Day Three
Pray for opportunities to share Christ through my words and actions.
"But of that day and hour no one has knowledge, not even the angels in heaven, or the Son, but the Father only. And as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of man. Because as in those days before the overflowing of the waters, they were feasting and taking wives and getting married, till the day when Noah went into the ark, And they had no care till the waters came and took them all away; so will be the coming of the Son of man. Then two men will be in the field; one is taken, and one let go." Matthew 24:36-40 BBE
"And Jesus came to them and said, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go then, and make disciples of all the nations, giving them baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: Teaching them to keep all the rules which I have given you: and see, I am ever with you, even to the end of the world." Matthew 28:18-20 BBE
Day Four
Pray for strength to stand firm in the face of temptation.
"No temptation has you in its power but such as is common to human nature; and God is faithful and will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength. But, when the temptation comes, He will also provide the way of escape; so that you may be able to bear it." 1 Corinthians 10:13 Weymouth
Matthew 6:13
"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For your is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen" AKJV
"And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." ASV
"Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amein." HNV
"and lead us not into temptation, but save us from evil." Darby
"Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen." WEB
"And let us not be put to the test, but keep us safe from the Evil One." BBE
Have you noticed something strange in the translations quoted above from Mathew 6:13? Half of them omit the phrase: "For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen."
This petition is expressed:
(1.) Negatively: Lead us not into temptation. Having prayed that the guilt of sin may be removed, we pray, as it is fit, that we may never return again to folly, that we may not be tempted to it. It is not as if God tempted any to sin; but, "Lord, do not let Satan loose upon us; chain up that roaring lion, for he is subtle and spiteful; Lord, do not leave us to ourselves (Ps. xix. 13), for we are very weak; Lord, do not lay stumbling-blocks and snares before us, nor put us into circumstances that may be an occasion of falling." Temptations are to be prayed against, both because of the discomfort and trouble of them, and because of the danger we are in of being overcome by them, and the guilt and grief that then follow.
(2.) Positively: But deliver us from evil; apo tou ponerou--from the evil one, the devil, the tempter; "keep us, that either we may not be assaulted by him, or we may not be overcome by those assaults:" Or from the evil thing, sin, the worst of evils; an evil, an only evil; that evil thing which God hates, and which Satan tempts men to and destroys them by. "Lord, deliver us from the evil of the world, the corruption that is in the world through lust; from the evil of every condition in the world; from the evil of death; from the sting of death, which is sin: deliver us from ourselves, from our own evil hearts: deliver us from evil men, that they may not be a snare to us, nor we a prey to them."
III. The conclusion: For thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, for ever. Amen. Some refer this to David's doxology, 1 Chron. xxix. 11. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness. It is,
1. A form of plea to enforce the foregoing petitions. It is our duty to plead with God in prayer, to fill our mouth with arguments (Job xxiii. 4) not to move God, but to affect ourselves; to encourage the faith, to excite our fervency, and to evidence both. Now the best pleas in prayer are those that are taken from God himself, and from that which he has made known of himself. We must wrestle with God in his own strength, both as to the nature of our pleas and the urging of them. The plea here has special reference to the first three petitions; "Father in heaven, thy kingdom come, for thine is the kingdom; thy will be done, for thine is the power; hallowed be thy name, for thine is the glory."
And as to our own particular errands, these are encouraging: "Thine is the kingdom; thou hast the government of the world, and the protection of the saints, thy willing subjects in it;" God gives and saves like a king. "Thine is the power, to maintain and support that kingdom, and to make good all thine engagements to thy people." Thine is the glory, as the end of all that which is given to, and done for, the saints, in answer to their prayers; for their praise waiteth for him. This is matter of comfort and holy confidence in prayer.
2. It is a form of praise and thanksgiving. The best pleading with God is praising of him; it is the way to obtain further mercy, as it qualifies us to receive it. In all our addresses to God, it is fit that praise should have a considerable share, for praise becometh the saints; they are to be our God for a name and for a praise. It is just and equal; we praise God, and give him glory, not because he needs it--he is praised by a world of angels, but because he deserves it; and it is our duty to give him glory, in compliance with his design in revealing himself to us. Praise is the work and happiness of heaven; and all that would go to heaven hereafter, must begin their heaven now.
Observe, how full this doxology is, The kingdom, and the power, and the glory, it is all thine. Note, It becomes us to be copious in praising God. A true saint never thinks he can speak honorably enough of God: here there should be a gracious fluency, and this for ever. Ascribing glory to God for ever, intimates an acknowledgment, that it is eternally due, and an earnest desire to be eternally doing it, with angels and saints above, Ps. lxxi. 14.
Lastly, To all this we are taught to affix our Amen, so be it. God's Amen is a grant; his fiat is, it shall be so; our Amen is only a summary desire; our fiat is, let it be so: it is in the token of our desire and assurance to be heard, that we say Amen. Amen refers to every petition going before, and thus, in compassion to our infirmities, we are taught to knit up the whole in one word, and so to gather up, in the general, what we have lost and let slip in the particulars. It is good to conclude religious duties with some warmth and vigor, that we may go from them with a sweet savor upon our spirits. It was of old the practice of good people to say, Amen, audibly at the end of every prayer, and it is a commendable practice, provided it be done with understanding, as the apostle directs (1 Cor. xiv. 16), and uprightly, with life and liveliness, and inward expressions, answerable to that outward expression of desire and confidence. -excerpt from "The SWORD Project"
Peace be with you.
Day Five
Pray for greater understanding of what it means to be loved by God and to love others.
"This I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment; so that you may approve the things that are excellent; that you may be sincere and without offense to the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God." Phil. 1:9-11 WEB
And one of my all time favorite scriptures.....
"Who will come between us and the love of Christ? Will trouble, or pain, or cruel acts, or the need of food or of clothing, or danger, or the sword? As it is said in the holy Writings, Because of you we are put to death every day; we are like sheep ready for destruction. But we are able to overcome all these things and more through his love. For I am certain that not death, or life, or angels, or rulers, or things present, or things to come, or powers, Or things on high, or things under the earth, or anything which is made, will be able to come between us and the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:35-39 BBE
Remember that:
"Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Before you were formed in the body of your mother I had knowledge of you, and before your birth I made you holy; I have given you the work of being a prophet to the nations." Jer. 1:5
"And now, says the Lord, who made me his servant when I was still in my mother's body, so that I might make Jacob come back to him, and so that Israel might come together to him: and I was honored in the eyes of the Lord, and my God became my strength." Isa. 49:5
And most importantly:
"There is no fear in love: true love has no room for fear, because where fear is, there is pain; and he who is not free from fear is not complete in love. We have the power of loving, because he first had love for us." 1 John 4:18,19
Day Six
Pray for Integrity and Honesty.
"Lying lips are an abomination to Jehovah; but they that deal truly are his delight." Proverbs 12:22 Darby
"I will sing of loving kindness and justice.
To you, LORD(f), I will sing praises.
I will be careful to live a blameless life.
When will you come to me?
I will walk within my house with a blameless heart.
I will set no vile thing before my eyes.
I hate the deeds of faithless men.
They will not cling to me.
A perverse heart will be far from me.
I will have nothing to do with evil.
I will silence whoever secretly slanders his neighbor.
I won’t tolerate one who is haughty and conceited." Psalms 101:1-5 HNV
When God in his providence exercises us with a mixture of mercy and judgment it is our duty to sing, and sing unto him, both of the one and of the other; we must be suitably affected with both, and make suitable acknowledgments to God for both.
In this Psalm, David tells of his further resolution not to keep bad servants, nor to employ those about him that were vicious. He will not countenance them, nor show them any favor, lest thereby he should harden them in their wickedness, and encourage others to do like them.
He will not converse with them himself, nor admit them into the company of his other servants, lest they should spread the infection of sin in his family. He will not confide in them, nor put them in power under him; for those who hated to be reformed would certainly hinder every thing that is good.
When he comes to mention particulars he does not mention drunkards, adulterers, murderers or blasphemers; such gross sinners as these he was in no danger of admitting into his house, nor did he need to covenant particularly against having fellowship with them; but he mentions those whose sins were less scandalous, but no less dangerous, and in reference to whom he needed to stand upon his guard with caution and to behave himself wisely.
He will have nothing to do:
1. With spiteful malicious people, who are ill-natured, and will bear a grudge a great while, and care not what mischief they do to those they have a pique against (v. 4): "A froward heart (one that delights to be cross and perverse) shall depart from me, as not fit for society, the bond of which is love. I will not know," that is, "I will have no acquaintance or conversation, if I can help it, with such a wicked person; for a little of the leaven of malice and wickedness will leaven the whole lump."
2. With slanderers, and those who take a pleasure in wounding their neighbor's reputation secretly (v. 5): "Whoso privily slanders his neighbor, either raises or spreads false stories, to the prejudice of his good name, him will I cut off from my family and court." Many endeavor to raise themselves into the favor of princes by unjust representations of persons and things, which they think will please their prince. If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked, Prov. xxix. 12. But David will not only not hearken to them, but will prevent the preferment of those that hope thus to curry favor with him: he will punish not only him that falsely accuses another in open court, but him that privily slanders another.
3. With haughty, conceited, ambitious people; none do more mischief in a family, in a court, in a church, for only by pride comes contention: "Therefore him that has a high look and a proud heart will I not suffer; I will have no patience with those that are still grasping at all preferments, for it is certain that they do not aim at doing good, but only at aggrandizing themselves and their families." God resists the proud, and so will David. excerpt from "The Sword Project"
How many ways can we have integrity and honesty in our dealings with ourselves, our God, our neighbor, and our fellow man?