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2019 Daily Devotional 1.31.19

By January 31, 2019Daily Devotional

Week 4 Day 4

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I. Prayer to enter the Lord’s presence:

Be still for a moment. “Lord, I give the day that is now past to you.  It is yours.  I give the day that is to come to you; help me to see where you are working and to join you there.  Speak to me during these moments.  I commit them and myself to you.”

 II. Prayer of Confession:

“Lord, you are faithful to forgive me and cleanse me of my sin when I confess it to you.  I confess my sin(s) of ______________.  Thank you for forgiveness.” (1 John 1:9)

III. Prayer of Thanksgiving:

Choose to be thankful, speak out loud of what God has done.
“Thank you, Father, for _________________.  Fill my heart and my mouth with gratitude throughout this day.”

IV. Scripture Reflection

Read:

Day 4: “A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel.”  Numbers 24:17

Day 3: “I am the LORD who brought you out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.”  Leviticus 11:45

Day 2:“This is what I told you while I was with you: Everything must be fulfilled what is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”  Luke 24:44

Day 1: Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.  1 Peter 4:12

Reflect:

Day 4: These words were spoken by Balaam, a wicked prophet who was hired to curse God’s people.  These words from the mouth of an enemy of God and his people spoke of the future Messiah, Jesus.  Three times Balaam attempted to curse God’s people, three times blessing came out instead.  God was not pleased with his wickedness, he would later die at the hands of Joshua’s army. Never the less God demonstrated through him that no one can ultimately stand against God’s purposes for his people.

Day 3: For us to be holy is to be set apart by God for God.  God’s holiness means that he is pure, perfect, right in all he is and does.  He is the fully “set apart one.”  That means he is not part of the universe he stands above and beyond it.  This totally holy God who is “transcendent” (beyond everything) has become “God with us” in Jesus.  The word that describes this is “immanent”. It is a word that means “right here” or “present.”  Ponder the “transcendence” and the “immanence” of God.  It will take some mental effort…but it will be worth the effort.

Day 2: Some see the Old Testament as irrelevant and disconnected from the New Testament.  This is of course a mistake.  The Scriptures have a seamless continuity that runs through them.  They all reveal Jesus as the final and promised King, Priest, and Prophet.  The Hebrew Scriptures were divided into three “scrolls” they called this unified collection the “Law, Prophets and Writings.”  Jesus here used the term “Psalms” to signify the “writings.”  Jesus boldly and correctly said that the entire Old Testament was ultimately about him.

*See: “How to Read the Bible through the Jesus Lens” by Michael Williams for a good resource on this.

Day 1: Trials, troubles, suffering are often a cause for people to lose confidence (faith) in God.  There is tendency to believe that if God is good, powerful, and present then he will keep trouble from our lives.  There is no biblical evidence for this belief in fact there is much evidence to the contrary.  Sometimes people will take individual verses out of the larger context and come to unwarranted conclusions.  This is unfortunate because it sets them up for disappointment and can drive them away from God.  It is at the point of our deepest troubles that we most need to move toward God not away. It is very important that our understanding of Scriptures is in line with God’s intent for them.

Respond:

Day 4: Who is against you?  Who speaks ill of you?  Who has come to wrong conclusions about you?  If you are maligned because you have been wrong then go confess your wrong.  If you are maligned and mistreated through no fault of your own then trust God to vindicate you.  Stand firm in your position as a son or daughter of the King of human history. Pray for those who persecute you, bless those who curse you.  You can do this because you know who you belong to and you know His purposes will prevail.

Day 3: Christ, the holy sacrifice, has given his life so that you might be declared right with God.  Now it is your privilege to live your life fully for him.  What is in your life right now that is not “holy”?  What needs to be “cut away” because it is not helping you know and love God and love others?  See all that is not holy as a barrier to the greatest good in your life.  Repent of it, learn to hate what is not holy.

Day 2: The Bible is not a random collection of stories, it is a single narrative with many sub-narratives.  The larger narrative of God’s purposes in history includes your life.  Reflect on that reality now.  Do this not to make much of your life…but to make much of God in and through your life. The gospel is the theme of your life as well as the theme of Scripture.  How does this fact affect your perspective on the day or the night before you now?

Day 1: Can you give God thanks in the midst of troubles in your life?  Will you do that right now?  If you feel you cannot you can at least cry out for him to sustain you and help you get to the place where you can thank him and trust him in everything.

V. Prayer for others:

Pray specifically for the concerns of your life and the lives of others. 

VI. Prayer of commitment:

Lord God, I commit to love you with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my strength and with all my mind and to love my neighbor as myself.  Empower me today to love you and others with everything that I am.”  (Luke 10:27)

This Month’s Scripture Memory:

Psalm 1:1   Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.  2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.  3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.  4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.  5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.  6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

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