Week 37 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:
2 Thess. 1:8-9 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power.
Reflect:
How much of what can be known do you think we know? One percent? Of course not, we are not anywhere near that much knowledge. We cannot know how much we know, because we cannot know what we don’t know. The truth about the human condition is that we are specks on a speck in space, living for a brief moment in an incredibly small part of the universe. This truth, the truth of our extreme limitations, can lead one to become cynical about all knowledge. It should not make us cynics, but it should certainly make us humble, much more humble than we normally are. When it comes to the things that we most need to know, we cannot possibly discover them on our own. These things must be revealed to us by God. The fact of our sin-separation from God is evident in human history and individual human behavior, including yours and mine. But the truth of what this means temporally and eternally had to be revealed. The hopelessness of trying to change ourselves and make ourselves acceptable to God is likewise self-evident, if we have honest eyes to see it. But what is not self-evident is the need for a Savior, a sinless sacrifice who can bring us peace with God. The greatest “knowledge-needs” of humanity are inaccessible to unaided human reason. These things must be revealed to us and, thanks be to God, they have been. This passage, though a hard one, is a revealed truth of God. It will not do for us to sit in judgment on it; we must let it sit in judgment on us. Will we be fully challenged to give our lives to making Christ known? Will we live in time in the light of eternity? What God has revealed to us because of his great mercy, let us never doubt. Let us believe, value, and do his revealed will for us.
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.