Week 23 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
John 1:12-13 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God — children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
Reflect
Who you are is a combination of choices made by others in your relational network that have impacted you, choices made by you that have shaped your character and habits and the physical factors that make you “you.” However if you are a follower of Christ none of this is what truly defines you. Your identity is rooted in the reality that you have been born again. You have become a child of God in a special way through your spiritual birth. This new “birthright” trumps all other factors in your life in terms of your true identity. To think consistently and deeply about this should impact how you think of yourself in regards to others. You should not think too highly of yourself; you are special because of God not because you are great in your own right. You should not think too low of yourself; God has called you son or daughter. This is no small thing. To think too high or too low of self is to think too much of self. Think much of Christ instead…he has given you new birth. Then you are able to think much of others.
Respond
Contemplate the past day or two. Have you thought of yourself as better than others? Have you thought of others as being better than you? Have you thought much of yourself and do you know realize that you have thought less of God and others? Today, starting right now, actively put aside both pride and shame…set the Lord before your mind and set the good of others there as well.
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?’