X. My Life is God’s Gift to Me and my Response to God

Take a look at the overall structure of your prayer day:

· Preparation before hand of the material

· The time of prayer - going into God’ presence

· Reading the passage or the text

· Musing and pondering

· Speaking with God our Lord

· Ending with the Our Father

· Reviewing prayer and taking some notes

· Examining in the evening your prayer and your day

· And then preparation again.

All of this give service to God the Lord, and represents respect and love for yourself.  Praise God who led you to this!

You have thought about the truths that lie under the brief sentences of the Principle and Foundation.  You might read over that little paragraph every day this week.

All human activity swings back and forth between delightful and tedious.  These exercises are very likely sometimes to console you tremendously, and sometimes to seem like the most desolate wasteland you ever chose to wander through.  When these swings happen, take them patiently; you can learn a lot about yourself and your world.

SCRIPTURE READINGS
Romans 7:14-25
St. Paul found the same contrariness in himself that I find in myself.  It is a force in the world.
But God in Christ has chosen to defeat that force.
Repetition:
Reconsider An Active Indifference and then do a Review of Prayer.
Hebrews 2:5-13
When I look at mankind, I wonder what God sees in us.
Jesus lives in our flesh, though we cannot now plainly see that.  By God’s choice, Jesus is my brother.
Repetition:
Review your black holes and volcanoes
John 1:1-18
I can rest in Him who is "the Beginning."  Jesus came and stays in my humanity.
He chooses to heap gifts on me.
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
In this land where God brings me to be, I can choose life or choose death.  God reveres me so deeply that He gives me space to choose.  All my ancestors in the faith have made this choice.
7. Look back in on the black holes and volcanoes

PRAYER FOR THIS WEEK
Lord, mighty God, You offer me so much.
You give me so many days and years,
so many strengths and abilities,
so many rich things and splendid machines,
and You surround me with so many whom I may love.
Teach me this one thing above all, Lord:
How I am to choose.
Then I hope to return to You
as many wonders as You have poured out on me.
Through Christ Jesus, my Lord and good brother.
Amen.