# Moving through suffering Day 1 > Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God. ### Opening Prayer: *Father, I know my wounded and broken places oh so well. At times they can consume me and keep me from being able to hear your voice. Help me to see my pain as an invitation to know you more intimately rather than a reason to doubt the goodness of your heart. Help me to know that through my pain you desire to accomplish something very good in me. In the name of Jesus, the author of our salvation, who was “made perfect through suffering.” Amen. (JLB)* #### Psalm for the Week: Psalm 121 #### My Help Comes from the Lord #### A Song of Ascents. *121 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand.6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.* #### Scripture for the Day: Hebrews 2:10-18 *10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source.[a] That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,[b] 12 saying,* *“I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”* *13 And again,“I will put my trust in him.” And again, “Behold, I and the children God has given me.”* *14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.* #### Reading for Reflection: *In praying about my wounds I have come to believe that the reason these wounds take so long to heal is that I spend more time attacking them than trying to understand them. I keep trying to clog up the hole made by the wound. The reality is that I keep stuffing my wound with other addictions, always hoping for some miraculous cure. The healing needs to happen right there in that broken place because it is there that I am vulnerable. It is there in that crack in my spirit that the light of Christ can slip through and help me understand the wound. When Jesus rose, his wounds were still visible. The scars could be seen right in the midst of the glory. Is my life, patterned after Christ, to be any different?* ​ *The scars in my life have become my badges of victory and glory. Some healing has taken place, yet as I pray with these scars I am able to see that I will probably have to live with some of the pain I’ve inherited from my cluttered life. I am learning to befriend my scars and find the gifts hidden underneath. (Seasons of the Heart by Macrina Wiederkehr)* #### Reflection and Listening: silent and written #### Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself #### Song for the Week: It is Well *When peace like a river attendeth my way;* *when sorrows like sea billows roll* *Whatever my lot Thou hast taught me to say;* *It is well, it is well, with my soul* *Refrain:* *It is well….with my soul…it is well, it is well with my soul* *My sin O the bliss of this glorious thought;* *my sin not in part but the whole* *Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more;* *praise the Lord, praise the Lord O my soul* *And Lord haste the day when my faith shall be sight;* *the clouds be rolled back as a scroll* *The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend;* *even so it is well with my soul* ### Closing Prayer *Father, heal my wounds and make them a source of life for others; as you did with your Son Jesus. In whose name we pray. Amen. (JLB)*