From Sunday: “Many times – especially when we feel like God hasn’t delivered on our life the way we’d want him to – our instinct is to revert back to the familiar and to go back to what we know from the past. But the invitation of Jesus is to let go of our grip on the past – on the stable, the secure, the known and familiar – and be willing, in faith, to embrace something brand new.”

Spend a few minutes prayerfully reflecting on the questions below: 

1. What are some of the ways you feel the pull to return to comforting things in the past, when life gets too hard? Take a few minutes to simply reflect on how this dynamic appears in your own life. 

2. What would it look like for you to drop those fishing nets from the past and instead open yourself up more fully to whatever new thing God might be inviting you into? What would this really look like, in your day-to-day life? 

Try to allow room for God to ‘speak’ back to you as you reflect. If that’s a new concept to you perhaps that’s part of the new thing God is inviting you into!

Learning to hold ourselves open to God in every moment of every day is not always an easy skill to master. Especially when our days throw so many unexpected curveballs at us! However, through the frequent re-tuning of our hearts through prayer, we can learn to cultivate a deeper awareness of – and integration with – the Spirit’s presence. Both within us and around us. 

Today we invite you to engage in a guided prayer practice to help you slow down and attune more closely to the very near presence of God’s very good Spirit. Pray it once with the video, and then turn the video off and enter into the prayer again simply on your own. 

Click Here for the posture prayer practice: I Open

“How we spend our days is how we spend our lives.” – Annie Dillard

From the moment our bodies awaken, our eyes begin to open, and we enter into the ordinary wonder of a brand new day. What do you do with the first few moments of your day? Does what comes ‘first’ really matter? 

Rather than simply diving headlong into the pressure-filled pace of the day ahead, why not take a few moments first to centre your heart in the peace and presence of Christ? How might that change all of the minutes that will follow? 

Click Here for a guided reflection and worship practice “First Things First”

Today we invite you to encounter God through studying Jesus in the Bible. What happened after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ? And what does any and all of it have to do with you, today? 

Scripture: Click Here to read Matthew 28 (Common English Bible)

Read the passage over slowly, prayerfully and attentively a few times. As you do, allow God to highlight a word, phrase or verse – something that jumps out at you personally. 

Observations: Think about what is being said, by who, and why they might be saying it the way they are. What is the surrounding context? What other background information do you have? How and where do you see the heart of Jesus in this? Don’t make conclusions or applications yet, just observe everything you can. 

Application: Now consider how this passage might apply personally to your life. In what way does it speak to your own circumstances? How can it help you? How does it challenge you? How does it call you to love both God and others better? How does this word from God apply directly to your day-to-day life and how you are learning to follow Jesus? 

Prayer: Now that you’ve read and reflected on God’s word and begun the process of application to your life, simply talk to God about it all. Share what’s swirling in your head and heart, allow space to listen for what the Holy Spirit is wanting to say to you in return as well.

Today we invite you to engage wholeheartedly in the practice of worship, celebrating the resurrecting power of Christ that is alive and at work inside your very own chest. Crank the volume up and let yourself enter fully into the miraculous power of LIFE that Jesus has unleashed for us all! 

Click Here for Resurrecting by Elevation Worship