Week 31 Day 5
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:
Older people often look in the mirror and wonder how they became old. They look at the years gone by and wonder how they arrived where they are. Fifty, seventy, one hundred… these are many years and these are also very few years. Perhaps you are still “young” and don’t see life this way. However, even in our twenties and thirties the experience of time can be startling and strange. The hours and days can sometimes drag on while the months and years can fly by. Children tend to live in the present. They don’t spend much time on the past or the future. They are at a stage of life where virtually all time is now. Sure they look forward to things that are yet to come and this becomes truer as they age. But the very young live mostly in the right now. Perhaps this is a factor in Kingdom living that correlates to being childlike. We are to be like children in that we are to relearn how to engage the “now” without being overly diverted by the past and the future. Of course, it is childish to not remember the past or to fail to prepare for the future. But is it “childlike” to learn to live more fully in the “now”? The past is beyond our control apart from making amends for our mistakes. The future is outside the realm of our control as well, apart from making necessary preparations for possibilities. The only time we have is now. We can worry about the past, yet it is unchangeable. We can worry about the future, yet it is not ours to control. We can trust in the present by giving God the past and the future. We can learn to walk more closely with God by engaging what he has for us today. Jesus asked, “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” (Matthew 6:27). He said that he feeds the birds and clothes the flowers, so stop worrying because you are much more valuable to him than they are. To live in a conversational relationship with God, you must live in the right now of where God has you. Is it challenging? Is it confusing? Is it boring? Okay, but it is where God has you and it is where God wants to meet you. Come to him as a child, today.
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.