Let It Be : Done Unto Me [Breath Prayer]

03/30/20 • 8 min

008 Breath prayer :: Let It Be : Done Unto Me
To complement this week's sermon theme "Challenged", we will use the phrase, “Let it be done unto me!” as our breath prayer. We will breathe IN, “Let it be” and breathe OUT, “Done unot to me”. Our hope is to see our heartbeats pulsate with Mary’s surrender as we engage in this week’s breath prayer.

Mary was an human like you and me living an ordinary and yet well-ordered life. However, one day she was greatly challenged and her heart was gravely troubed with Gabriel’s visit. Gabriel brought a ‘good’ news that would change her well-ordered life into complete disorder. She knew that her well-ordered life would be called into a complete disorder if she let His order land on her heart. And yet, she welcomed that disorder.

How did Mary’s heart begin beating with a new rhythm?: the rhythm of letting go of her order and letting in of disorder; empyting order and welcoming disorder. Did she somehow know that God would not end with disorder but bring reorder?
This seems like a perennial truth: order-disorder-reorder.

We do not know how Mary did? One thing we know is that we would not let go of our well-ordered life unless we have to; we would not accept God’s invitation for transformation unless disorder sets in. Suffering in the course of our life - mental, physical, emotional and relational suffering - bring us disorder and challenges us to accept the fact that there are things that we can not easily fix, control, change or explain. It seems like we find ourselves or the whole world in disorder and destabilization.
What if we pause and receive this disorder as God’s invitation to follow Him in bringing ‘reorder’ in our life and the world? It seems like the ‘oder’ that once worked nicely was built upon many private and separate selves who constantly in competition. It seems like the ‘reorder’ God desires to bring will be built upon collective body that continually in cooperation. God is inviting us to become a kind of people who let go of our order and welcome this disorder as a necessary suffering to bring reorder into our life.

Jesus said to us, “Come, follow me!”

Let ‘I-Thou’ encounter take place as we closely follow Him today!

Let Jesus’ face reflect back to us who we are! We have Jesus’ DNA in us.

Notice what Jesus said at the end of his life, “Not my will, but yours, be done”

Those who are drawn to use Jesus’ phrase as this week’s breath prayer please feel free to use it as an alternative one. Mary’s phrase in the beginning of her life and Jesus one at the end of his life both share the same spirit of complete surrender and trust in God!

Pause and set your intention to become fully present to God who is with us in this moment.
Breathe IN and say, “Let it be”
Breathe OUT and say, “Done unto me”
Repeat three times
Notice the effect this prayer has on you.

If you want to study this passage more check out biblehub to get some background on the original language.
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Jesus said to us, “Come, follow me!”

Let ‘I-Thou’ encounter take place as we closely follow Him today!

Let Jesus’ face reflect back to us who we are! We have Jesus’ DNA in us.

Notice what Jesus said at the end of his life, “Not my will, but yours, be done”

Pause and set your intention to become fully present to God who is with us in this moment.
Breathe IN and say, “Let it be”
Breathe OUT and say, “Done unto me”
Repeat three times
Notice the effect this prayer has on you.

Previous Episode

Rest during Covid-19 :: Ideas to quiet + A Practice

007 John and Sungshim dialogue about rest during "Safer at home" in CA.

Go Deeper with Rest (optional):

Set your Intention to grow your capacity to rest in God’s love. The life-changing information related to COVID-19 comes at us quickly. It demands us to stay alert; it urges us to move into action; it commands us to master our protective skills. The idea of rest - lowering our alertness, slowing down our action, relinquishing our mastery - sounds unrealistic, irresponsible, and even foolish. And yet, we are urged to “make every effort to enter into that rest” in Hebrew 4:11.
The challenge we face is that we rarely experience a sense of completion. Rather, more often than not, we experience a sense of incompletion and lack, which causes us to be in a physiological state of fear and a physical condition of weariness. This makes it almost impossible for us to obey God, by enter into that rest. What we need first is to enter into an honest conversation with God, who sees our weariness with great compassion and restorative power. Listen to Jesus’ initiation of this honest conversation and step by step instruction on how to find rest:
"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me -watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” - Matthew 11:28-30 (MSG)
Let us see the deeper reality where God’s love and power flows in us and through us and never ceases. Real rest begins when we have an honest conversation with God. Real rest is found in the context of real conversation/relationship!
Ponder on the questions below for your conversation with God:
- In what area(s) of your life do you seem unable to trust in God’s love where you find your ultimate belonging?
- In what area(s) of your life do you hear loud voices like these? You better hurry, for there is not enough to go around! You better worry, for you are not good or worthy enough yet! You better be tough, for the world is harsh! You can't stop, or you will fall behind!
- What keeps you from enjoying the awe and wonder of life?
- What keeps you from welcoming each morning with gratitude?
- What keeps you awake at night?
Have a conversation with God about your struggle. Share what came to your awareness with God, in a conversational way, and ask Him to help you to hear His voice (My child, you belong to me; You are safe in my hands.)
Engage yourself in a posture of rest. When you are finished interacting with God, engage in a posture of rest by actually entering into stillness. For this process, we will use the key line from Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.”
- What do we do? You are invited to recite the key line from Psalm 46:10, “Be still and Know that I am God” 5 times. Each time the line is recited, the key words are taken away and you will find yourself simply ‘being’ in His presence.
- How to do it? Recite/chant/sing as follows:
  - Be still and know that I am God, (pause)
  - Be still and know that I am, (pause)
  - Be still and know, (pause)
  - Be still, (pause)
  - Be
- If you desire, linger in the silence.

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Next Episode

Jim Wilder - Attaching to Jesus as a way to naturally love our enemies

1 Recommendations

009
Jim Wilder is our friend and mentor and one of the people we've learned a tremendous amount from over the years. This book is life altering. I encourage you to pick it up today.
Jim and John sharing in conversation about his new book. We had a lot of fun talking, sharing and discussing the ideas.

Renovated: God, Dallas Willard, and the Church That Transforms

Jim's hope and dreams for the book
Why loving our enemies is the litmus test for our apprenticeship to Jesus
What is enemy mode?
What does it mean to have God speak to us? And, what it doesn't mean.

The book proposes that

1) Salvation is about attachment and uses the human attachment system to grow a new identity

2) We can experience mutual mind with God

3) Mutual mind without attachment will not change character

This conversation will also be released on our YouTube channel.
I'm hoping someone would want to list the topics and time stamps we discuss them on Youtube. If you are interested please let me know.
He is the neurotheologian of Life Model Works.
Dr. Jim Wilder (Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, and M.A. Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary) has been training leaders and counselors for over 27 years on five continents. He is the author of multiple books with a strong focus on maturing and relationship skills for leaders. His coauthored book Living From the Heart Jesus Gave You has sold over 100,000 copies and is printed in eleven languages. Wilder has published numerous articles and developed four sets of video and relational leadership training called THRIVE. He is the founder and chief neurotheologian of Life Model Work, a nonprofit working at the intersection of brain science and theology that is building contagiously healthy Christian communities through equipping existing networks with the skills to thrive. Dr. Wilder has extensive counseling experience and has served as a guest lecturer at Fuller Seminary, Biola, Talbot Seminary, Point Loma University, Montreat College, Tyndale Seminary and elsewhere.
BIBLE APP with writing from Jim Wilder
I'm reading the @YouVersion plan '12 Ways God Loves You: Practices That Form Strong Attachments To God And God’s People'. Check it out here:
http://bible.com/r/52k
VIDEO
Jim introduces Dallas from the conference (story told in the book)
https://lifemodelworks.org/renovated/...
To Listen to the Podcast go here
https://www.presenceandpractice.com/