# Devotion Day 3 > Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God. ### Opening Prayer: *Late have I loved you, O Beauty, so ancient and so new, late have I loved you! And behold, you were within me and I was outside, and there I sought for you, and in my deformity I rushed headlong into the well-formed things that you have made. You were with me, and I was not with you. ~St. Augustine* #### Psalm for the Week: Psalm 86 #### Great Is Your Steadfast Love #### A Prayer of David. *86 Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.2 Preserve my life, for I am godly;save your servant, who trusts in you—you are my God.3 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all the day.4 Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.5 For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.6 Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer; listen to my plea for grace.7 In the day of my trouble I call upon you, for you answer me 8 There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours.* *9 All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shallglorify your name.10 For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God.* *11 Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.12 I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever.13 For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.* *14 O God, insolent men have risen up against me; a band of ruthless men seeks my life, and they do not set you before them.15 But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.16 Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant, and save the son of your maidservant.17 Show me a sign of your favor, that those who hate me may see and be put to shame because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.* #### Scripture for the Day: Jeremiah 17:5-14 *5 Thus says the Lord:“Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength,[a] whose heart turns away from the Lord.6 He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.* *7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.8 He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream,and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green,and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”* *9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?10 “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind,[b]to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”11 Like the partridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch, so is he who gets riches but not by justice;in the midst of his days they will leave him, and at his end he will be a fool.* *12 A glorious throne set on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.* *13 O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you[c] shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water. Jeremiah Prays for Deliverance 14 Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise.* #### Reading for Reflection: *Watch the things you shrug your shoulders over, and you will know why you do not go on spiritually. First go—at the risk of being thought fanatical you must obey what God tells you. (My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers)* *O Begin! Fix some part of every day for private exercises. You may acquire the taste which you have not: what is tedious at first will afterward be pleasant. Whether you like it or not, read and pray daily. It is for your life; there is no other way: else you will be a trifler all your days.~John Wesley* #### Reflection and Listening: silent and written #### Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself #### Song for the Week: Lord Most High *From the ends of the earth* *From the depths of the sea* *From the heights of the heavens* *Your name be praised* *From the hearts of the weak* *From the shouts of the strong* *From the lips of all people* *This song we raise, Lord* *Throughout the endless ages* *You will be crowned with praises,* *Lord Most High* *Exalted in every nation* *Sovereign of all creation* *Lord Most High, Be magnified* ### Closing Prayer *My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. (Thoughts in Solitude by Thomas Merton)*