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Day

1

Rest in a Prayer of Renewal

We are asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light. He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:9-14

Pray through these verses everyday this month.

This prayer in Colossians teaches us to know or to be aware of these truths through demonstration, not by how we feel about what is written. One of the very reasons we need to learn to rest is because of our feelings. In the middle of a storm our feelings tell us what the storm is like not what we should do about it. God created feelings for a purpose. They help us interact with the world around us. They help us to love deeply. They alert us to danger. Feelings are a thermometer. They give us the temperature; that’s it. How we feel about a situation does not give us a solution to the situation. Maybe our feelings are telling us that the situation has become unmanageable. The next step is to ask God for wisdom. We can feel very strongly and still be very wrong, but God’s way is never wrong. We must ask Him to fill us with His wisdom. When we learn to rest in God, He clothes us with all wisdom and spiritual understanding so that we may walk worthy of the Lord. What our flesh (feelings) is unable to do, God does through His mercy and grace in Jesus.

Today, we may not feel strong. Learning to rest in this prayer of renewal, leads us to wait for the Lord to strengthen us with His power. Stop trying to accomplish anything through willpower. He will give us endurance and patience with joy, but we can only live one day at a time. If we carry yesterday’s hurts and tomorrow’s worries, we will be exhausted. God gives us strength for one day at a time, sometimes moment by moment.

If we find that we are carrying yesterday’s hurts, we need to expose them to the Light. Hurts do not heal with time. When we stuff hurts into the basement of our hearts that hurt becomes foundational to our identity. We subconsciously respond to the world around us out of that hurt. God’s truth is that He has rescued us from the domain of darkness. We may not feel rescued from these hurts, but in Christ Jesus we are. Because of Jesus, we have been transferred to the Kingdom of the Son, who the Father loves! Though the storms of this life are blindingly dark, make a conscience choice to believe God will give all wisdom and spiritual knowledge for today.

What hurts do you need to bring to the Light today? What worries can you lay down? Remember this is a process of taking one step of faith at a time, and the Spirit takes every step with you.

Rest because you know that you have been transferred from darkness into the

Kingdom of Light.

Day 2 Rest in the Crucifixion

For we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that sin’s dominion over the body may be abolished, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin. Romans 6:6

We should share the Good News of the Gospel with ourselves daily. Every day brings its own evil that we must face. As I rest in the truth that I died with Jesus on the cross, I know that the power of sin has been broken. Please pause to ponder on how different the word “know” is from the word “feel.” There are times I do not feel dead to sin, but I am!

Here’s a little of what I say to myself.

Although, I fall short of God’s glory all the time, I am justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ. It’s not by works or achievement or who my parents are.

I am so thankful that I can be as patient with my healing and growth as Jesus is with His disciples. Even when I am cold and irritable with my family, I thank Jesus for being patient and tender. In Luke 22, just before the crucifixion, Jesus asks the disciples to pray while He went to pray. When He returned, they were asleep. Jesus was gentle, I can be that too.

The Power of sin is broken!

If we acted out of a certain attitude or a behavioral pattern for most of our lives, deep change will take time. No one gets to skip this step. We humble ourselves and ask God’s forgiveness for the sinful way we have lived. We do this with grace and mercy because we rest in the crucifixion! We are forgiven, not because we’ve learned to act right, but because of Jesus’s perfect work on the cross.

Let the above truth sink in deep. The beauty of faith is that our faith doesn’t break the power of sin. The completed work has already done so. We are simply raising our hand and telling God we want Him to apply it to us. As we walk in this truth our belief becomes action by living in freedom instead of under the compulsion to continue in old patterns of behavior that brought us pain. Spend some time thinking about one thought or behavioral pattern that is hurtful and apply the grace of Jesus to it. Write out a prayer incorporating the gospel. Start with, “I fall short of God’s glory, but I am freely justified through Christ!”

Rest in the crucifixion today. Replace a sinful behavioral pattern with how Jesus demonstrated a new way to live. Remember that He paid the price, He covered that sin with His blood. Rest in your death on the cross

with Jesus Christ!