God gifted the world with a long, deep and meaningful ministry through Eugene Peterson’s work. Peterson is perhaps most widely known as the pastor and scholar behind The Message translation of the bible. Much of Peterson’s work was focused on finding ways to help people to pray. Today we draw from the devotional “The Message: Solo, An Uncommon Devotional” which was compiled by Peterson as another way for us to come to God in prayer, listening for what God would say to us through the stories of scripture. This prayer moves through four steps, ‘read’, ‘think’, ‘pray’ and ‘live’. In this movement we create space to both speak to and listen for God today.

May you be blessed in your time with God today, Dianne

 

From: “The Message: Solo, An Uncommon Devotional” by Eugene Peterson (Day 16)

Passage for the day: Deuteronomy 10:12-21

1.     READ

Read the passage aloud slowly.

2.     THINK

Read it aloud slowly again, considering:

•    What phrase is most memorable?

•    What quality of God stands out to you? Why?

•    What command stands out to you? Why?

3.      PRAY

Here are some ways to pray back the passage. Use as many of these suggestions as you wish.

•    Express to God your thoughts about living in his presence. Has living in his presence been important to you or not?

•    Express to God those areas in which you would guess he considers you ‘hardheaded.’ (Pause and let this come to you. Don’t necessarily go with the first thing that comes to mind.)

•    Express to God your feelings about the have-nots you know (widows, orphans, foreigners). Talk to God honestly about how willing or unwilling you’ve been to include such people in your life.

4.      LIVE

Experiment with living in God’s presence while caring for the rest of the world. Relax. Quiet yourself. Just be.