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WANTING AND SETTLING

Opening Prayer

Let us make our way together, Lord; wherever you go I must go; and through whatever you pass, there too I will pass. Amen.

—Teresa of Avila, 1515-1582

TEXT 

1 John 2:15-17 (The Message)
Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.

READ

Every time we turn around someone is asking the question, “What is God’s will for my life?” This is a good question, but often those asking are looking for an easier, less painful way to do what they know God has already made clear in God’s Word. Why do we worry so much about the big decisions in life and spend so little time on the little day-in-and-day-out decisions? Could it be that the character we build in making little choices God’s way develops the habits that turn mountains to difficult to surmount into molehills easily traversed? 

Prayer of Response 

“Fix thou our steps, O Lord, that we stagger not at the uneven motions of the world, but steadily go on to our glorious home; neither censuring our journey by the weather we meet with, nor turning out of the way for anything that befalls us. The winds are often rough, and our own weight presses us downwards. Reach forth, O Lord, thy hand, thy saving hand, and speedily deliver us. Teach us, O Lord, to use this transitory life as pilgrims returning to their beloved home; that we may take what our journey requires, and not think of settling in a foreign country.

— John Wesley, 1703-1791, (also attributed to John Austin, a persecuted 17th century English Roman Catholic)

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WHAT IS THIS? Wake-Up Call is a daily encouragement to shake off the slumber of our busy lives and turn our eyes toward Jesus. Each morning our community gathers around a Scripture, a reflection, a prayer, and a few short questions, inviting us to reorient our lives around the love of Jesus that transforms our hearts, homes, churches, and cities.

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