Week 36 Day 2
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
Deut. 6:4-9 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Deut. 30:15-18 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
Reflect
Deuteronomy is a series of sermons that Moses delivered to his people at the end of his life. He repeated much of the law given years earlier at Mt. Sinai. In chapter six, you find the famous passage that Jesus repeated in part in the gospels, “Love God with all your heart, soul, and strength”. We don’t have to wait for the New Testament to see that God’s original intent for giving us his commands was that we would love him from our hearts. God’s commands are given to us so that we will live a thriving life and so the generations that follow us will learn to thrive. What humanity has often turned into purely negative restrictions on freedom is a gift from God to live in the full freedom of God’s design.
Respond
Engage your mind during this time. Reflect on the blessing of boundaries in the world God has made. Right now you thrive in the boundary of earth’s atmosphere and gravity. You are safe to sit and read and think because of the boundaries of laws upheld by government. What are the other boundaries God has set in your life? Think about how they bless you and make your life rich. Train your thinking to treasure God’s boundaries on your life. You do this by practicing good thinking. Loving God with our minds means choosing what we think about.
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:
Colossians 3:12-14
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.