Tag Archives: following Jesus

Questions and Commitment – prayers inspired by John 6.56-59

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Christ in the Wilderness by Ivan Kramskoy

Turn and Return by Lisa Degrenia
When Jesus speaks words of sacrifice, many want no part of it. They turn and walk away. You can hear the heartbreak and pain in his voice, “Do you also wish to go away?” The wound grows even deeper as Jesus states someone who stayed will eventually betray him.

We fall away
Slip away
Turn away
Hide away
Run away
Push away
Go our way
Lose our way

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your Presence?
You pursue

Woman sweeping
Spirit drawing
Hound dog tracking
Lover calling
Brood Hen gathering
Shepherd searching
Racer enduring
Father waiting… praying… hoping… looking… running… embracing
Our turning and returning

I Am Yours by Lisa Degrenia
Simon Peter answered Jesus, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” – John 6:68-69

Jesus, sometimes your way is easy
Your burden is light
It overflows with hope and consolation and grace

Sometimes your way is hard
It confronts and challenges
It offends me – what I believe and what I hold dear

Sometimes your way is mysterious
I don’t understand
I can’t see it, grasp it

Still, I follow
I want to follow

Help me hold nothing back from you
Even my doubts and questions

Help me open the deepest places of my being to you
All my weaknesses and wounds
All my strengths and privilege
All that I am and will become

You have the words of eternal life
You are the Holy One of God
I trust you
I have confidence in you
I am yours

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I’m posting prayers based on the Gospel of John throughout the seasons of Lent and Easter this year. Thanks for coming along with me on the journey. – Lisa <><

John 6:56-69 is read on Year B — Season after Pentecost — Proper 16 (21)

Questions and Commitment prayers © 2023 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia. You are welcome to use this work in a worship setting without asking permission. It’s always a treat to hear from you if you’re using it. Leave a comment for information and permission to publish this work in a book, blog, etc.

False Following, three prayers inspired by John 6.24-35

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I am the Bread of Life by Kennedy A Paizs. “I want to desire Jesus as much as I desire to eat each day to sustain my physical life.”

John 6:25-27
When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal.”

Why am I looking for Jesus?
Am I just looking for the goodies?

  • provision- the fill of the loaves
  • an entertaining story on the side of a mountain
  • comfort and blessing since so much of life is insecure
  • an escape to a better place beyond this life

There is a huge difference between using Jesus as a means to an end and desiring a relationship with Jesus for who he is. – Lisa <><

You Offer Me You by Lisa Degrenia
Jesus, you offer me yourself
Not a philosophy to follow
Not a commodity to use
Not a means to an end

You offer me you
Flesh and Blood
Bread and Salvation

Forgive my shallow desires for your bread alone
They dishonor and cheapen the fullness of you

Continue your prayers of confession

Open me to your great gift
Every part
Open me to give myself in return
Every part

Help Us Choose by Lisa Degrenia
We label you prophet
Miracle worker
Healer

We expect you to be the king we want
Overthrow our enemies
Bring us peace and plenty

Yes, there are signs
but they point to a cross

Help us choose you and your way
Help us choose the way of the cross

False Following by Lisa Degrenia
Jesus, forgive my false following
My misplaced priorities
For using you instead of loving you

Nurture true faith and trust in me
To love you first and always
To love you for you as you love me for me

Reorder my consuming
Now feasting on your presence
You are my bread, my drink, my life

Continue your prayers of adoration and commitment

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I’m posting prayers based on the Gospel of John throughout the seasons of Lent and Easter this year. Thanks for coming along with me on the journey. – Lisa <><

John 6:24-35 is read on Year B — Season after Pentecost — Proper 13 (18)
and on Year C — Season after Pentecost — Thanksgiving Day, USA & Canada 

Three prayers based on John 6:24-35 © 2023 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia. You are welcome to use this work in a worship setting without asking permission. It’s always a treat to hear from you if you’re using it. Leave a comment for information and permission to publish this work in a book, blog, etc.

Listen and Act, a prayer for the new year based on Matthew 2.13-23

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Rest on the Flight into Egypt by Luc Olivier Merson
Rest on the Flight to Egypt by Luc Olivier Merson

ONE:
Joseph is silent
He listens and acts

ALL:
Lord, help us listen
Still the noise around us and in us
Still the urgency and anxiety
Still the destruction and falsehood

Lord, help us listen
Break through with your still, small voice
with your calm and clarity
with your leading and light

You reveal the needed next steps
You provide all we need to make the journey

Lord, help us listen and help us act
Amen

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This prayer is based on Matthew 2:13-23, the Holy Family’s escape to Egypt and return.

Listen and Act © 2023 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
You are welcome to use this work in a worship setting with proper attribution.
Leave a comment for information and permission to publish this work in any form.

Run Beloved, Run – a poem for All Saints Day

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running feet

Hebrews 12:1-3 NRSV
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart.

You are surrounded
By great and good companions

With witnesses who ran the race before you
Now cheering you on
Inspiring you with their courageous faith

With witnesses running beside you
Churning up the dust of this well-traveled-path
Encouraging you with the steady beat of their beautiful feet

Run beloved, run
Lay aside every weight
Every worry
Every excuse
Every inner critic shouting against inspiration

Lay aside the sin that clings so closely
Every self-serving motivation
Every self-medicating choice
Every weak thing you’ve trusted more than God

Lay them aside
and run

Run beloved, run
Run with perseverance the race
Daring
Enduring
Alive

Looking not to the dust, but to Jesus
The Pioneer and Perfecter of your faith
Look not to the right or to the left
Look to Jesus
Focus
Follow

Jesus is The Way, opening the path
The Truth, clearing the clutter
The Light, blazing the trail

He runs
He endures
For the sake of the joy
Of setting the joy before you
and in you

Run
Run remembering
Joy is your strength
Remember and endure
For this race comes with a cross
A course of blood and tears
Mocking and piercing

Take it up
Disregard its shame (that ancient enemy)
Let it fall by the wayside
Tired scraps on the breath of new life

Take it up and run
Sit down in the next life
Not this one

Run beloved, run
Following and looking and remembering him who endured
So that you may not grow weary
Or lose heart
For your strongest step is yet to come

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Be sure to check out Steve Garnaas Holmes reflection Cheer, on cheering on his niece as she ran the Boston Marathon and how that connects to our spiritual life.

Run Beloved, Run © 2014 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
You are welcome to use this work in a worship setting with proper attribution.
Please contact Lisa for information and permission to publish this work in any form.

Soft and Steadfast, a prayer based on Hebrews 3 and James 1

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soft-heart-cruel-world-2

Based on Hebrews 3:7-14, The Voice Translation and James 1:19-25, NRSV

Merciful One, soften my heart

Save me from hardheartedness
From evil and deceit
From mutiny and unbelief

Turn and return me
From wandering away
From petrifying slowly

Make my heart pure
Open to you
Wanting what you want

Make my heart true
Confident in you and your Word
Hearing and Doing

Make my heart noble
Quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger
Rejoicing in your direction

Jesus
Heart of my heart
Keep me soft and steadfast in your nail scarred hands

Extended quote by John R. Wimmer, Blessed Endurance
The words joy rejoice as they appear in James and First Peter do not mean what they seem at first glance. The rejoicing we find here is not a shallow, syrupy, or optimistic refusal to admit that problems exist; instead, it is the realistic recognition of struggle bolstered by the decision to rejoice in knowing that God is working to bring us through strife to greater spiritual depth. Yes, it may be tough if not impossible to rejoice when suffering, but such joy will not take the form of emotional jubilance or elation.

James proclaims that suffering may be considered as joy when the encounter produces the spiritual virtue of steadfastness. And steadfastness, when allowed to flower into fullness, produces the most attractive bloom of all qualities: Christian maturity.

Authentic Christian maturity, then, is a steadfastness that we attain not by denial. It is a quality that, like any other kind of maturity, accrues with age, hard work, and a lot of bruising experience. It is the ability to redirect our thoughts beyond immediate woes in order to realize the spiritual growth that results from tests of faith.

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Prayer: Soft and Steadfast © 2017, updated 2021 Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia
You are welcome to use this work in a worship setting with proper attribution.
Please leave a message for information and permission to publish this work in any form.