![[Broken Day Three.jpg]] > Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.![[Broken_Day_Three.mp3]] ### Opening Prayer: *O persistent God,deliver me from assuming your mercy is gentle. Pressure me that I may grow more human,not through the lessening of my struggles,but through the expansion of them…Deepen my hurt until I learn to share it and myself openly,and my needs honestly. Sharpen my fears until I name them and release the power I have locked in them and they in me.* *Accentuate my confusion until I shed those grandiose expectations that divert me from the small, glad gifts of the now and the here and the me. Expose my shame where it shivers, crouched behind the curtains of propriety, until I can laugh at last through my common frailties and failures, laugh my way toward becoming whole.(Guerrillas of Grace by Ted Loder)* #### Psalm for the Week: Psalm 31 #### Into Your Hand I Commit My Spirit #### To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. *31 In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame;in your righteousness deliver me!2 Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily!Be a rock of refuge for me,a strong fortress to save me!3 For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name's sake you lead me and guide me;4 you take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge.5 Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God. 6 I hate[a] those who pay regard to worthless idols, but I trust in the Lord.7 I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul,8 and you have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy; you have set my feet in a broad place.9 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also.10 For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing;my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away. 11 Because of all my adversaries I have become a reproach, especially to my neighbors, and an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me.* *12 I have been forgotten like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel. 13 For I hear the whispering of many— terror on every side!— as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life. 14 But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.” 15 My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors! 16 Make your face shine on your servant; save me in your steadfast love! 17 O Lord, let me not be put to shame, for I call upon you; let the wicked be put to shame; let them go silently to Sheol. 18 Let the lying lips be mute, which speak insolently against the righteous in pride and contempt. 19 Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind!* *20 In the cover of your presence you hide them from the plots of men;* *you store them in your shelter from the strife of tongues.* *21 Blessed be the Lord, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city. 22 I had said in my alarm,[b] “I am cut off from your sight.” But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help.23 Love the Lord, all you his saints! The Lord preserves the faithful but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride.24 Be strong, and let your heart take courage,all you who wait for the Lord!* #### Scripture for the Day: Genesis 32:22-32 #### Jacob Wrestles with God *22 The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children,[a] and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. 24 And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” 27 And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel,[b] for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” 29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel,[c] saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh.* #### Reading for Reflection: *“Heel grabber” is what Jacob’s name means, a name you would expect of a wrestler. Jacob’s entire life up till now was spent calculating his next move and maneuvering to a position of advantage so he could pry from God’s hands so many of the blessings that God in time had wanted to give him anyway.* ​ *Now it was God’s turn to grab Jacob’s heel, to wrestle with this fundamental flaw in his nature, and touch him in a way so he would never forget the encounter. Through the ordeal, Jacob learned that God’s blessing comes not from grabbing but from clinging.* ​ *There is something of Jacob in all of us, I think. If so, there must be a night of reckoning for us as well. A night when God finds us alone, grabs us, throws us to the ground, and wrestles with that fundamental flaw in our character. In that dark night of the soul, though He cripples us in the dawn He blesses us.* ​ *For some of us, the crippling is the blessing. (Reflections on the Word by Ken Gire)* #### Reflection and Listening: silent and written #### Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself #### Song for the Week: Come Ye Sinners *Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,* *Weak and wounded, sick and sore;* *Jesus ready stands to save you,* *Full of pity, love and power.* *I will rise and go to Jesus,* *He will embrace me in His arms;* *In the arms of my dear Savior,* *O there are ten thousand charms.* *Come, ye thirsty, come, and welcome,* *God’s free bounty glorify;* *True belief and true repentance,* *Every grace that brings you nigh.* *Come, ye weary, heavy laden,* *Lost and ruined by the fall;* *If you tarry till you’re better,* *You will never come at all.* ### Closing Prayer *Now,O Lord,calm me into a quietness that heals and listens, and molds my longings and passions,* *my wounds and wonderings into a more holy and human shape.(Guerrillas of Grace by Ted Loder)* [[Broken Day 1]] [[Broken Day 2]] [[Broken Day 4]] [[Broken Day 5]] [[Broken Day 6]] [[Broken Day 7]] #Broken