Roots grow deeper, but all is grey. Ground, skies, and leaves brittle and blowing in the winter wind. Roots grow deeper, but nothing is green. Only in our dreams and imagination are plants flourishing and lush. Roots grow deeper, but how can we know? There is no sign up here of life down there. Roots grow deeper, so faith presses on. From the winter of faith-sowing comes the summer of sight-reaping.
Week 2 Day 1 Devotional
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:
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.
Reflect:
Some see faith as being in opposition to knowledge or facts. This is incorrect. Faith is confidence. We can be confident of something that is factually true or of something that is factually false. Everyone has faith, all the time. Not everyone has faith in what is true all the time. Faith has also been compared to a “blind leap” or a “leap in the dark.” Leaping into dark, unknown places is folly, not faith. And if you are blind and must leap, you need someone who can see to tell you where you will land, or you should not leap. But what of trusting God when you cannot see what is ahead? Well then trust God, but that is far from a leap into the dark. That is a wise and rational decision to walk with someone who is never in the dark, who sees everything as it is and will be. Have you ever trusted someone to the point that if they tell you something is true, you don’t doubt them? They may be wrong at some point, but their track record is so good you have no reason to doubt them. So acting on the information they give you is never a “leap in the dark”; it is a wise choice based on past experience. This is why it is important to get to know God better and better, both through his word and through personal life experience. Unlike other people, we have learned to trust that he will never be wrong. To put our confidence in him to the point of “taking a leap” is never a blind choice or even a leap into the “unknown.” How can it be unknown if we know him? How can it be blind when he sees everything so clearly? To close the gap on our faith in him we must close the gap on our relationship with him. What will you do and think today in order to close the gap on relationship with God and confidence in God?
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.