Use the schema explained above: Tell God about the situation, listen to God and scripture, dialogue with God as you reflect.
Step 1
Creator God, Son and Spirit, power scares us as well it should. Some abuse it in an authoritarian way. Some use it to get others to hate and reject others. Some use it to keep others poor while they increase their wealth. Some so enjoy the notoriety that their decisions are warped. Throughout our history we have sought power. We have asked you to hate those whom we hate. We have asked you to give us victory in battles. Some of our battles are noble others are conducted for our own enrichment at the expense of others.
Some leaders have a powerfully good impact on others. They bring people together as You have wished. They correct the results of our basest instincts and help us set and accomplish worthy goals. Servant leaders are not pushovers when people are endangered whether it be from other people, from natural disasters or unethical economic situations.
Jesus, you were more powerful than anyone before or since you became a human. The apostles asked you to bring down fire on unbelievers or those who would thwart your mission. We strive to lead as you did with honesty and love. You told us things we did not want to hear but needed to hear. You told us things that the religious leaders of the time found unacceptable. In the end your power destroyed death by experiencing real death and rising from the dead. You destroyed death by being “powerless, and thus enacted something more powerful and lasting. Your power freed us from the power of dying. How did you do it?
They tell us that you emptied yourself – help us to exercise power as you did for the sake of others, in communion with others, empowering others to live forever. We know power is intoxicating for all of us. Give us the emotional maturity to exercise it as you did – for and with others. Help us to speak up when we need to—to protect others when we need to—to listen to better ideas when we need to—to insist on fidelity when we need to. Don’t let our reputation or self-aggrandizement ruin what you call us to do and be.
Step 2 Listen to God now:
| Hebrew Scripture | New Testament |
| Like a shepherd He feeds his flock. Isaias 40
* Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. 2Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service* has ended, that her guilt is expiated, That she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins. 3A voice proclaims:* In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! 4Every valley shall be lifted up, every mountain and hill made low; The rugged land shall be a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. 5Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. 6A voice says, “Proclaim!” I answer, “What shall I proclaim?” “All flesh is grass, and all their loyalty like the flower of the field. 7The grass withers, the flower wilts, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it.” “Yes, the people are grass! 8The grass withers, the flower wilts, but the word of our God stands forever.” 9Go up onto a high mountain, Zion, herald of good news!* Cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news! Cry out, do not fear! Say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God! 10Here comes with power the Lord GOD, who rules by his strong arm; Here is his reward with him, his recompense before him. 11Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, Carrying them in his bosom, leading the ewes with care Psalm 103:1-19 ESV My soul, praise the Lord! |
Philippians 2
Plea for Unity and Humility.* 1If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy, 2complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing. 3Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, 4each looking out not for his own interests, but [also] everyone for those of others. 5Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus,* 6Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. 7Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness;* and found human in appearance, 8he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. 9Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
John 10 The Good Shepherd. 1* “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold* through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. 2But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4* When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. 5But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.” 6Although Jesus used this figure of speech,* they did not realize what he was trying to tell them. 7 So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came [before me] are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly. 11I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12A hired man, who is not a shepherd and whose sheep are not his own, sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf catches and scatters them. 13This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep. 14I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. 16I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. 18No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again.* This command I have received from my Father.”
|
Put together what you said to God and what God said to you in scripture. Dialogue. Keep talking and listening.