It’s been such a gift to my heart this year.

Gathering virtually each week to immerse in God’s word together with a small group of Sensitive & Strong Sisters.

Now, I’m excited to share this gift with you!

You’re invited to join us for “Morning Truth for Tender Hearts.”

We meet in Sensitive & Strong Sisters in Christ, the free Facebook group that now serves as a virtual “chapel” for all subscribers to the Sensitive & Strong Connection.

What it’s like?

Here’s a video of the time we spent pray-cessing Psalm 23 together:

To get access to videos from earlier this year and receive notifications about upcoming “Morning Truth for Tender Hearts” events, simply join the Sensitive & Strong Sisters in Christ Facebook group.

 

Prefer to read? Here’s the transcript:

What we do on Friday mornings is called Lectio Divina, and it is immersing in a particular passage of scripture. We go through it three times. The four stages of the process are to read, reflect, respond, and rest. We do the first three phases together. I really encourage you, if at all possible, to move into that rest stage after we are done together.

If you have the downloadable, you’re welcome to follow along with me. We’ve been doing it in three pages, so that if you want, you can read the scripture along with me afresh each time I go through it, or you could just use the one sheet if you want to do repeated markings on the same page.

Then the other option is always to just ignore it, not worry about the handout, and just be fully present and maybe even close your eyes if that works for you, and just listen to God’s word, as it is read aloud, and pray-cess the invitation questions without putting forth any effort whatsoever. (You might feel like doing it differently on different days!)

 

For the first reading, our invitation, your invitation is to listen to the Holy Spirit minister God’s word to you. The question that you’ll be pray-cessing is what one word or phrase especially touches your heart?

“Psalm 23, a psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely, your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

Take just a few moments here. What one word or phrase especially touches your heart from Psalm 23? Feel free to drop it in the comments, if you’re comfortable sharing.

“I lack nothing.”

“He is my shepherd.”

“I shall not want.”

“The Lord is my shepherd.”

As so often happens, I expect one thing is going to jump out at me, because for something so familiar, I think I know what is coming. What really, really jumped out at me this time was “He refreshes my soul.”,

“for his name’s sake”

“I lack nothing.”

“I lack nothing.”

Yes.

For the second reading, your invitation is to enter the passage. What emotions do you feel? What personal struggle or longing in your life today is God speaking into?

“Psalm 23, a psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

Let’s take a few moments and pray-cess: What emotions do you feel? What personal struggle or longing in your life today is God speaking into?

“I feel relief, hope, reassured.”

“My shepherd is leading me in a season that is unfamiliar to me.”

“I am not alone.”

So beautiful.

“I will fear no evil.”

“He comforts me.”

So good.

“Assurance and protection.”

Yes.

I just noticed something I’d never noticed before. That is… one, two, three, four. The first six lines are written in third person. David is talking about God as “he”. “He makes me lie down. He leads me beside quiet waters. He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.” Then there’s a pivot where he stops talking to us, and he forgets that we’re here.

He starts talking directly to God. “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil. For you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” The rest of the Psalm is very much in this, speaking directly to God. That really hit me, the switch from this much more distant perspective, as if he’s reporting on God, to a much more intimate sense of God. As I was really processing the emotion, I felt, I realized that the difference between these is the difference between loneliness and connection. It made me aware of how separated I feel from people.

I really resonated with that word “relief”. That yes, I may feel disconnected from other people because of the 2020. So sometimes it’s physical distance, sometimes it’s emotional and relational distance, but I’m always have that connection. God is always with me, no matter what kind of temporal loneliness I may be experiencing. Then the rest of it is just so full of reassurances, that instead of that sense of [being] disconnected, I can actually feel connected and feel confidence. That was lovely and unexpected.

I’m not the last to discover this?  Again, I don’t know about you, but this sort of thing just feels like such a blessing. To be able to take this time and to see something that’s been there all along, right? The words didn’t change, yet here we get to have an a-ha moment together. My favorite thing.

“He guides because he is so close.”

As my friend Amy would say, “I need to really rub that one in.”

 

On the third reading, your invitation is to receive what Christ has for you today. So you’ll be pray-cessing, What do you sense God might be saying to you, and what is your personal invitation from the Lord?

“Psalm 23, a Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord.”

Take a few moments and pray-cess: What do you sense God might be saying to you, and what is your personal invitation from the Lord?

“The focus on his truth by claiming that abundance, and looking to him who is faithful to guide my steps.”

Yes.

“My cup overflows. Goodness abounds. He’s my steadfast strong tower. Continually watching over, taking care of me. Trust him today with everything. He is the good shepherd leading me, even when I cannot see.”

Yeah.

“He can be trusted in all things. I love that it’s a shepherd calling out the good shepherd.”

Yes, David, I had never thought of that!

“Restoration comes from the valleys, giving God the glory. He won’t leave us there. He prepares the table even as others around me struggle, so that my cup can overflow.”

Yes.

“Not a personal fail.”

Yeah.

“The word ‘connected’ impacted me, as I struggled with a dark valley of not feeling connected, to keep people in my life.”

Yeah. The despair of loneliness and not being connected is hard sometimes.

“I know God is near, but I can’t see him. The trust in his faithfulness is my connection.”

So true.

“Life sometimes gives us dark valleys and his guidance is there.”

So, so good.

 

Deep exhale.

 

Ladies, thank you so much for spending this time with me. I cannot tell you how much I look forward to it. It’s my favorite time of the week now, to hear what God is speaking on your heart and to just spend this time together. I hope that you can take a few minutes, maybe longer, to just really rest in these, in what God is still speaking to you, and just pray-cess even further. If you’re a journaler, this would be a great time to do some prayer journaling, or maybe just sit and really relax into the reminder of God’s goodness.

Let me just pray for all of us:

Lord, thank you. Thank you for these words that were penned so many years ago by a man after your own heart. Lord, we needed these reminders. You knew that we needed them, and we thank you. We thank you for your presence. We thank you that your word is alive and living in our hearts. That even for those of us who are so familiar with it… we keep using the King James… that you have fresh insights for today, fresh reminders, fresh assurances for what we are going through right now.

Lord, thank you so much for being always here, ever present, and for meeting us here in this time and space today. Lord, I thank you for all of our sensitive sisters who are gathered together right now, who will be participating in this, in the future through the video. Lord, we do thank you for creating us sensitive, and that in Christ, we are always strong. In your name. Amen.