Lord, thank you for filling us with Your Holy Spirit so we can communicate with You all the days of our lives. As we walk this journey with Jesus staunchly by our sides, we open our hearts to hear His precious whispers to our spirit. Make clear to us the path that You desire for our lives. Put Your heart’s desires inside of us so we too may desire what You have deemed perfect for us. And we ask forgiveness for the times we’ve had a disbelieving heart in any situation. Lord, we cry out to You and ask that You help our disbelief (Mark 9: 24).
Lord, thank you for filling us with a renewed belief in You and all You are capable of doing. We have mountains ahead of us that only You can supernaturally move and we say to those mountains get out of our way. Our all-powerful God is here to obliterate you. With this, we willingly step into a season of Your divine favor and receive the wonderful things that You have planned for us. We take back what the enemy has stolen and declare what the world sees as a season of chaos in our lives as a season of joy and thanksgiving as we fully commit ourselves to You and Your kingdom.
Praise You in Jesus’ name,
Amen
Day 20
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
—Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)
God loves us. He has loved us from the moment we were simply an idea, an inclination on His part. He has molded us in His very image so that we might do good for the world, for ourselves, through His Son whom he sacrificed for us. That alone is a heady, explosive thought, so magnificent it’s difficult to wrap our head around. People often love their children with an unbreakable bond. The natural inclination is to protect them from harm and yet our loving God sacrificed His own Son in a most horrific manner to trample death and purchase our souls with His blood. How many of us would sacrifice our own child for a world full of people, some of whom won’t ever acknowledge Him on this earth? That’s why it is so powerfully beautiful for God to see our faith, those of us who accept and appreciate the supreme sacrifice Jesus made for us. And as if that wasn’t enough, He bids us to do the good things that He prepared for us in advance.
We are not simply a cast of billions to our loving Father. He knows us. He spoke these words to the prophet Jeremiah: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." (Jeremiah 1:15 NIV)
God has known every single person who has ever existed before they were formed in their mother’s womb. He knows you. He cares about you. He created a perfect plan and perfect destiny for you to live out long before you were ever born. The plan He has worked out for you is a part of the story woven in the larger tapestry of the story of His Son. We are all a part of Jesus’ story. Jesus is alive and well in heaven, but on earth we are his arms and his legs. We are his body (1 Corinthians 12:12-14). We were designed to do good for His kingdom. Some of Jesus’ last words before His accession were, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19 NIV) Let’s follow our Savior’s directive and go. Shine the light of Jesus. You already have the best gift Christ can give you: the guarantee of eternity. Let’s help others find it, too.
And if you feel anguished about having thwarted God’s good plan for your life, don’t distress. He promises that He will make even the roughest situations work for our good. His love surpasses, erases our mistakes. He has the ability to reroute our journey over and over again. If we are willing to obey, He is willing to help us achieve His dreams for our lives.
Lord, we are so honored and humbled that we were on Your mind since the beginning of creation. That You have not only known us but took the time to devise a perfect plan for our lives. Help us shine the light of Your Son on a weary world. Help us accomplish the good work laid out before us so we can run the race for You.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
Day 21
And provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.
—Isaiah 61:3 (NIV)
God cares for you. As any good father, He is determined to care for you and the deep grief of your soul. He cares about your circumstances, and if you cry out to Him, He will help you. He’s not only offering to provide for you in a get-by manner, He’s promising you a crown of beauty instead of ashes. All those bridges we burned? Those relationships we burned to cinder? Our future that looks like nothing more than a smoldering heap? God is ready to go in and crown you with beauty and take the ashes away. And on top of that, He is offering the oil of joy instead of mourning. A garment of praise instead of despair. He will call you an oak of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for His splendor. He is coming to your rescue at a feverish pace with unimaginable riches
