Week 10 Day 2
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:
Luke 4:16-20 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:”The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Reflect:
Isaiah lived centuries before the fall of the Southern Kingdom to Babylon and yet he “saw” it in the distant future. On the other side of that fall and exile he saw a return to the land of promise and then even further out still he saw the King who would free all who were exiles into sin. Jesus stood in the middle of the Jewish place of worship on their key day of worship and read from Israel’s greatest prophet, Isaiah, and said “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” He was not just saying a single passage was fulfilled but that the entire Old Testament is fulfilled in his life.
Respond:
Think back to where we have been so far this year. Creation, fall, the rise of the line of Abraham, into Egypt, slavery, rescue from Egypt, wilderness wanderings, into Canaan, the Judges, the Kings, the Prophets, exile, return…then centuries of silence. Finally in the first century a man is born in the City of David who is the fulfillment of all human history before him and the point of all of human history to follow him. Your life today is a part of that history. Will you today make your life about Jesus? He is the point of human history so he is the point of this day. What might that mean for you today?
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:
Matthew 6:9-13
“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.