Thursday February 10, 2022

Today is Thursday, February 10 and this week we are exploring what the Bible says about going deeper with God.

As I begin this time of prayer, I pause and become still. I calm my thoughts and silence my mind. I breathe slowly and deeply, and center myself upon the presence of God.

Pause and Pray

Blessed Lord, I want to go deeper with you. Break new ground in my heart and enable me to experience the depths of your loving presence. Enable me to dig down further spiritually and discover untraveled paths of christian maturity through the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen.

I rejoice in the heights and depths of God’s love for me with the words of Psalm 36.

Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people and animals. How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of your wings. Psalm 36:5-7

Pause and Pray

Abimelech reigned as king of the Philistines in a region called Gerar for a very long time. Abraham lived there for a while with his wife Sarah and his flocks and herds. He dug wells which the servants of the king seized, claiming them as their own. Abraham complained to the king and they reached an agreement and the wells were recognized as Abraham’s. About fifty years later, Abraham and Sarah have died and their son Isaac returns to the region of Gerar to escape a famine. Isaac turns to King Abimelech for help. Perhaps because the king remembers his father Abraham he invites Isaac to stay in Gerar instead of going to Egypt to escape the famine. Isaac and his wife Rebekah settle in Gerar, just as Isaac’s parents had done. Isaac re-digs the wells his father once dug and gives them the same names.

Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him. The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him. So all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth. Then Abimelech (King of the Philistines) said to Isaac, “Move away from us; you have become too powerful for us.” So Isaac moved away from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar, where he settled. Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them. Genesis 26:12-18

I consider what it means to go deeper in the spiritual life. This story of Isaac redigging the wells of his father Abraham invites me to consider the depth of the past on which my faith is built. I have forefathers and foremothers in the faith (both biological and spiritual) who have already dug wells from which I benefit. Wells of knowledge and experience. Wells of faith and fortitude. Wells of strength and perseverance. I thank God for the people of faith who have gone before me and on whose shoulders I stand. What does it mean for me to re-dig the wells of my past? How might the wells of my faith be “stopped up” and filled with earth so they are no longer usable? What would it look like in my spiritual life to reopen wells that had been dug in the past? Wells of the faith. As Isaac named those wells, so I name my wells before God.

Ask: How might God want to bless me by reopening spiritual wells of people that have gone before me? What are the steps I could take to “dig down” into those wells?

Pause and Pray

Blessed Lord God, thank you for loving me and blessing me. Forgive me for overlooking the great wells of the Christian faith that have gone before me. Encourage me to set aside time to reopen some spiritual wells from my forebears. Help me understand why they have become “stopped up,” dried out or unusable. Teach me how to dig down deeply into the heritage of Christian writings and teachings and find the refreshment my faith longs for. I read the words from Genesis again and listen for the message you have for me.

Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the Lord blessed him. The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him. So all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth. Then Abimelech (King of the Philistines) said to Isaac, “Move away from us; you have become too powerful for us.” So Isaac moved away from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar, where he settled. Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them. Genesis 26:12-18

Ask: What image, word or phrase stands out to me when I slowly read this passage? What is God trying to say to me through these words of scripture?

Pause and Pray

God wants to reveal an important insight to me through this passage of scripture from Genesis. I consider the images that strike me when I read about Isaac reopening Abraham’s wells. When I imagine my wells, are they stopped up or reopened? The wells provide life-giving water that my soul longs for. Those who have gone before me have already done the work and the water was flowing, now it is time for the wells to flow freely again. I consider the word or phrase that stands out to me. What have I been praying about lately? What worries me? What am I concerned about? Perhaps God is trying to provide guidance or direction for a specific situation. Who from my past left a well of faith I can benefit from? What Christian leaders from previous generations left teachings God wants me to reopen or revisit? How can I draw deeply and drink from those wells?

Pause and Pray

Holy Lord God, I invite you into my current circumstances and ask you to show me how to reopen what has been closed off for me. Examine my soul for the places that have been “stopped up” by the enemy. Come and release the life-giving water that will renew my soul. Remind me of those giants of the faith who left wells for me that are just waiting to be revisited. Amen.

Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord himself, is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. Isaiah 12:2-3

As I leave this time of prayer I go to re-dig the ancient wells of the faith and pass on these life-giving wells to the next generation.

Amen.