# Balance Day 5 > Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God. ### Opening Prayer: *Dear Jesus, During this day help me quiet all the thoughts that fill my head—where I must go, whom I must see, and what I must do. In their place, give me a sense of your order, your peace, and your time. Help me to understand that you are in control, and I can trust you with my day. Help me to realize that nothing on my to-do list is important if it is not what you want me to do. I give all my tasks to you and trust you to bring order to them. In these moments, dear Jesus, come to me, be with me, and free me from the tyranny of “to do.” (Quiet Spaces by Patricia F. Wilson)* #### Psalm for the Week: Psalm 127 #### Unless the Lord Builds the House #### A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon. *127 Unless the Lord builds the house,those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. 2 It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. 3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.4 Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children[a] of one's youth. 5 Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.[b]* #### Scripture for the Day: Isaiah 55:1-13 #### The Compassion of the Lord *55 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3 Incline your ear, and come to me;hear, that your soul may live;and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,my steadfast, sure love for David.* *4 Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples.5 Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you,because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel,for he has glorified you.* *6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found;call upon him while he is near;7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts;let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.* *10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth,making it bring forth and sprout,giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,* *11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty,but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.12 “For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace;the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.* *13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;and it shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”* #### Reading for Reflection: *I had come to wonder sometimes at the lack of depth in my prayer. I began to worry, too, at the sense of imbalance in my life and at the lack of centeredness as well. I began to wonder if those things had a connection to my prayer. I began to realize that the longing that I had, and have, for the presence of God could no longer be filled by a few stolen moments of extemporaneous prayer. I began to have a sneaking suspicion that prayer was a larger and deeper and richer and more astonishing thing than I had known before. I began to desire a way of life that was more like the lively and reasonable sacrifice that is called for by the words of the Eucharist.* *Although my life had been spent largely in the church and around people of faith, I had had a growing sense that I could go no deeper in my journey without some manner of instruction and experience in some ways of prayer other than the one I already knew. “We fool ourselves if we think that such a sacramental way of living is automatic,” wrote Richard Foster once, in a book about prayer and discipline. “This kind of living communion does not just fall on our heads. We must desire it and seek it out. We must order our lives in particular ways.” (A Good Life by Robert Benson)* #### Reflection and Listening: silent and written #### Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself #### Song for the Week: Be the Center *Jesus, be the center,* *Be my source, be my light, Jesus* *Jesus, be the center,* *Be my hope, be my song, Jesus* *Be the fire in my heart, be the wind in these sails* *Be the reason that I live, Jesus, Jesus* *Jesus, be my vision,* *Be my path, be my guide, Jesus.* *Be the fire in my heart, be the wind in these sails* *Be the reason that I live, Jesus, Jesus* ### Closing Prayer *You have taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and confidence we shall be strengthened. By Your Spirit lift us to Your Presence where we may be still and know that You are God. (from The Book of Common Prayer adapted in Living Prayer by Robert Benson)*