A meditation from our service this week..
We are going to spend some time in quiet communion with God. In this time we will rest in God. A communion which refreshes and restores.
Open your right hand, consider for a moment something that you value about yourself this morning. Maybe this is something you are good at, or a quality you appreciate, something you have achieved.
Open your left hand, consider for a moment something that you don’t like about yourself this morning. This could be an area of weakness, inability or pain, something that makes life challenging for you this week.
Hold out both of your hands as we pray:
Just as we are we come to you Lord and hold out our hands. Our strength and our weakness, our trash and our treasure we release before you – For your will to be done in them. We boast not in ourselves but your presence and power in our lives to work these things into something beautiful. We look to you, the author and perfecter of our faith.
In old times and in other cultures the right hand is a symbol of power and strength. It is raised to take oaths and to show submission. You may like to trace a print of your hand on one or all three of these ancient prayers, making them your own this morning. (We had large pieces of brown paper across the walls under each prayer. An adaption for meditation at home is to place your right hand over each of these prayers as you open your bible in prayer.)
Three Prayers
Psalm 143:5-7
I remember the days of long ago;
I meditate on all your works
and consider what your hands have done.
I spread out my hands to you;
my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.
Psalm 73:23-26
… Yet I still belong to you;
you hold my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
leading me to a glorious destiny.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
I desire you more than anything on earth.
My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak,
but God remains the strength of my heart;
he is mine forever.
Psalm 16:7-9
I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.
I have set the LORD always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure..