Guided Prayer Exercise: Grace
Breathe
Settle into your chair or a comfortable position and take a deep breath–in and out. Spend a few moments breathing. Notice your body’s rhythm; sense where you might be holding tension. Breathe in and breathe out, releasing those muscles. Release that tension, stress, or worry to Jesus. If to-do lists, concerns for the day, anxiety, or responsibilities fill your mind in the silence, offer them up as a prayer asking Jesus to hold all those things and that he will draw near to you.
Meditate
When you are ready, read today’s passage from the Gospel of Luke. What word or phrase stands out to you? What image comes to mind as you reflect on the scripture? Jot them down in your journal or pause and sit with them for a few moments. Ask the Lord what they might be communicating to you. This parable is about grace and reconciliation. What is grace? How have you experienced grace? Does grace feel elusive in your life?
Pray
Give thanks for how you may have experienced grace in your life or witnessed it in others. Don’t be afraid to ask for grace. Offer any doubts you might have to the Lord–doubt is not the absence of faith.
Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Wesley, Frank, 1923-2002. Forgiving Father, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=59207
[retrieved February 10, 2023]. Original source: Estate of Frank Wesley, http://www.frankwesleyart.com/main_page.htm.
