Desert Grace: Contemplative Healing Prayers

ThemeIt is Easter morning, and He has risen! Today, we celebrate not only the resurrection of Jesus but also our identity in Him. Through Christ’s victory over sin and death, we are transformed—no longer defined by our past but marked by His righteousness, grace, and new life. Our identity is now hidden securely with Christ, and our hearts are set on heavenly realities. Let's embrace our newness in Him, fully alive, and deeply anchored in His resurrection power.Scriptures2 Corinthians 5:21 -“God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”Ephesians 2:4-6 –"But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions —it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus."2 Corinthians 5:17 -“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”Colossians 3:1-4 -“Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory."

ThemeThe spaces in between the busy times allow us to find rest and restoration. It can be uncomfortable when we are not sure what is going to happen next, but you expect that something new is on the horizon! Enter rest with the Lord today as you wait in anticipation Christ's return!ScripturesMark 6:31-32 –“And he said to them, 'Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.' For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves."Psalm 46:10 –“Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth!”Isaiah 40:31 –“But those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary;they will walk and not faint. For the Lord will renew their strength.”Psalm 23:1-3 –“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.

ThemeI could imagine how crushing it was for Jesus’ disciples and family to watch him die. In that moment it looked like darkness won and they didn’t know that resurrection was on the other side of death. Jesus gave his disciples a promise and though they couldn’t understand or see how it could be possible, it didn’t make it any less true. Many of you are battling spiritual warfare and it looks like darkness is winning, but spiritual warfare does not void out the promises God has made to you. Those promises were made out of love, and love believes all things and hopes all things. Today’s meditation is about focusing on God’s promises when things look bleak.Scriptures2 Corinthians 4:8-10“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”1 Corinthians 13:7“Love believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”Romans 6:4“We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

ThemeJesus’ sacrifice invites us to lay down our own lives in service to God and others. As we identify with His ultimate sacrifice, we are called to live sacrificially.ScripturesLuke 22:42 –"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."Romans 12:1 –"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship."Luke 9:23 –"Then he said to them all: Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me."Philippians 3:8 –"What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ."

Theme Humility is not merely thinking less about ourselves, but opening to Jesus to be fully vulnerable at the risk of our reputation. Jesus showed ultimate humility by giving up His divine nature to become human like us. In today’s prayer practice, let’s examine how we can identify with Christ’s humility in our own lives.

ThemeChrist desires deep, sacrificial love and unity within His body. This day focuses on love as the foundation of community. Love is distinct from compassion as it is a desire to draw close to another in unity.ScripturesJohn 13:34-35 –"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."Ephesians 4:1-3 –"Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace."1 John 4:7-8 –"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God."John 15:4-5 –"Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine."

Jesus demonstrated boundless compassion throughout His life, especially toward the broken, the hurting, and the lost. This meditation and listening prayer exercise teaches us how we can walk in Jesus' footsteps by incorporating compassion into our lives.Scriptures:Matthew 9:36 –"When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without ashepherd."Luke 19:41-42 –"As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it..."Isaiah 53:3 –"He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain."Colossians 3:12 –"Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience."Lectio Divina Prayer:Jesus, You saw the crowds and had compassion on them instead of judgment. You wept for the brokenness of your people and carried our pain as your own. You know what it feels like to berejected, to suffer and ache for healing. And yet, you responded not with distance, but with love. Clothe me with Your heart of mercy, compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Teach me to pause and respond to others withkindness as I see them through your eyes.

Desert Grace is a contemplative space of prayer, worship, and whole-person healing. Join us as we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, and discover that even in our driest moments, we are held, we are loved, and we are being transformed into the image of Christ. 

You may have felt misunderstood, judged, and persecuted but God sees and knows the truth! This guided prayer exercise invites you to listen to the Holy Spirit's perspective and bring clarity to what you're believing about yourself and your circumstances. Through intentional breathwork and Spirit-led reflection, you'll release the lies of the enemy, align with your identity in Christ, and invite God to enact His righteousness and justice on your behalf. Find a quiet place, settle your heart, and let the Spirit of Truth speak over you.

**Visit the Amazon store to purchase a Desert Grace Reflection Journal or printed copies of the Desert Grace book series** ⁠https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTKWW1ZK⁠ Introduction: Judgment, rejection, and alienation can be some of the most painful experiences in life. Since 2020 we have seen some of the highest rates of alienation and isolation due to differing beliefs and value systems. Rejection can come in the form of being alienated based on a certain belief, discriminated against based on your race, religion, or value system, abandoned by a parent or loved one, and even rejection of ourselves. Any type of discrimination, whether it be economic, racial, age-related etc, goes against what God intended for creation because we are rejecting the unique and wonderful way, He has created each person. The reason we have a difficult time seeing other people through the lens of God’s image is that we don’t see ourselves the way He sees us. When we see and accept ourselves the way God sees us, it enables us to also see the people, and accept and love them through His lens of love. This is what God intended for us in Ephesians 4 and Romans 12. Ephesians 4 urges us to conduct ourselves with “humility, patience, and gentleness, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Verse 7 goes on to say that “grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” In this passage of scripture, Paul is urging believers in the church of Ephesus to have unity during differences, understanding that we were all made with a variety of giftings given to us by Jesus! Earlier, Paul had written about gifts to the church of Rome, but it seems like this understanding hadn’t yet gotten to the church of Ephesus. In Romans 12 he says for by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body, we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function.” This passage is taught often when it comes to church function, but not often applied to us in relationship with our spouses, friends, family members, and even strangers. We continue to experience rejection of the gifts that Jesus himself has graced us with, but God is calling us higher to accept ourselves and the people around us.   During this time, we are going to examine what makes you feel rejected, but I want to ask you first: do you accept yourself the way God created you? Can you say that you love who God created you to be? The goal of this session is to #1 Get real and honest about whether you believe you are fully accepted and loved by God. #2 Be vulnerable about the areas of yourself that you have rejected. #3 Identify any connection to times you have been abandoned and rejected by others. #4 Identify any stories or beliefs you created from times you were abandoned and rejected. We tend to create a story or belief system surrounding our emotions, trauma, or past events in our lives. It is an expectation that something negative will happen because of a traumatic or disappointing event. #5 Finally, declare the truth about who God says you are.

**Visit the Amazon store to purchase a Desert Grace Reflection Journal or printed copies of the Desert Grace book series** ⁠https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTKWW1ZK⁠ Introduction: I was cleaning our rental unit one morning like I did every time we had guests arriving. I was in a rush to get things done in time to get to the airport and go away for a family vacation. As I made the bed, I noticed that the sheets did not fit and realized the queen-sized sheets had been switched with the king-size sheets. I had to refold the fitted sheet- something that I hate to do and noticed that my heart was racing, and I was feeling physically annoyed. It felt so trivial, and I wondered why something so small could make me mad! But I realized that the root of my anger was at something I had lost, and a belief and story I created. The belief was that when systems are out of place, things will go wrong, and the story was that if things don’t go as planned, I won’t be able to do what I really want to do. The thing that I wanted to do was to get to the airport on time to leave for vacation! Anger often works with fear and a belief that something will or will not happen that we want to happen. It’s an emotion we feel when there is an injustice- something we believed should have gone a certain way but unjustly, didn’t happen the way it was supposed to. It can be traced back to disappointment over a hope we had for something to happen, an expectation that was not met, or grief over something that wasn’t right. Anger can apply to any kind of grief and loss you are feeling whether it is something big like the death of a loved one as small as sheets getting put on the wrong shelf. Ephesians 4:26-27 teaches us to “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil.” In The New Bible Commentary, G.J. Wenham et all have to say this about these verses: “(Ephesians 4:26-27) is not an encouragement to righteous anger, it is a warning 'If you become angry, beware!' You are at sin's door' Anger and the related sins of vs 29 and 31 are the epitomai of socially destructive and alienating sins, and so characteristic of the old creation.” What strikes me about the commentator’s take on anger is his mention of the social destruction and alienation it can cause. It can alienate us from the people we love and those who love us. In vs. 28-32, there is a warning about “corrupting talk that grieves the Holy Spirit” Corrupting talk can be how we act out our anger, and how it affects those around us. But what we often forget is the negative self-talk we direct at ourselves when we expect perfection and view our disappointments as personal failures.   The expectations we put on ourselves to be perfect are a gateway drug to anger. Perfection is the exact opposite of the grace and mercy Jesus offered us at the cross. We are so much harder on ourselves than God is. Jesus wants to bring us to an understanding of how much mercy He has for us, and how He isn’t focused on our failures. He keeps giving us chances to grow and change in His lovingkindness.   During this session, we are going to work on healing disappointment, and how to use self-control so that the emotion of anger isn’t directed to the wrong place.  The goal of this session is to #1 Be honest with God and yourself about what disappointments or losses you are experiencing. #2 Identify your loss and how it makes you feel. #3 Identify any connection to a similar loss you felt in your past. #4 Identify any stories or beliefs you created based on your loss. We tend to create a story or belief system surrounding our emotions, trauma, or past events in our lives #5 Declare the truth about how God sees you. #6 Connect God’s character and who He is for you, even when you feel angry.

**Visit the Amazon store to purchase a Desert Grace Reflection Journal or printed copies of the Desert Grace book series** ⁠https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTKWW1ZK⁠ Introduction: Going through any type of betrayal is painful and sends a shock to our system. It is an especially deep wound when we are betrayed by someone, we believed we could trust. It's hard to imagine an evil so great that someone would intentionally cause another person pain. Many of us inflict pain on each other out of ignorant self-protection but it is truly cruel when someone inflicts pain to purposely injure another. Even more evil is when someone inflicts pain on another for personal self-gratification. It seems like pain in the church can get easily overlooked, possibly because there is an expectation to forgive and move on.   One of the most shocking statements that Jesus said as he was being betrayed was "Forgive them for they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:34 NIV) While Jesus in His mercy understood that those who put Him on the cross didn't understand that they were crucifying God, it didn't make it any less painful. Luke 22 shares that Jesus was in so much anguish before He was crucified that as He was praying His sweat was like drops of blood. God recognized Jesus's anguish and sent an angel to comfort Him and strengthen Him to move forward. How beautiful that Jesus shared in understanding our pain and also understanding the need to forgive at the same time. While forgiveness is a command in scripture it is not based on an emotion. It's also important that we realize that forgiveness does not require that we trust or move back into the relationship. We can forgive and still set boundaries. As we work through the process of forgiving betrayal, we acknowledge the pain that was caused and use wisdom to evaluate whether those relationships are healthy enough to continue. During this session, we are going to work on healing betrayal, by acknowledging the wrongs that were done to us and offering forgiveness to our offenders. This is an opportunity to #1 Get real and honest about what is in your heart. #2 Be vulnerable with God about your pain #3 Identify any connection to a similar pain you felt in your past. #4 Identify any stories or beliefs you created based on your pain. We tend to create a story or belief system surrounding our emotions, trauma, or past events in our lives. It is an expectation that something will negative will happen because of a traumatic or disappointing event.

**Visit the Amazon store to purchase a Desert Grace Reflection Journal or printed copies of the Desert Grace book series** ⁠https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTKWW1ZK⁠ Introduction: A wise mentor once shared with me that “faith and fear are the same things. They are both based on an expectation that something might happen- one is based on something positive, and the other is based on something negative.” I am convicted that our belief about God’s love for us, and our position as His children determine our ability to have peace when we face circumstances that make us fearful and anxious. 1 John 4:16 says “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” I wonder how many of us struggle with fear and anxiety because we believe that God's love for us is conditional and that somehow His protection waxes and wanes based on our good behavior. When we stand before God, we don't have to cower before Him in unhealthy fear, but we fear and stand in awe of the One who is just, who is good, and who we can trust because He loves us perfectly and completely. Do we have a healthy fear of God that leads us to trust Him with everything? We can acknowledge what is making us afraid and anxious, then knowing that God is good, bring those things before Him because we have rights and authority as His children.   We have the right to ask God for help, and the authority in the name of Jesus to come against the things that stand in the way of what God wants for us. God desires to care for your well-being and give you a future and hope! You have a spiritual enemy that will attempt to move you into fear and anxiety by causing chaos so that you won’t believe God wants to give you a future and hope. We can bring everything into the authority of Jesus, including our thoughts, desires, hopes, and fears. We have rights by the authority we carry in Jesus! Yet some things block us from believing that we carry authority as His children because many of us have a core belief that when something goes wrong in our lives it is because we are being punished. To be perfected in the perfect love that casts out fear, we need to know beyond a shadow of any doubt that God perfectly loves us and sees us as His children!   In this session, we will #1 Examine your belief about the rights and authority you have as a follower of Christ #2 Be vulnerable about the areas of yourself where you struggle with fear. #3 Identify any trauma you have experienced related to fear and anxiety #4 Identify any stories or beliefs you created when you had traumatic experiences that caused fear and anxiety. We tend to create a story or belief system surrounding our emotions, trauma, or past events in our lives. It is an expectation that something will negative will happen because of a traumatic or disappointing event. #5 Finally, declare the truth about who God says you are in your position as His child.  

**Visit the Amazon store to purchase a Desert Grace Reflection Journal or printed copies of the Desert Grace book series** https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTKWW1ZK Introduction: A hindrance to us in our Christian walk is when we don't believe what God says and don't understand his nature. It is of utmost importance that we take the time to discover who God is for us, studying scripture and understanding His nature toward us to combat the lies of the enemy. Especially as it pertains to understanding how the enemy causes guilt, shame, and fear about how God will respond to us when we sin. The enemy will go to great lengths to keep us separate from God and keeping us separate from Him by causing guilt and shame is the oldest and most frequent trick in his book. In the Garden of Eden, the goal of the serpent was to divide Adam and Eve from their relationship with God by convincing them that His word was not true and that He was trying to keep them from something good. Genesis 3:4-5 "But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes would be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil’.” Doesn’t Satan typically entice us with a little bit of truth to get us to believe a lie? The little bit of truth in this lie was that yes, their eyes were opened to their capacity for both good and evil. But Eve had forgotten that God had already created her and Adam in His image. God wasn’t trying to withhold anything good from them but to keep them from a spiritual death. While they gained a level of knowledge, they did not have spiritual wisdom and understanding like God.   Before they ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, there was no distinction between their spiritual senses and their sense of physicality. They were one with God in spirit, and completely unaware of their physical nature or the emotions of guilt and shame. When they ate the fruit, for the first time they realized they were naked, and it brought them shame, so they hid. Genesis 3:7 “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.   I believe that when God inquired of Adam and Eve about where they were, He intended to trigger Adam and Eve's thinking about the fact that they were the ones hiding from Him. He did not separate or divide Himself from them. They chose to hide from Him out of guilt and shame due to the division and lies they believed about Him. Their spiritual senses were dulled, and their physical awareness became heightened, as they realized for the first time that they were naked and became ashamed, so they hid. It was not God who separated from them but a natural result of the shame they felt because they sinned.   I often wonder what would have happened in this story if they had known God’s heart toward them, approached Him, and confessed their sin instead of hiding from His presence. The God who desired for your relationship to be restored mercifully sent His Son to die and pay the penalty of sin for us. The God who allows us "with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16 (ESV) is the same God who continually offers mercy and grace for us when we sin.   As believers, we are IN CHRIST, and we have a new identity. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come." Verse 21 goes on to say "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” When we continue to take on the identity of guilt and shame, we deny the new identity we received when Jesus died for us. We live as the old creation instead of as a new creation. It is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4) yet the enemy uses a false perception of Him and our new identity to keep us divided and stuck in guilt and shame. God is offering forgiveness of sins to you- but are you willing to receive it and walk as someone who has been forgiven? This prayer is part of the process of walking out your forgiveness and releasing guilt and shame.    In this session, we will #1 Examine your belief about how you interact with God and #2 Be vulnerable about the areas of yourself where you struggle with guilt and shame. #3 Identify any instances or trauma that caused you to have guilt and shame #4 Identify any stories or beliefs you have based on your experiences. We tend to create a story or belief system surrounding our emotions, trauma, or past events in our lives. It is an expectation that something will negative will happen because of a traumatic or disappointing event. #5 Finally, declare the truth about who God says you are about Him free from guilt and shame!

**Visit the Amazon store to purchase a Desert Grace Reflection Journal or printed copies of the Desert Grace book series** ⁠https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTKWW1ZK⁠ Introduction: I was spending time with a friend who recently lost her husband. As we talked, she pointed to a crack in the street and said she felt like there was this chasm dividing her and her husband similar to the crack in the road. Her husband is on one side of the chasm in Heaven and she is on the other side here on earth. She felt like some of the people in her life wanted to focus on what he is experiencing in Heaven- freedom from pain and suffering in the fullness of glory with Jesus. But she is on the earth side of the chasm, experiencing the pain of loss, and at the same time having to take care of all the logistics of the death of a partner. As much as she would like to engage in the experience of joy he is experiencing, the reality is that they are not in the same place and not having the same experience.   We read in Psalm 16 that life in Christ is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore but the same author who wrote about joy in Psalm 16 also wrote about suffering and lament. Joy isn't found in the ignorance of suffering but first in unearthing the roots of heaviness and bringing them to the surface. Isaiah 61 speaks to those who are afflicted, brokenhearted, and bound. There is a promise that the “Lord will grant those who morn beauty for ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and praise instead of a faint spirit, so that they may be called oaks of righteousness.”   There are important steps to take before we can move into joy, and that is one of lament. Lament isn’t sitting alone in grief but acknowledging grief within the scope of God’s presence and care. When we read the words “joy comes in the morning” in Psalm 30, it doesn’t mean that we go to bed grieving one night and wake up happy the next morning. The morning in Psalm 30 represents the time it takes to move out of darkness and heaviness, into the daylight. David speaks about his soul being in Sheol and in a pit, which is a place of darkness and death, and then contrasts it with God's mercy and help, which brings him into rejoicing. He beautifully wants to meet you right now in your despair by entering into your pain alongside you!   During this session, we are going to work on processing heaviness by uncovering the hidden things that might be contributing to it and making Jesus a part of that process. This is an opportunity to #1 Be honest about what is in your heart. #2 Be vulnerable with God about it #3 Identify any connection to a similar loss you felt in your past. #4 Identify any stories or beliefs you created based on your loss. We tend to create a story or belief system surrounding our emotions, trauma, or past events in our lives. It is an expectation that something will negative will happen because of a traumatic or disappointing event.