Week 23 Day 5
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
Gal. 3:26-29 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Rom. 12:4-5 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
Reflect
You have a nationality, a family line, a gender, and other factors that combine to define you as the unique person you are. We are not to look to these or any similar distinctions or descriptors to understand who we really are. We are to look to Christ to find our identity. In Christ you do not lose these distinctions and they remain important but they are infinitely less important than the fact that we are sons and daughters of God. Your temptations, struggles, addictions, your successes, gifts and talents…none of this must be allowed to capture our attention and affection. We must choose to be captured more and more in our attention (what we think most about) and our affections (what we value most) by Christ.
Respond
As a spiritual discipline today take the different things that describe and define who you are and “give them to God”. For instance you might pray something like this… “God I give you my education in “…”, my talent for “…”, my experiences of “…”. You gave these gifts and opportunities to me for your glory and the good of others. I now consider than as nothing compared to the greatness of knowing you. God I give you my sin, my shame, my mistakes as well.”
Take your time, be thorough…give all that you might find pride or shame in and give it to God. To “give to God” means you acknowledge that he is the giver or all gifts and he forgives all confessed sin. You might want to open your hands physically or raise them up in surrender as you do this.
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?’