I Will Remain in Your Word and Know the Truth
Today we embrace having faith in Jesus. If you are new to mental prayer, we invite you to visit our page on the ways of mental prayer, Don’t know how to pray to God, to learn more.
We begin Day 30 of our Lenten Challenge with this opening prayer:
Trust And Believe
I will remain in your word, Lord. I’m drawn to your kindness, your empathy, your love. You promise that when I remain in your word I will know the truth and it will set me free. Lord keep me free from all doubt, from every suspicion, from thoughts of despair. Deliver me from the father of lies and let me always know the truth and trust in your word. If I remain in your word you will bless me with an abundant life of peace and love and grace. Thank you, Lord. I believe in your promises. AMEN.
I Will Remain in Your Word and Know the Truth
A Reflection for Prayerful Meditation
Join me in a prayerful reflection and meditation for your Lenten journey with Christ to Jerusalem.
Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ,
I believe you are truly here and present to me right now. I desire to be present to you. Guide me to keep my promise to remain in your word. Speak to my heart today and show me how I might remain in your word and know the truth. I know that you love me with infinite love and that you want me to know the truth and to study your word. I acknowledge my ignorance of your words and promises, and that I need to do more to understand your teachings and know the truth. Take away from my mind all misunderstandings and deceptions and fill me with your word and the truth of my faith.
I am here, Lord, because I desire to remain in your word and know the truth of my faith. Please send me your Spirit so that I can grow in wisdom and knowledge and understanding. Let me read your word without distraction. Help me to separate myself from all worldly attachments and spend these 15 minutes reflecting on your word and the truth of my faith. Jesus, look at me with the eyes of a kind teacher and have pity on me. You know all my weaknesses and that I can’t elevate my heart or my mind without your help.
Please give me the grace right now to pray my mental prayer well and to love you in a way that is pleasing to you. I want to grow to love you more perfectly. Thank you, Lord, for every consolation, desolation, time of silence, difficult trial, and temptation of the evil one. I understand that everything that happens in my life is by your holy will, whether it be your divine providence or your permissive will due to my sin and negligence.
Please humble me as I walk with you toward Jerusalem. Help me to remain in your word and to know the truth.
AMEN.
Say Nothing Just Take Him In
Spend 1-3 minutes in silence gazing at the Lord with love and gratitude, in a prayer of silent contemplation.
Now we will contemplate the Lord by listening to him speak to us in the Gospels. Jesus is in the temple courtyard near the treasury in Jerusalem. He is engaging in an intense debate….
The Truth will set you Free
John 8:31-42
Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him, “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How can you say, ‘You will become free’?”
Jesus answered them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. A slave does not remain in a household forever, but a son always remains. So if a son frees you, then you will truly be free. I know that you are descendants of Abraham. But you are trying to kill me, because my word has no room among you. I tell you what I have seen in the Father’s presence; then do what you have heard from the Father.”
They answered and said to him, “Our father is Abraham.”
Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works of Abraham. But now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God; Abraham did not do this. You are doing the works of your father!”
They said to him, “We are not illegitimate. We have one Father, God.”
Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and am here; I did not come on my own, but he sent me.”
Make a Movie in Your Mind
Imagine right now for a moment Jesus is with you. Close your eyes and imagine him there speaking to you. Hear hi saying, “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciple, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Be Completely Real
Ask yourself, am I ignorant of God’s word? Do I make it a habit to study his word and live my life according to God’s precepts? In what ways can I better remain in God’s word every day?
Now listen to the second part of Jesus’ teaching, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and am here; I did not come on my own, but he sent me.”
In everything Jesus is obedient to the Father who sent him. He is fully human and fully divine.
Are you an obedient son of the Father? In what ways do you show that you love Jesus? Ask the Lord how you can love him more perfectly…
Give the Holy Spirit time to respond. Linger a moment and wait for his response. Has he shown you something? You may want to write it down.
Let us continue our mental prayer with a meditation from Saint John of the Cross:
The Purgatory of the Dark Night
By St. John of the Cross (Dark Night of the Soul Chapter 12)
For cleanness of heart is nothing less than the love and grace of God. For the clean of heart are called by our Savior ‘blessed’; which is as if He had called them ‘enkindled with love’, since blessedness is given by nothing less than love.
Visualize Christ
Allow yourself to imagine Jesus with you. Close your eyes and picture him looking directly at you. Hear him say to you, “I call you blessed.”
Stay with that. Thank him for all the blessings and glorify him.
Next, let us meditate for a moment on the words of Daniel 3. Reread this passage a second time, praying the words from your own heart. Then take a moment to speak to Jesus. What do you want to tell him?
The Fiery Furnace
Daniel 3:14-20,91-92,95
King Nebuchadnezzar said: “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you will not serve my god, or worship the golden statue that I set up? Be ready now to fall down and worship the statue I had made, whenever you hear the sound of the trumpet, flute, lyre, harp, psaltery, bagpipe, and all the other musical instruments; otherwise, you shall be instantly cast into the white-hot furnace; and who is the God that can deliver you out of my hands?”
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered King Nebuchadnezzar, “There is no need for us to defend ourselves before you in this matter.
If our God, whom we serve, can save us from the white-hot furnace and from your hands, O king, may he save us! But even if he will not, know, O king, that we will not serve your god or worship the golden statue which you set up.”
Nebuchadnezzar’s face became livid with utter rage against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He ordered the furnace to be heated seven times more than usual and had some of the strongest men in his army bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and cast them into the white-hot furnace.
King Nebuchadnezzar rose in haste and asked his nobles, “Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?”
“Assuredly, O king,” they answered.
“But,” he replied, “I see four men unfettered and unhurt, walking in the fire, and the fourth looks like a son of God.”
Nebuchadnezzar exclaimed, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who sent his angel to deliver the servants that trusted in him; they disobeyed the royal command and yielded their bodies rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.”
Are You Listening?
Imagine how Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego strive to know their faith, to stand for the truth of their faith, and to hope in the mercy of God in this passage. They submitted themselves to God’s will and accepted whatever consequence God wanted in their situation.
Ask yourself, am I surrendered to God? Take a moment to be with the Lord and speak from your heart. When you are finished, pray the prayer of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from Daniel 3:52-56:
Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever;
and blessed is your holy and glorious name,
praiseworthy and exalted above all for all ages.
Blessed are you in the temple of your holy glory,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
Blessed are you on the throne of your kingdom,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
Blessed are you who look into the depths
from your throne upon the cherubim;
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
Blessed are you in the firmament of heaven,
praiseworthy and glorious forever.
Let us stay close to the Lord and in his word so that even in suffering we do not waver in our faith, but believe that he loves us and will deliver us from evil. Let us obey the Lord and love him with obedience and humility of heart.
Pray the next Lenten Meditation
Day 31 Mental Prayer Meditation
Help Me Keep your Word and Never See Death
Help me keep your word, Lord. You made a covenant with your people and promised we will never see death, or taste it if we keep your word.
One Response
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