Weekly Practice 7/27/26
Make every effort to do or reflect upon this week’s practice with others.
Suscipe
Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding,
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.
You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace,
that is enough for me.
Scripture
James 1:19-27 NIV
My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Practice
“Do the Thing”
A wise puppet once said, “Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try.” This week, do the thing that you sense God inviting you to do. This will be different for each of us. Maybe you’re being led by the Holy Spirit to talk less and listen more. Maybe God is asking you to be generous to someone in a practical way. Or maybe there’s some other thing that you just know God is asking you to do. If you don’t have a sense of God’s invitation to you, the thing you should do is ask him to show you. Create some time and space to pray and listen. Trust the Holy Spirit to lead you.
