# The Way Day 2 > Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God. ### Opening Prayer: *Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts, see if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24)* #### Psalm for the Week: Psalm 25 #### Teach Me Your Paths *[a] Of David.25 To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.2 O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me. 3 Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame; they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. 4 Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. 5 Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.6 Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. 7 Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me,for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!* *8 Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. 9 He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. 10 All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.11 For your name's sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great.12 Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.13 His soul shall abide in well-being, and his offspring shall inherit the land.14 The friendship[b] of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant.15 My eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he will pluck my feet out of the net.16 Turn to me and be gracious to me,for I am lonely and afflicted.17 The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out of my distresses.18 Consider my affliction and my trouble,and forgive all my sins.19 Consider how many are my foes, and with what violent hatred they hate me. 20 Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me! Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.21 May integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.22 Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.* #### Scripture for the Day: John 14:1-21 #### I Am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life *14 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God;[a] believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?[b] 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.”[c] 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.[d] From now on you do know him and have seen him.”* *8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.* *12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me[e] anything in my name, I will do it.* *Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit* *15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper,[f] to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be[g] in you.* *18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”* #### Reading for Reflection: *So how are we to live now? Can we bear the light of Christ into the darkness of our time? Jesus gave several directions that serve as signposts to guide us on that narrowing path of obedience. Though Jesus’ “Follow me” opens up a set of decisions for each one of us, all of us are called to trust, to relinquish whatever we cling to that is not of God, to seek ongoing guidance, and to be “sober and watchful” (1 Peter 5:8) as we attempt to “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly” (Micah 6:8). Openness to surprise is one mark of a spiritual life vibrantly lived—and there will be surprises: every path has forks and hairpin turns. Jesus didn’t map out a way—he said “I am the way” (John 14:6). Our road map lies in relationship. We set out on our journeys, though, with very clear instructions, simple, but impossible without the help of the Spirit. (Where the Path Narrows by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre, Weavings, Volume XXV, Number 3)* #### Reflection and Listening: silent and written #### Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself #### Song for the Week: Come and Welcome *From the cross uplifted high* *Where the Savior deigns to die* *What melodious sounds I hear* *Bursting on my ravished ear* *Love¹s redeeming work is done* *Come and welcome, sinner, come.* *Sprinkled now with blood the throne* *Why beneath thy burdens groan* *On my pierced body laid* *Justice owns the ransom paid* *Bow the knee and kiss the Son* *Come and welcome, sinner, come.* *Spread for thee the festal board* *See with richest dainties stored* *To thy Father¹s bosom pressed* *Yet again a child confessed* *Never from His house to roam* *Come and welcome, sinner, come.* *Soon the days of life shall end* *Lo, I come, your Savior, Friend* *Safe your spirit to convey* *To the realms of endless day* *Up to my eternal home.* *Come and welcome, sinner, come.* *Come and welcome, sinner, come.* ### Closing Prayer: *May those without hope take heart in you, O Christ. May those with no home find shade at your right hand. May those near the end see beginnings; may those at the last become first. At the foot of your cross, O Christ, I come in prayer. O Christ, be my help, O Christ, be my hope. Amen. (Pamela Hawkins, Weavings Volume XXVI, Number 2)*