Shanda Cooper

I heard an unknown voice say “I love you”

“I removed the burden from your shoulders;
your hands were set free from the basket. In your distress you called and I rescued you.”

I heard an unknown voice say “Hear me”

“Hear me, my people, and I will warn you—if you would only listen to me, Israel! I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.”

I heard an unknown voice say “Follow Me”

“If my people would only listen to me, if Israel would only follow my ways, how quickly I would subdue their enemies.”

I heard an unknown voice say “Be Satisfied”

“[Y]ou would be fed … I would satisfy you.”

I heard an unknown voice say “Remember”

“My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”

I heard an unknown voice say “Communicate with Me”

I heard Jesus say, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”  

I heard a known voice say “Drink”

Lord, I receive Your love. As I strain to hear You through the noise of my thoughts, direct me.  Help me to tune out distractions so that I may hear You and act in accordance with Your will.  Remembering that it is only through You that I am fully satisfied. It is only through You that my broken body is made whole. Lord, in faith, may I step forward placing an unknown future at Your feet. Help me to stand confidently on Your promises, remembering Your answered prayers.  May Your living water always refresh and flow through me as I share Your water with others in my daily life.

With abiding faithfulness, Amen.  

Scripture Readings from Today’s Lectionary: Psalm 81; Jeremiah 2:4-13; John 7:14-31, 37-39