# Groaning Day 7 > Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God. ### Opening Prayer: *Lord, I was ever greedy of life, my attention always straining toward the parts of it that had not yet come…toward what was about to be, or might be, or hopefully would be, and especially toward those things that, by Your mercy, might turn out not to be after all.* *I panted with longing to suck each segment of life dry of its pleasures. I plotted, with myself but despite myself, about tomorrow…about the “later” that was constantly morphing into now. You know how I worked, Lord, recklessly but prayerfully, to set time’s courses and, in Your name, to sculpt them to my intention, to my definition of good.* *But I am old now, Lord, and my prayers grown old as well. So it is that daily I am drawn, as here, to pray, “Deliver me, My Lord, from this my great sin, and take me, free of doubt and other longings, into Your good plan.” (Prayer by Phyllis Tickle, Weavings, Volume XXV, Number 4)* #### 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 youand 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 mewhen 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: Psalm 42:1-11 #### Book Two #### Why Are You Cast Down, O My Soul? #### To the choirmaster. A Maskil[a] of the Sons of Korah. *42 As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.* *2 My soul thirsts for God,for the living God.When shall I come and appear before God?[b]3 My tears have been my food day and night,while they say to me all the day long,“Where is your God?”4 These things I remember,as I pour out my soul:how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.* *5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?* *Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation[c] 6 and my God.My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. 7 Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me.* *8 By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. 9 I say to God, my rock: “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?” 10 As with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taunt me, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?”11 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.* #### Reading for Reflection: *Groaning by Jim Branch* *o groaning* *you wear many faces* *today you are loneliness* *yesterday you were longing* *last week insecurity and inadequacy* *and before that struggle, sadness, and hurt* *you are a constant companion* *always present in some form or another* *at times visible and recognizable* *and at times hidden and buried deep within* *so that i can hardly tell you are there* *you walk with a purpose* *opening up something deep inside me* *creating fertile soil in my vulnerable heart* *you expand my soul* *hastening my becoming* *you bring me low when i’m too high* *make me smaller when i’m too big* *you empty me of self when i’m full of it* *and meet me tenderly when i’m bruised or broken* *you open me up* *making me receptive to true presence* *you accomplish a purpose* *that only a Dreamer could possibly dream up* *sometimes i run from you* *sometimes i ignore you…or try* *and sometimes i embrace you as a long lost friend* *which is exactly what you are* *o groaning* *you wear many faces* *work your work in me* #### Reflection and Listening: silent and written #### Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself #### Song for the Week: O Heart Bereaved and Lonely *O heart bereaved and lonely,* *Whose brightest dreams have fled* *Whose hopes like summer roses,* *Are withered crushed and dead* *Though link by link be broken,* *And tears unseen may fall* *Look up amid thy sorrow,* *To Him who knows it all* *O cling to thy Redeemer,* *Thy Savior, Brother, Friend* *Believe and trust His promise,* *To keep you till the end* *O watch and wait with patience,* *And question all you will* *His arms of love and mercy,* *Are round about thee still* *Look up, the clouds are breaking,* *The storm will soon be o'er* *And thou shall reach the haven,* *Where sorrows are no more* *Look up, be not discouraged;* *Trust on, whate'er befall* *Remember, O remember,* *Thy Savior knows it all* ### Closing Prayer *Loving God, the earth moans, in need of your healing. Help me be a peacemaker today—one who carries your vision and takes the small actions that contribute to healing for the world. Amen. (The Uncluttered Heart by Beth A. Richardson)*