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2019 Daily Devo 8.29.19

Week 34 Day 4

Download Week 34 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

Read

Psa. 1:1   Blessed is the man or woman who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

PS 92:12 The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;  planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green,  proclaiming, “The LORD is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”

Is 61:3. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.

Reflect

Trees are a persistent analogy in Scripture.  They can represent judgment (trees chopped down) or the thriving life as in these verses.  The thriving life is like a thriving tree. They both have deep roots and ample nourishment and they both produce fruit or other good things like shade or oxygen or homes for animals.  The thriving tree and the thriving life also have in common the fact that the good they produce is for the blessing of others not self. The tree doesn’t eat it’s own fruit or enjoy its own shade.  The “joy” of the tree is the good of others. 

Respond

Joy is available to everyone.  Joy is in relationship with God and is experienced by us as we give our lives away for others. Joy doesn’t always feel “fun.”  Joy isn’t “easy.” But joy is real, powerful and available. Joy is often counter-intuitive. What we think will work (serve self)… never does.  What doesn’t seem like the path (sacrifice for others)…actually is. Evaluate your strategy for joy. You have one but if it is not working perhaps you need to adjust it to the reality of how God has made you.  God wants you to be a tree planted for his glory. A glory revealed in the good of others. 

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:

Philippians 2:3-7
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.  Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:  Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

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