 

As you sit and listen try to keep your mind from thinking of today's tasks or things that are heavy on you. Instead, re-centre yourself to the quiet stillness.

Did anything come up throughout this practice? What was challenging about this practice and what was easy?

Today we invite you to contemplate the poem below by Rachel Huckel. 

As you read it what stands out? Do you connect with the poem? 

Take some time after reading to reflect on your prayers recently. What have you focused on / what do you most often pray about / for? 

Take some time to pray.

I think I am praying to a god

Who doesn’t exist

By this I mean,

I am praying to a god

Who does only logical things,

Proportionate things,

Things within the realm

Of human capability.

I admit, my prayers

Have become pocket-sized,

Even though our God

Can carry the world

In His back pocket

I need to pray for miracles

Like a farmer prays for rainfall –

Each day looking upwards

To ask for transformation

I need to ask for restoration

In unfathomable amounts.

Something like a generation

Turning to Jesus.

Something like a war-torn country

Knowing peace.

Something like plains of destruction

Being made new.

There is an audacity

To these prayers,

Yes

But wouldn’t it be even more audacious

To pray asking God

To move a blade of grass,

When he has told us

He has the power

To move mountains?