A regular participant and facilitator of our Listening Prayer gatherings, Claudia shares her prayerful reflection on Isaiah 55:1-9.
+ + +
Come and drink.
Even if you have nothing to exchange.
Just show up.
Just keep showing up.
Listen closely.
Closer still.
Closer.
Still.
Come and drink.
Feel what it’s like to be full,
to have enough.
Feel the space around and in you.
Feel your being open up.
See how freely your body moves to the music of my making.
Come and drink.
See, you’ll have to put down what you’re clutching so tightly
to reach for what I have.
Open your hands.
Just open your hands…..
Come close.
Closer still.
Hear the spacious silence all around.
All the space you need.
The inexhaustible space of my enduring presence.
My withness.
With you.
+ + +
Dear One…
Perhaps as you come to prayer this week, you might notice if God’s call to come close seems like an invitation to you today.
Something you are free to accept or decline.
Isaiah 55:1-9 (The Voice)
Eternal One: If you are thirsty, come here;
come, there’s water for all.
Whoever is poor and penniless can still
come and buy the food I sell.
There’s no cost—here, have some food, hearty and delicious,
and beverages, pure and good.
I don’t understand why you spend your money for things that don’t nourish
or work so hard for what leaves you empty.
Attend to Me and eat what is good;
enjoy the richest, most delectable of things.
Listen closely, and come even closer. My words will give life,
for I will make a covenant with you that cannot be broken, a promise
Of My enduring presence and support like I gave to David.
See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander among the nations.
Now you will issue a call to nations from all over the world—
people whom you do not know and who do not know you.
They will come running, because of Me, your God
because the Eternal, the Holy One of Israel, has made you beautiful.
So turn your attention and seek the Eternal One while it is still possible;
call on Him while He is nearby.
Let those who are busy plotting violence and doing wrong
stop right now, turn, and do right.
Let them turn back to the Eternal so they can experience His compassion.
God will excuse our past wrongs. Our God’s forgiveness is inexhaustible.
Eternal One: My intentions are not always yours,
and I do not go about things as you do.
My thoughts and My ways are above and beyond you,
just as heaven is far from your reach here on earth.
For Reflection and Prayer:
Was there a word, phrase or image which caught your attention you as you listened to or slowly read the text? Quietly savor this with Jesus.
Notice any felt sense that seems to emerge as you linger with this passage. It might come as a bodily feeling, emotion, metaphor, picture, gesture or sound. See if you can describe it and simply be with it with patient curiosity. Be open to whatever more might emerge.
Perhaps you might want to draw, color or journal your conversation.
As the time of prayer comes to a close, share some quiet moments with Jesus, simply resting safely in his presence.
