CONTENTS
1. Come to Jesus Daily devotional
(And prayer guide for this, our week of prayer and fasting)
- Monday – Be lifted by listening and eating
- Tuesday – Faith climbs
- Wednesday – Be lifted by obedient faith
- Thursday – Be lifted through faithfulness
- Friday – Be lifted through drinking
For more information visit: www.communitychurchputney.com
1. COME TO JESUS DAILY DEVOTIONAL
One of our goals as a church is to spend at least 20 minutes every day in prayer and worship out of the bible. I hope you find this devotional helpful toward that end.
This week, this blog also serves as a guide for our week of prayer and fasting.
This series, LIFT…
…is different to our usual practice for working through a book of the bible. I felt thought that, for this season, it would be refreshing to seek God for what He wants to say and to simply share that.
I trust that such an approach will help remind all of us to be prophetic - to listen to what God wants to say as a lifestyle.
These daily studies, likewise, are from my, and other church member’s devotions. I will also include devotionals derived from the various contributions that you share, as a church, in various settings.
Matt Beaney June 2019
MONDAY – BE LIFTED BY LISTENING AND EATING
Ezekiel 2:8 But you, son of man, listen to what I say to you. Do not rebel like that rebellious people; open your mouth and eat what I give you.
God tells Ezekiel to do 2 things with the word that He speaks: Listen and eat. I was struck by these words. What does it mean to eat the words that God gives to us and am I doing it? (See also Jeremiah 15:16)
To eat God’s words are to digest and do what they say. As James writes, ‘Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.’ James 1:22)
Too often we hear without the corresponding faith action that God desires of us. We are in a culture that’s in rebellion to God, but the church is often guilty of this also! Sometimes this is outright opposition and oppression of those who hold to biblical teaching; but, too often, the church is entertained and soothed but not moved to purity, devotion and love!
LET’S PRAY IN RESPONSE
How will you pray in response to today’s meditation? Pray for your church, that we would be people who listen and eat rather than rebel against God’s word.
Pray for the elders who teach the church.
Pray for yourself. How do you eat God’s word each day? What is He speaking to you about at the moment? Pray for a greater devotion to listening and to obedience.
Perhaps you would like to pray something like this,
“May I eat what you give me. May I be softhearted towards your word. Soften my heart. Give me understanding that I may know your words, and a worshipful disposition that obeys what you say about all other voices”.
WEEK OF PRAYER AND FASTING
Running up to Encounter (this Saturday 13th) we are praying and fasting together as a church (see the end of this study for a guide on how to fast).
Write down a list of things that you would like to pray for in particular through this week. (Also, it might be good to keep a daily journal of things that God speaks to you about as you pray).
TUESDAY – FAITH CLIMBS
Luke 5:18-19 Some men came carrying a paralysed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.
Recently I was struck by a spiritual principle in this passage – the principle that action always accompanies true faith. These men had heard that Jesus was a healer and their faith is demonstrated by their radical efforts to get their needy friend to Jesus.
1. True faith saves – True faith believes and repents - it trusts in Jesus’ for salvation and follows Him as Lord.
2. True faith acts – Having become a Christian by faith alone, we will only do acts of faith if we take Jesus as His word. James wrote, ‘What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?…But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.’ (James 2:14-18)
How do we know what we believe? Well, according to James we ‘show our faith by our deeds’!
LET’S PRAY IN RESPONSE
Our vision as a church is ‘Bringing people to Jesus’; Like today’s story, we desire to bring our non-believing friends to Jesus.
The faith action that we can take in this regard takes two forms, for which we will pray now:
Firstly, bring your friends to Jesus in prayer - pray for your list of non-believing friends.
Secondly, Ask God for wisdom as to what you need to do to ‘invest’ in those friendships and then take faith action - climb the roof!
WEDNESDAY – BE LIFTED BY OBEDIENT FAITH
INSPIRED BY A PROPHECY FROM JEM HOWE
The story of how the walls of Jericho fell is a great illustration of the strange ways that God often uses to bring about His victories. The walls of Jericho stand for the difficult things that God calls his church to do together. And this story teaches us many principles.
We are called to do hard things
‘Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.’ (Josh. 6:1)
The church is called to do difficult things together. Whether that’s building genuine community or reaching people with the gospel, nothing of great value is easy!
Believe the promises of God
‘Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.’ (Josh. 6:2)
Each Christian, and the church that they are a part of, need to believe God’s promises. These promises are in scripture, but they are also given through prophetic words. These things need to be believed and acted upon.
Do things God’s way
‘March around the city…’ (Josh 6:3-5)
Do things God’s way. God’s directions are not a strategic way to take a city! God’s directions in scripture on how to be saved, build church, how to live…need ‘obedient faith’.
LET’S PRAY IN RESPONSE
Seek God as to how He wants you to exert ‘obedient faith’?
Pray for our upcoming gift days (14th, 21st July) Seek God for how much you will give, and pray for the church to give in faith.
THURSDAY – BE LIFTED THROUGH FAITHFULNESS
BY BEN NOBLE
1 Chronicles 5: 24-25 These were the heads of their families: Epher, Ishi, Eliel, Azriel, Jeremiah, Hodaviah and Jahdiel. They were brave warriors, famous men, and heads of their families. But they were unfaithful to the God of their ancestors and prostituted themselves to the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them.
These two short verses come in the middle of various long lists of genealogies of the tribes of Israel and as I was reading - it really jumped out at me. In the first verse - we hear about these ancient men who seemed to be really admirable. They were well respected and were "heads of their families". The writer wants us to know that they were good husbands and fathers. As I read this verse - my heart lept - I want to be like this - I want to be well thought of and a good husband and father.
But then the next verse hits us: "They were unfaithful to the God of their ancestors”. I felt God speak to me - What good would it do to be a good leader of my family yet fail to worship God? And furthermore, I won't be able to stand, be a good father and husband without putting God first.
LET’S PRAY IN RESPONSE
Whatever your goals for life are - to be respected, to do your work well, to conquer sin, to be a good spouse, parent, son, daughter, friend - to do all these things you need to put God first.
Let’s pray about our personal faithfulness to Jesus. Let’s pray, committing ourselves to being faithful to Him above all other things.
Pray for your Community Group and leaders. That you, together, would inspire faithfulness (See Hebrews 10:24-25)
FRIDAY – BE LIFTED THROUGH DRINKING
Psalm 42:1-2 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
If you are a Christian, you are thirsty for God; you desire His presence in your life; you desire to be with Him and to put Him first. So why do we fail to give ourselves to Him as He deserves, the Bible teaches, and, as the Spirit in us compels?
What gets in our way of drinking?
Bad habits. Our daily lives are formed around habits. If we fail to purposefully interrupt old and form new habits of devotional time, our lives will not change.
Immature understanding. Its the spiritually mature that understand their weakness - they know their need for God’s strengthening through prayer. They also know that their prayers are powerful and effective to change things…The immature feel strong and that God will do His ‘stuff’ without the need for their praying.
Medicating. Drinking from the wrong sources, such as entertainment, alcohol, relationships,… to replace time with God.
Legalism. We often fail to live the devotional life because we are not drinking from the grace of God in Christ. This can rob those who feel guilty of confidence in God’s reception. But, more often, the gospel hasn’t captivated our hearts so that prayer and worship are the natural outworking of how greatly we are loved.
LET’S PRAY IN RESPONSE
Pray for London. That the multitudes in this city would hear and respond to the invitation to come and drink from Jesus.
Let’s pray for ourselves. May you and I have a greater thirst for God. A thirst that leads to loving prayer and worship.
Pray for the nation through the new leadership and Brexit process.
2. COMMUNITY GROUP/FAMILY STUDY
BE LIFTED BY LISTENING AND EATING
Introduction
This week we are praying and fasting together as a church. This will culminate in our Encounter evening, this Saturday at 7:30pm.
So, this evening, let’s give a good amount of time to prayer.
Discuss, briefly, together
Read Ezekiel 2:8.
- What three two things is Ezekiel told to do with God’s word?
- How are you currently taking in God’s word?
- What has God been speaking to you about recently, and how is this helping you? (how are you ‘eating’ it?)
Pray together
Our vision is “Bringing people to Jesus”.
Let’s pray together for the following which come out of our vision:
- Bringing myself to Jesus - Pray for one-another, and yourself, for a fresh faithfulness in your daily personal devotions.
- Bringing one-another to Jesus - Pray for your Community Group. For growth in numbers, multiplication, love for one another, and anything else that you would like to pray about in regard to your group.
- Bringing non-believers to Jesus – Get into pairs and pray through your list of non-believing friends.
- Pray about anything else that God has been speaking to you about.
- Pray for our nation at this time of leadership change and the Brexit process.
- Please be praying and preparing for our gift days coming up
A NOTE ON FASTING
Why fast? Fasting is going without something in order to make time and help us to focus on spending time with God.
Some suggestions on how to fast:
- The traditional fast: You could go the whole or some of the week with only water.
- Fasting certain foods: One could not eat certain foods (such as meat) so as to make more time for God.
- Entertainment: refraining from watching or listening to things.
- Fasting social media: using the time you might usually use to engage in social media in order to engage in prayer.
- Be wise: if healthy, I encourage you to stretch yourself- you can do more than you think! If you have health concerns, you should avoid fasting that’s related to food, but do fast in other ways.
- Be accountable: It’s helpful to share what you are going to fast with others so that you can encourage one another in what is a very difficult thing to do.
An extract from Richard Wagner, Christianity for Dummies.
Fasting
The focus of fasting should not be on the lack of food.
Fasting from food can be done for a variety of purposes, either physical or spiritual. So abstaining from food alone doesn’t constitute a Christian fast. Instead, a Christian fast is accompanied by a special focus on prayer during the fast, often substituting the time you’d spend eating with prayer.
Fasting provides a real-life illustration of dependency.
Although modern man thrives on the idea of being independent, beholden to no one, fasting helps you put the facts in the proper perspective. It’s easy to believe in your independence with a full stomach, but when you start to feel hunger pains in your belly after missing a meal or two, you awaken to your body’s dependency on food to survive. Fasting reveals a physical reliance on food that points to the ultimate dependency — the fact that you’re dependent on God for things far more important than food.
Fasting fosters concentration on God and his will.
Oswald Chambers once said that fasting means “concentration,” because when you’re fasting, you have a heightened sense of attentiveness. Food or any physical sensation can satisfy, fill you up, and dull your senses and spiritual ears. In contrast, a hungry stomach makes you more aware and alert to what God is trying to say to you.
Fasting offers a way to impose self-control in your life.
It gives you a “splash in the face” to awaken you to the need for the personal strength of will that you need to grow spiritually. When you restrain yourself physically, you’ll find it easier to apply this same self-discipline in your spiritual life.
One last thing — everyone can participate. Not everyone may be able to fast from food (pregnant women and diabetics for example), but everyone can give up something in order to focus on God (e.g. unplugging the television for 24 hours could also be an effective way of joining the fast)!
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