Worship the LORD your God (Luke 4:8; NLT).
Stand in silence in the presence of the Sovereign LORD (Zephaniah 1:7; NLT).
Worship in silence,
Worship in stillness;
Worship in darkness,
And worship alone.
Yahweh will hear you,
Draw near, and meet you;
Yahweh will kiss you,
And welcome you home.
So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him (Luke 15:20; NLT).
The LORD is my light (Psalm 27:1; NLT).
Waking in darkness, Lord,
You are my light.
Moving, in stillness, Lord God,
You are near.
Meeting, in silence,
We listen, and talk.
Joining, in solitude, Lord,
You are here.
The person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him (1 Corinthians 6:17; NLT).
References
The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters (Genesis 1:2; KJV).
Be still in the presence of the LORD (Psalm 37:7; NLT).
He is not far from each one of us (Acts 17:27; CSB).
Moses led them out from the camp to meet with God (Exodus 19:17; NLT).
Be silent before the LORD, all humanity (Zechariah 2:13; NLT).
God can speak to us humans, and yet we live! (Deuteronomy 5:24; NLT).
Tell God what you need (Philippians 4:6; NLT).
After the fire came a still, small voice (1 Kings 19:12; MSB).
Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!” (Genesis 28:16; NLT).
Moses went into the darkness where God was (Exodus 20:21; BST).
1. Enter your darkness;
Enter your silence;
Enter your stillness;
Enter alone.
2. Jesus is waiting;
Jesus is watching;
Jesus is longing
To call you his own.
3. Rest in his presence;
Share in his glory;
Revel in oneness:
You are his home.
Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them” (John 14:23; NLT).
References
Verse 1:
Be silent before the LORD, all humanity, for he is springing into action from his holy dwelling (Zechariah 2:13; NLT).
Be still in the presence of the LORD (Psalm 37:7; NLT).
When you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private (Matthew 6:6; NLT).
Verse 2:
The LORD must wait for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion (Isaiah 30:18; NLT).
The LORD is watching everywhere (Proverbs 15:3; NLT).
The LORD longs to be gracious to you (Isaiah 30:18; NIV).
Do not be afraid for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine (Isaiah 43:1; NLT).
Verse 3:
Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28; NLT).
He called you to share in his Kingdom and glory (1 Thessalonians 2:12; NLT).
The person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him (1 Corinthians 6:17; NLT).
Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him (Philippians 3:8-9; NLT).
Moses went into the darkness where God was (Exodus 20:21; BST).
I enter your darkness;
I enter your silence;
I enter your stillness;
I enter alone.
I enter your castle
To seek you within –
I’m the flesh of your flesh, Lord,
And bone of your bone.
You are my stronghold,
My refuge, my bedrock,
Yet I am your temple,
Your child, and your home.
Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them” (John 14:23; NLT).
References
Be silent before the Sovereign LORD (Zephaniah 1:7; NIV).
Be still in the presence of the LORD (Psalm 27:7; NLT).
When you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private (Matthew 6:6; NLT).
God is bedrock under my feet, the castle in which I live, my rescuing knight. My God – the high crag where I run for dear life, hiding behind the boulders, safe in the granite hideout (Psalm 18:1-2; TM).
Keep on seeking, and you will find (Luke 11:9; NLT).
Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us (Colossians 3:11; NLT).
This one, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh (Genesis 2:23; CSB).
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. …I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge (Psalm 73:26,28; NIV).
We are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people” (2 Corinthians 6:16; NIV).
You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:26; NLT). .
Be still in the presence of the Lord (Psalm 37:7; NLT).
I love you in stillness,
In silence, in darkness;
I love you in solitude:
You are my God.
I love you in movement,
In sound, and in daylight;
I love you in company:
You are my God.
I love you in trouble,
In sorrow, in anguish;
I love you in dread:
You’re my Lord and my God.
“My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed (John 20:28; NLT).
This prayer began with a single verse last Tuesday morning, but by end of the day it had grown to four!
Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the LORD our maker, for he is our God. We are the people he watches over, the flock under his care.
(Psalm 95:6-7; NLT).
1. You watch our rise, Lord,
And our fall;
You lift us up,
And love us all.
2. You know each triumph, gain,
And loss;
You grieve, and help us
Bear our cross.
3. You send our good times,
And our bad;
You comfort us
When we are sad.
4. You share our laughter,
Sickness, tears –
And guide our steps
Through all the years.
You guide me.
(Psalm 73:24; NLT).
References
Verse 1: They may rise high, but they have no assurance of life (Job 24:22; NLT).
What is the price of two sparrows – one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it (Matthew 10:29; NLT).
In his love and mercy he redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them through all the years (Isaiah 63:9; NLT).
He loves us with unfailing love; the LORD’s faithfulness endures forever. Praise the LORD! (Psalm 117:2; NLT).
Verse 2: Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens (Psalm 68:19; NIV).
Verse 3: I create the light and make the darkness. I send good times and bad times. I, the LORD, am the one who does these things (Isaiah 45:7; NLT).
He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us (2 Corinthians 1:4; NLT).
Verse 4: In all their suffering he also suffered (Isaiah 63:9; NLT).
Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me (Psalm 23:4; NLT).
Your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life (Psalm 23:6; NIV).
Today’s prayer arrived yesterday, shortly after I woke up:
Be silent before the LORD, all humanity (Zechariah 2:13; NLT).
I worship you in silence, Lord,
In stillness, and in darkness,
All alone;
Astonished by your majesty,
Your changelessness, your power,
All unknown;
And yet you are so gentle, Lord,
Your love so warm and bright,
So pure and sweet,
And so I dare to worship you,
Repeat your name, rejoice,
And kiss your feet.
A woman in the town who was a sinner found out that Jesus was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house. She brought an alabaster jar of perfume and stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to wash his feet with her tears. She wiped his feet with her hair, kissing them and anointing them with the perfume (Luke 7:37-8; CSB).
References
Who can know the LORD’s thoughts? (Romans 11:33; NLT).
We cannot imagine the power of the Almighty (Job 37:23; NLT).
He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle (Isaiah 42:3; NLT).
He loves us with unfailing love; the LORD’s faithfulness endures forever (Psalm 117:2; NLT).
Yesterday morning, as I began to pray without words after saying the Lord’s Prayer, today’s blog arrived. I didn’t try to resist, or make it wait, or push it away, though I wanted so much to continue listening, and go deeper:
The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words (Romans 8:26; RSV).
In silence, Lord, I listen
To your Spirit’s prayers
Within me.
In stillness, Lord, I sense you
In my body, heart,
And mind.
Though I’m alone,
I share your sighs,
Your wordless intercessions.
In my darkness, Lord,
Please give me sight,
For I am blind.
In my darkness you are all –
I seek you, Lord,
And find.
Seek and you will find (Luke 11:9; NIV).
References
The Spirit [comes to us and] helps us in our weakness. We do not know what prayer to offer or how to offer it as we should, but the Spirit Himself [knows our need and at the right time] intercedes on our behalf with sighs and groanings too deep for words (Romans 8:26; AMP).
Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? (1 Corinthians 6:19; NLT).
Pray in the Holy Spirit (Jude 1:20; RSV).
Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion (Ephesians 6:18; NLT).
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy (Isaiah 35:5-6; NIV).
This what I dreamed today, early in the morning:
I was stressed, anxious, exhausted and alone. It was getting dark, and I was running out of energy in a big city, where I couldn’t find my hotel. The friend I had been with earlier had left me.
Then I stumbled across an Orthodox service taking place in a large, crypt-like cave which was half underground. I glimpsed many priests inside, standing in rows, wearing beautiful robes.
There were a few casual onlookers outside the crypt. Close by was a long, high wall with a large, stone bas-relief of an icon. I walked past the icon, not immediately realising what it was, but as soon as it registered in my mind, I stepped back a pace or two, and stood in front of it. There, I made the sign of the cross in the Orthodox manner, just as I do when awake.
Then I woke very suddenly, experiencing a moment of pure joy, because I had been a Christian in my dream, just as I have so often asked in prayer (see https://wp.me/p45bCr-dov). Next, I quickly noted down everything that had happened, before it began to fade.
When this was done, I started to pray, giving all the experiences and emotions of my dream to God. However, in a flash, I realised that I wasn’t just giving them to God, who already knew all about them, and had sent them. Rather, I was sharing them with God.
Then I grasped that my dream had given me an opportunity to share through first-hand experience just a little of what Jesus experienced and felt at different times during his life on earth. This left me stunned, and, as so often, wondering what might come next.
There is a God in heaven who reveals secrets (Daniel 2:28; NLT).
A dream
A few days ago, I dreamed I was lost in a city I had never visited before, and where I knew no-one at all. It was dark, and after trying, unsuccessfully, to use a river as an escape route I was wet and cold. I was also afraid, overwhelmed, alone and desperate, very close to panicking.
Revelation
Despite my waking sense of calm acceptance, this dream revealed the emotions present in my unconscious mind after receiving a new diagnosis of Autonomic Dysfunction, accompanied by a very slow heart rate. I was given this diagnosis last Tuesday, and the dream came during the following night.
As soon as I began to pray next morning, I saw that although the overt scenario of my dream bore no resemblance to what is currently happening in my life, the emotions it generated were highly relevant. When awake, I wasn’t feeling these emotions at all. However, during my dream, I experienced them to the full. After jotting them down during the night, and reading them next morning, I could see how closely they related to current events in my life.
Dreams: symbols of past and present realities
Then I saw and understood more generally how the events in my dreams symbolise, reflect and explore what is happening in my life. Until having the dream described above, I had always thought that my dreams revealed buried emotions belonging to past events and traumas, and of course this may still be the case with some dreams. However, last Wednesday God showed me that my dreams also reveal current hidden or suppressed emotions – emotions I don’t experience when awake.
A direct connection to the unconscious mind
This came as a complete surprise. I now see that my dreams offer a much more direct connection to my unconscious mind than I had previously realised. This link is a pearl beyond price to me, so I’ll be reflecting on it in the days to come, and looking forward to learning more.
God speaks again and again, though people do not recognise it. He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds (Job 33:14-15; NLT).
Reference
I will give you treasures hidden in the darkness – secret riches. I will do this so you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, the one who calls you by name (Isaiah 45:3; NLT).