# Following and being led Day 2 > Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God. ### Opening Prayer: *Dear Lord Jesus,* *I am still so divided. I truly want to follow you, but I also want to follow my own desires and lend an ear to the voices that speak about prestige, success, popularity, pleasure, power, and influence. Help me to become deaf to those voices and more attentive to your voice, which calls me to choose the narrow road to life. I know this will be a very hard road for me. The choice for your way has to be made every moment of my life. I have to choose thoughts that are your thoughts, words that are your words, and actions that are your actions. There are no times and places without choices. And I know how deeply I resist choosing you. Please, Lord, be with me at every moment and in every place. Give me the strength and courage to live my life faithfully, so that I will be able to taste with joy the new life which you have prepared for me. Amen. (The Road to Daybreak by Henri J.M. Nouwen)* #### Psalm for the Week: Psalm 77 #### In the Day of Trouble I Seek the Lord #### To the choirmaster: according to Jeduthun. A Psalm of Asaph. *77 I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me. 2 In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted.* *3 When I remember God, I moan; when I meditate, my spirit faints. Selah* *4 You hold my eyelids open; I am so troubled that I cannot speak.5 I consider the days of old, the years long ago.6 I said,[a] “Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart.” Then my spirit made a diligent search:7 “Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable?8 Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time?* *9 Has God forgotten to be gracious?nHas he in anger shut up his compassion?” Selah* *10 Then I said, “I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High.”[b]11 I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old.12 I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds.13 Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God?14 You are the God who works wonders; you have made known your might among the peoples.15 You with your arm redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph. Selah* *16 When the waters saw you, O God,when the waters saw you, they were afraid;indeed, the deep trembled.17 The clouds poured out water;the skies gave forth thunder; your arrows flashed on every side.18 The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind; your lightnings lighted up the world;the earth trembled and shook.19 Your way was through the sea,your path through the great waters;yet your footprints were unseen.[c]20 You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.* #### Scripture for the Day: Luke 9:57-62 #### The Cost of Following Jesus *57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus[a] said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”* #### Reading for Reflection: **I am growing in the awareness that God wants my whole life, not just part of it. It is not enough to give just so much time and attention to God and keep the rest for myself. It is not enough to pray often and deeply and then move from there to my own projects.* *As I try to understand why I am still so restless, anxious, and tense, it occurs to me that I have not yet given everything to God. I especially see this in my greediness for time. I am very concerned to have enough hours to develop my ideas, finish my projects, fulfill my desires. Thus, my life is in fact divided into two parts, a part for God and a part for myself. Thus divided, my life cannot be peaceful.* *To return to God means to return to God with all that I am and all that I have. I cannot return to God with just half of my being. As I reflected this morning again on the story of the prodigal son and tried to experience myself in the embrace of the father, I suddenly felt a certain resistance to being embraced so fully and totally. I experienced not only a desire to be embraced, but also a fear of losing my independence. I realized that God’s love is a jealous love. God wants not just a part of me, but all of me. Only when I surrender myself completely to God’s parental love can I expect to be free from endless distractions, ready to hear the Voice of Love, and able to recognize my own unique call.* It’s going to be a very long road. Every time I pray I feel the struggle. It is the struggle of letting God be the God of my whole being. It is the struggle to trust that true freedom lies hidden in total surrender to God’s love. (The Road to Daybreak by Henri J. M. Nouwen)* #### Reflection and Listening: silent and written #### Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself #### Song for the Week: He Leadth Me *He leadeth me, O blessed thought!* *O words with heav’nly comfort fraught!* *Whate’er I do, where’er I be* *Still ’tis God’s hand that leadeth me.* *Refrain:* *He leadeth me, He leadeth me,* *By His own hand He leadeth me;* *His faithful foll’wer I would be,* *For by His hand He leadeth me.* *Sometimes ’mid scenes of deepest gloom,* *Sometimes where Eden’s bowers bloom,* *By waters still, o’er troubled sea,* *Still ’tis His hand that leadeth me.* *Lord, I would place my hand in Thine,* *Nor ever murmur nor repine;* *Content, whatever lot I see,* *Since ’tis my God that leadeth me.* *And when my task on earth is done,* *When by Thy grace the vict’ry’s won,* *E’en death’s cold wave I will not flee,* *Since God through Jordan leadeth me*. ### Closing Prayer: *Drive far from us all wrong desires and incline our hearts to keep Your ways: Grant that having cheerfully done Your will this day, we may, when night comes rejoice and give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (The Book of Common Worship)*