Ritual Stretching

I love when God speaks clearly to me.
When there is no guessing game.
Just listening. 

This morning was one of those mornings.

I headed to my normal Starbucks where I spent a wonderful hour with God eating my scone and drinking my delicious Earl Grey Tea Latte.

Over the past three months I've been methodically making my way through a sermon series titled  "Learning to Love Leviticus"

This morning I studied Chapter 24 where the priests are directed to continually light the lamps inside the Tabernacle and change the 12 loaves of bread weekly and then it gets a little serious about not blaspheming God. The pastor linked it all back to religious ritual.

Some quotes from the pastor that really struck me this morning:

"By 'ritual' I mean that kind of activity which is habitual, which is consistent, which has a certain predictability."

"God rituals are merely habits of righteous conduct, a pattern of piety."

"It is my contention that much of what is involved in our sanctification has to do with putting off the rituals, the habit patterns of the flesh, and putting on the rituals of righteousness."

These quotes were surrounded by some great biblical examples like Daniel's prayer life (Dan 6:5-11) and Jesus's habits (Luke 4:16; Mark 10:1; Luke 22: 39)

I've already been contemplating what habits I want to have on trips and how I need to start building those now while I have more of my own "personal" time to arrange. So in my last 10 minutes before heading to church I wrote down a list of habits I want to develop over the next year.

(A year because I know habits take time... and it was quite a lengthy list...
I'll share a few in just a bit.)

As I mentioned last week, for the Lent Season, Jeff Kline, my pastor, is doing a series on prayer called "Stretch Out Your Hands." 

Today's topic was called 'Stretch out your Hand to Move Into Jesus". Jeff started the sermon by preaching on WHO JESUS IS (Col 1:15-20)

The Image of the Invisible God

Firstborn OVER all creation

Creator

Supreme One

ALL-POWERFUL

Seen in ALL creation

Jeff then pointed us to Col 2:6-7 and Jn 15 and Eph where we are called to live/abide/walk with Jesus
And Christ's power will manifest itself in us.

To end the sermon he then painted a great picture of the Tabernacle. How the lamp stand was positioned and was kept continually burning. How the table was set up with the 12 loaves that were replenished each week and the alters and the holy of holies and several other things I've become well acquainted with as I've walked through Leviticus. We closed our eyes and he walked us through the temples leading us in the ACTS prayer method and allowing us to simply spend a few minutes sitting with Jesus in the holy of holies. 

And I simply smiled because God had already met me here once.

Loud and clear I could hear God asking me to stretch out my hands

To make that my ritual

Acknowledging Christ and what He has done and that only through His love and power will any other ritual be possible.

So my prayer tonight is this -

That God move into me, and establish these rituals in my life. It will talk time and effort, but in the power of my Living Savior I know that it will be worth it because it will bring me closer to Him. 

So here is my ritual list - What I'm stretching for this year:
- praying during my commute to work and traveling to trips: prayer for my bosses, for my co-workers, and for my students
- 5 minutes of prayer journal in the morning and evening - using the ACTS method

- on trips taking additional 30 minutes of time (15 morning/15 evening) to read God's Word and pray on top of the 45 minutes we give the team
- make prayer lists that I can pray through in extra time with God
- memorization of scripture by specifically praying it over one of the prayer lists (such as Col 1:9-14 over all the students I'll meet this year)

Lord move into me and give me your power to accomplish this ritual building. May they draw me nearer to you and glorify your name. Amen

What rituals are you going to begin today?