# Grasping day 3 > Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God. ### Opening Prayer: *Lord Jesus, forgive me when my bleeding and wounded heart causes me to grasp for life and relief from any and every source available. Instead, help me to reach only for you—that I might touch the fringe of your robe and find healing and wholeness for the brokenness of my heart and soul. In Your Name I pray. Amen. (JLB)* #### Psalm for the Week: Psalm 16 #### You Will Not Abandon My Soul #### A Miktam[a] of David. *16 Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;I have no good apart from you.”3 As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,in whom is all my delight.[b]4 The sorrows of those who run after[c] another god shall multiply;their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips.5 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.6 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.* *7 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me.[d]8 I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being[e] rejoices;my flesh also dwells secure.* *10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.[f]* *11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy;at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.* #### Scripture for the Day: Matthew 6:19-34 #### Lay Up Treasures in Heaven *19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust[a] destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.* *22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!* *24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.[b]* *Do Not Be Anxious* *25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?[c] 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.* *34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.* #### Reading for Reflection: *Praying is no easy matter. It demands a relationship in which you allow someone other than yourself to enter into the very center of your being, to see there what you would rather leave in darkness, and to touch there what you would rather leave untouched. Why would you really want to do that? Perhaps you would let the other cross your inner threshold to see something or to touch something, but to allow the other into the place where your most intimate life is shaped—that is dangerous and calls for defense.* ​ *The resistance to praying is like the resistance of tightly clenched fists. The image shows a tension, a desire to cling tightly to yourself, a greediness which betrays fear. A story about an elderly woman brought to a psychiatric center exemplifies this attitude. She was wild, swinging at everything in sight, and scaring everyone so much that the doctor had to take everything away from her. But there was one small coin which she gripped in her fist and would not give up. In fact, it took two people to pry open that squeezed hand. It was as though she would lose her very self along with the coin. If they deprived her of that last possession, she would have nothing more, and be nothing more. That was her fear.* ​ *When you are invited to pray you are asked to open your tightly clenched fists and give up your last coin. But who wants to do that? A first prayer, therefore, is often a painful prayer, because you discover you don’t want to let go. You hold fast to what is familiar, even if you aren’t proud of it. (With Open Hands by Henri J. M. Nouwen)* *It is a long spiritual journey of trust, for behind each fist, another one is hiding, and sometimes the process seems endless. Much has happened in your life to make all those fists, and at any hour of the day or night you might find yourself clenching your fists again out of fear. (With Open Hands by Henri J. M. Nouwen)* #### Reflection and Listening: silent and written #### Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself #### Song for the Week: Tender Mercy *Hear my cry for mercy* *As I call to You* *As I lift my hands in Spirit* *And in Truth* *We cry mercy* *(in the name of the Father most Holy)* *We cry mercy* *(in the name of the Son Who was slain)* *Lord have mercy* *(in the name of the Spirit indwelling)* *Tender mercy Lord* *You are mercy (in the name of the Father most Holy)* *You are mercy (in the name of the Son Who was slain)* *Lord have mercy (in the name of the Spirit indwelling)* *Tender mercy Lord* *In Your tender mercy* *Brought by grace through faith* *I will lift my heart* *Toward Your most Holy place* ### Closing Prayer: *Lord Jesus, give me the grace and the strength and the courage to take off that which I use to cover myself; and to clothe myself only and always in you alone. Amen. (JLB)*