Week 31 Day 2
Pray:
Ask God to reorient you to Himself. Confess any known sin. Thank Him for His forgiveness. Be still and reflect on Jesus and His sacrifice for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind to God’s Word. Pray for others in your life that they, too, would know and love God today.
Read:
Mark 10:13-16 People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.
Reflect:
A child has both a simple and a simplistic view of the world. “Simple” means without complexity. “Simplistic” means unrealistic. Some children are forced to grow up too quickly. Because of the absence of mature adults or the presence of immature adults in their lives, they must jettison childhood simplicity much too soon. When this happens it may make them more streetwise and heart-hardened, but it does not make them healthy or more mature. There is a healthy order in human development. Children in ideal circumstances do not lie down at night and worry about whether they will eat tomorrow or whether mom and dad will stay together. They lie down to sleep in a world that is warm, safe, and sure. As they grow up, they learn mom and dad are not able to protect them from everything and that the world is not safe. But because of the foundations that were built by mature adults into their childhood, they can live in a world that is not safe without living in fear. A simplistic view is: “The world is safe, so I do not have to fear.” A mature view is: “The world is not safe, but I do not have to live in fear.” We are to approach the King and the Kingdom with the simplicity of a child. We do not throw away the perspective of an adult that understands the nature of the world, but rather we add to an adult perspective the perspective of childhood. We live as “grown children” by understanding the world is not safe, but knowing we do not have to fear. God, unlike a human parent, is all-knowing and all-powerful and cannot fail or die. We do not live as fools unaware of the realities of life and we do not live in fear because we aware of the reality of God our Father and his promises. Your Father will never leave you nor forsake you. Now as you approach your Father in heaven in prayer about the many things that concern you, do so as a child. Leave your fear with him and then you can go out into a dangerous world and live by faith and not in fear.
Pray:
(Personalize this prayer today; make it specific to the circumstances that face you.)
Ask God to lead you through His Spirit as you go through your day. Ask Him to bring to mind the truth of the gospel and its implications for what you will encounter today. Tell Him “Yes” to His will and ask Him for His power and protection to live this “yes.” Ask God to create and reveal opportunities to proclaim the good news today.