# Letting go Day 5 > Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God. ### Opening Prayer: *Take, Lord, and receive all that I am and have. You’ve given it all to me; I give it all back to you. Do with me as you want. Just give me your love and your grace and that’s enough. ~St. Ignatius* #### Psalm for the Week: Psalm 130 #### My Soul Waits for the Lord #### A Song of Ascents. *130 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! 2 O Lord, hear my voice!Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.* *5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;6 my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.7 O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.8 And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.* #### Scripture for the Day: Philippians 3:1-14 #### Righteousness Through Faith in Christ *3 Finally, my brothers,[a] rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you.* *2 Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. 3 For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God[b] and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law,[c] blameless. 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.* *Straining Toward the Goal* *12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.* #### Reading for Reflection: *To struggle used to be To grab with both handsand shake and twist and turn and push and shove and not give in But wrest an answer from it all As Jacob did a blessing But there is another way To struggle with an issue, a question- Simply jump off into the abyss and find ourselves floating falling tumbling being led slowly and gently but surely to answers God has for us- to watch the answers unfold before our eyes and still to be part of the unfolding.* *But, oh! the trust necessary for this new way! Not to be always reaching out For the old hand-holds. A New Way of Struggling by Susan W. N. Ruach* #### Reflection and Listening: silent and written #### Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself #### Song for the Week: I Lift My Hands *I lift my hands to the coming King* *To the great I Am, to you I sing* *For you’re the One that reigns within my heart* *I will serve no foreign gods,* *nor any other treasure* *For you are my heart’s desire,* *your Spirit without measure* *Unto you I will bring my sacrifice* ### Closing Prayer: *Lord God, be the delight of our hearts, even as we are the delight of yours. And help us to leave behind all thoughts, actions, and attitudes that do not reflect the beauty of that delight. May everything else pale in comparison with the passion we have to be truly yours. In the name of Jesus. Amen. (JLB)*