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2019 Daily Devo 4.10.19

Week 14 Day 3

Download Week 14 Devotional

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

Day 3

Read:

2Cor. 12:7   To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.  8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.  9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Reflect:

Today we look at “soul building through suffering.”  Paul experienced an undisclosed form of physical suffering.  He asked God repeatedly to remove the suffering from his body and mind.  I include “mind” because all chronic physical suffering leads to chronic “mental and emotional” suffering as well.  God answered his request with…”No, that is not my plan for you.” This had to be hard for a man who had seen God heal people through his ministry and now God did not intend to heal him.  But hard though it was, Paul embraced the “soul building of suffering.” God was going to reveal himself to and through Paul in this suffering.

Respond:

Rarely do we grow in the good times like we do in the hard times.  Are you in a hard time? Are you maximizing the growth opportunity?  Are you mostly praying for God to remove the trouble? That is legitimate but it is also good to ask God to build depth into you through the suffering as well.  Paul would have chosen other than the suffering but in the end he wanted to be more like Christ. What if God does not intend to remove your affliction? Will you trust him anyway?  Will you allow him to build depth into your soul?

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:

Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

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