Week 22 Day 1
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
Romans 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
Psalm 90:12 “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom”
Reflect
This week you will have the opportunity to contemplate your own mortality. Please don’t do this by harboring fear or guilt. Those would both be self-defeating actions. Do this by actual, practical reflection on your life thus far and the opportunities you have in front of you today and for as many days God grants you. There is no penalty in death for the Christian. If you have trusted Christ death is a still a result of living in a fallen world, but death has lost its sting. You need not fear death but you can learn wisdom from accurate contemplation of the reality of your own death.
Respond
As you dress today, eat food, drink, speak with friends and family, see the sky, lay down to sleep…consider the fact that you do not have unlimited opportunities in this life to do these things. How can you let this reality propel you towards gratitude rather than fear? How can you let this make you “buy up” every opportunity 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 6:25-31
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’