This spiritual retreat guide is intended to help you focus as you encounter the Lord. Do honor this time by spending it alone in silence, focused on the Lord.
Quiet yourself before the Lord~
Spend 5-10 minutes in silence. Let the internal noise die down. Breathe in the presence of Jesus. He is the oxygen that sustains your soul. Open yourself to God in prayer:
· Practice “palms down, palms up.” Place your palms down on your lap as a symbolic indication of your desire to release your concerns to God. Turn your palms up to demonstrate your openness to receive what He brings. Wait before God.
· What do you desire from God during this time of bonding?
· Dialogue with God about where you have sensed his presence in the last week or month.
· Ask God to speak to you from John 15.
15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
Jesus is our connection to the Father. He is also the One who makes sense of our life on planet earth. We don’t have to worry about being cut off since He has already made us clean. However, as we remain/dwell in Him we will bear fruit that looks like Him.
The world, flesh, and the devil tries to lure us away from dwelling in the vine. In this time of reflection, what are ways you have been tempted to go your own way?
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
Remaining in Jesus shows that we are His disciples. In what ways does your life show that you are a disciple of Jesus?
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
The only way to show true love towards others is to remain in God’s love for us. How would you describe your love relationship with God in this season of your life? (How does He communicate His love towards you?)
Out of your love relationship with God, in what ways do you express love towards others?
18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. 24 If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’
Although we are sometimes, we should not be surprised that the world hates us, and doesn’t mind showing us that. In 2024, how has the world shown you that it hates you? How did you respond? How may you respond in the future?
26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
Praise God that we can count on the Spirit of truth being with us at all times. He is in us and will be with us. Focus on the Spirit of truth and how He has been at work in your life. What do you want to say to Him today?
Take time to thank God for His presence in your life in every way. Thank Him for the ways in which He has “shown up” for you.
Comments