10 Days of Prayer and Praise Devotional

7/23/2019 10 Days of Prayer and Praise Devotional

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Welcome to our “10 Days of Prayer & Praise”. We will meet every morning topray at 6.30am and then for an hour at 7.30pm to praise. We really hope that

you will join us at one or both of these times during the 10 days. We would also

encourage you to take the opportunity to “fast and abstain” during the 10 days.

You might want to abstain from watching TV or from Social media. The idea is

to give something up that would create more space and time to read and pray. If

you want to fast you could choose to eat just one meal a day or maybe skip

dinner everyday or you can do the Daniel fast (where you eat only vegetables

and water). Its completely up to you, but we would encourage you to do

something.

This 10 devotional has a reading for each day and through it we will be looking

at a di! erent promise of God to us his people. The bible is full of Promises, iron

clad, unbreakable guarantees from the Word of God that are FOR YOU! The

promises of God have your name on them! So everyday as you read remember

the promises are not just for other people they are yours as well!

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“If my people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and

seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and

will forgive their sin and heal their land” 2 Chronicles 7:14

Never have two letters implied so much. As we reach the end of this verse we

find the most incredible promise, but it’s that little word at the start ‘If’ which

actually determines whether we see the fulfillment of this particular promise.

The dictionary defines the word ‘IF’ like this: On condition that; provided that;

as long as.........

AS LONG AS we humble ourselves, (which means the quality of having a

modest or low view of one's importance, in light of who He is); PROVIDED

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THAT we pray and seek His face (taking that time to rest in His presence, build

your relationship with Him and pray); ON CONDITION that we turn from

deliberate sin (not living as we please, giving in to every desire of the flesh),

then He will hear from heaven, forgive us and heal our land.

The bible says in 1 Peter 1:13 16: Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully

sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is

revealed at his coming. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires

you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be

holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

Our purpose on this earth is to love our Saviour and share Him with everyone

we come into contact with, it must be our hearts cry to see our families, townand country changed for Jesus and His Kingdom, to pray that mighty revival

power will be poured out over our church and town as we humble ourselves

before His majesty. Lets begin to claim this mighty promise today!

Thank you Lord, do it again we pray!

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January is the month of the diet. More diets start (and end) in January than any

other month. In Matthew 11:28-29 Jesus tells us how to ‘really’ lose weight.

Jesus o! ers anyone who is interested a way to lose the weight and burden of

trying to achieve, trying to attain, trying to please God by ourselves. He gives a

promise of rest in place of weariness. He o!

ers us the chance to set down ourburdens, the heavy weight of ‘achievement religion’. Jesus says “Come to me, all

you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon

you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find

rest for your souls.”

Eugene Peterson paraphrases this verse like this. “Are you tired? Worn out?

Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your

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life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—

watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything

heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely

and lightly.”

I don’t know about you but that sounds good to me. As we start a new year

wouldn’t it be great to ‘learn the unforced rhythms of grace’ wouldn’t it be great

to grab Jesus’ promise of rest with both hands. Religion and grace are not the

same.

In case you don’t understand the di! erence between religion and grace let me

try to explain:

Religion says be a better person and God might love youGrace says God already loves you

Religion says it's about what I do

Grace says it's about what Jesus did

Religion says you have to reach or hit a certain mark to be accepted

Grace says Jesus did everything that was needed for you to be accepted

Religion says you have to earn

Grace says it’s all a gift

Religion says look at me

Grace says look to Jesus

Religion say you owe a debt

Grace says paid in full

Religion says do

Grace says DONE!

Grace is a much better fit than religion. Why not accept Jesus’ o! er of rest to-day!

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“Then after doing all those things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.

Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and

your young men will see visions. In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on

servants – men and woman alike.” Joel 2 v 28, 29

What a promise! On the day of Pentecost God poured out his Spirit on His

people just as Joel had prophesied many years before. As believers this is a gift

that God so freely o! ers to us when we are saved, the promised Holy Spirit.

In Billy Graham’s book ‘Holy Spirit’ he says:

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“Exciting revolutionary power is available exclusively to you as a Christian... it is

the supernatural power... You cannot buy this extraordinary power, nor can you

find it by searching the earth for it. As a Christian it resides in you already, an

awesome gift from God that you have only to claim and use once you know and

accept its source.”

When we receive a special gift, as I am sure many of you did at Christmas, you

do not hide it away, but instead proudly put it on display or use it every day. The

Holy Spirit is such a wonderful gift that we cannot let him lie hidden inside us.

This promise is a privilege. We are given the gift of the Spirit so let us make the

most of this great gift and let him influence us in our everyday lives, by letting

Him guide us and empower us in all we do. No matter who you are, young or

old, God wants to be active in your life through His Spirit, and He wants tospeak to us through dreams and visions and give us other gifts of the Spirit,

such as prophesy along with others mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12. Through

these giftings we have the opportunity to glorify God in every aspect of our lives.

We need to make the choice to live in the full potential we have through the

power of the Spirit! As we seek God in these 10 days, let’s be bold and ask Him

for gifts we have not asked for before. Let’s be open to the leading of the Spirit

in every area of our lives and seek the things He has for us. Desire that Hewould reveal His heart to you through dreams and visions and really believe that

He will.

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“I have loved you my people with an everlasting love, I have drawn

you to myself” Jeremiah 31:3

What an amazing promise that God’s love is forever, it doesn’t diminish or fade

with time or circumstances. We all need to experience and know we are loved,it is the greatest desire in all our hearts to belong, be part of a family, to gain

support and courage from being loved.

We have just celebrated Christmas and the airports and ferry ports were

overloaded with people wanting to be home with those they love, it is amazing

that God wants to be with us. God is on an unrelenting pursuit to love His

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people and to draw close to them into an intimate loving relationship, nothing

will get in His way. As someone said, “Gods love, time never knew its beginning

and eternity shall never know its end”. In this world, love and kindness are

scarce, isn’t it such a boost and faith builder to know God, our Father is

constantly loving us and drawing us close.

‘Emmanuel’, God with us, in every situation that may come into our lives. I

know personally when those I love are with me, I find strength to face problems.

NEVER underestimate the power of love.

A college sociology study was sent to study the case histories of 200 young boys

in the city’s worst slums; in almost all the projected future of the boys it was

said, “He hasn’t got a chance”. Twenty five years later a follow up study foundwith the exception of 20 boys, who died or moved on, of the test 176 of 180

went on to amazing success, as lawyers, doctors and leading businessmen.

When interviewed, what did they put their success down to? All of them

pointed to a teacher in the slum school who influenced them. The teacher was

still alive and when asked what was her secret in changing the future of these

‘no hoper’ boys, she replied, “Simple! I just loved those boys”.

Remember how God loves you and gain strength from that, “We can do allthings through Christ, who strengthens us”. As The Message puts it in

Jeremiah 31:3 ‘God told them, “I’ve never quit loving you and never will, expect

love, love and more love”’.

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‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you

and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’ Jeremiah 29:11

Israel finds themselves in one of the toughest seasons of their history. They

stand in captivity once more and deliverance seems impossible. As they cry outto God they are then o! ered a false prophecy (just to add to the load!). In the

previous chapter Hananiah, the false prophet, had spoken false hope over their

lives (“God is going to restore Israel in 2 years” Jer 28:2). In their desperation

Israel believed the false message.

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The start of chapter 29 sees Jeremiah speaking God’s words to rectify the false

prophecy: “They are prophesying lies to you in my name” (Jer 29:9). Then we

find ourselves at that famous verse - Jeremiah 29:11 - a reminder to all Israel at

this point that God knew HIS plans and had not forgotten them. Some

translations put this verse as “I know my thoughts towards you”; He was

already outworking His plans for their lives and they were on His mind

constantly. This verse didn’t speak the immediate deliverance Israel longed for;

which meant they needed to endure this situation for even longer. BUT THERE

WAS HOPE - God’s plans were being outworked - and they were for the best!

While that might not have been what Israel wanted to hear, we can see as we

read that it was the best purpose for them.

Perhaps today this verse is almost cliché to you. Perhaps today, like Israel in this

story, it finds you in the toughest season of your life. Remember this verse - notas a cliché or as an immediate deliverance, but as the promise that God has NOT

forgotten you. In fact, YOU are in His thoughts right now! Let this verse remind

you that God is out-working His plan and purpose at this very moment - and His

timing is perfect!

I leave you with this quote from Matthew Henry: “Promises are given to quicken

and encourage prayer.”

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John 14:12 “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same

works I have done, and even greater works because I am going to be with the

Father”.

These words of Jesus are both perplexing and yet powerful and inspiring. Whatthey are saying is, as believers we have the privilege and God given promise and

authority to carry on the Lord’s works and even exceed in extent, His Kingdom.

What a magnificent mission we are on, inspired by the Holy Spirit, prayed for by

Jesus and encouraged by our loving Father.

What amazes me is, this is for ALL Christians, not just professional Christians,

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mature or highly gifted. No it means you and me, believers pure and simple, will

do the works of Jesus. You can pray for people, witness and demonstrate God’s

power through your life.

We have seen this exact phrase before in the book of John . . .

“Whoever believes in me” ....

shall never thirst”. (John 6:35)

out of his heart will flow rivers of living water”. (John 7:38)

though he die, yet shall he live”. (John 11:25)

will not remain in the darkness”. (John 12:46)

In other words, this is normal Christianity, when we believe in Jesus this is what

God promises us. The works and miracles of Jesus were demonstrations of Hispower and were to help people believe.

Verse 12: “If my spoken testimony is leaving doubts in your mind about who I

am, look at my works. Let the works join with my words and lead you to faith”.

Jesus is saying, as we as His church, all believers show God’s power through our

daily lives, we too will lead people to believe in God in greater numbers. In this

New Year of opportunities, let’s not hesitate to carry on the work of our Lordand Saviour and do those things that will bear witness to Jesus.

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One of the greatest promises in all of scripture is found in Isaiah 1:18 “Come

now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord, “Though your sins are like

scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they

shall be as wool.”

In this verse, it’s almost like God wants to argue a point with us, is trying to

convince us of a promise. “Let us reason together.” Let’s talk about this! Listen

to me! I know how deep dyed your sins are. I know how deep and dark your

heart can be BUT listen, pay attention, hear what I am saying “Though your sins

are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson,

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they shall be as wool.”

In 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne published his classic American novel, The Scarlet

Letter. In the story a young woman, Hester Prynne, is found guilty of adultery.

She is required to wear a scarlet A on her dress - the symbol of shame. We don’t

wear our shame like that on the outside, but often we wear our shame on the

inside. Often we know and feel how deep and dark our sins are. We feel unclean,

unworthy, even unloved.

Mark Batterson writes “We often project our self contempt onto God, assuming

that God must be as angry with us as we are with ourselves.”

BUT God actually promises us a divine exchange, our sin for His righteousness.God says “I can and will make you clean, I will make you as pure as the driven

snow.” No matter what you think of yourself, no matter how deep and dark you

feel or are, I can and will make you clean, if you let me.

In American law they have something called ‘The law of double jeopardy, double

jeopardy is a procedural defense that forbids a defendant from being tried again

on the same (or similar) charges following a legitimate acquittal or conviction.

1 Corinthians 5:21 tells us “For God made Him who knew no sin to be sin forus, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

God can stand over His promise to make us clean because Jesus was convicted,

condemned and took the punishment for all our sin, no matter how deep dyed

and dark it was or is. He has already been convicted of our sin so we can’t be

charged with it again. There are no charges to answer. Let that sink in today!

Believe what you hear. Listen to what God has to say, “Come now, and let us

reason together,” says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be

as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

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If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it

will be done for you’ John 15:7

Is there a better place to be than ‘in Him’?

As with most of the beautiful promises of God, we seem to have the fulfillmentof the promise and the ‘how to’ part, but isn’t it wonderful that sometimes the

‘how to’ part is amazing in itself? In this verse we are told that if we ‘remain in

Him’ we can ask for whatever we wish and it will be done for us! Wow, what a

promise, and even better than that, we get to ‘REMAIN’ in Him too.

Think for a moment, our Lord and Saviour wants to have the kind of

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relationship with us were we remain together, talk together, and get to know

each other. Jesus wants an intimate relationship with us, but not just so we can

get what we want, but because He loves and adores us, this in itself should stop

us in our tracks and cause us to break into joyous thankfulness.

Our thought today must be, what does it mean to ‘remain’ in Him? It’s

incredibly humbling to know that we can have that sense of being attached to, in

step with, connected to, and ‘part of’ Jesus Christ, but what does remaining in

Him truly entail? As with everything else in this blessed Christian life we get to

walk, we will always be learning and relearning how to fully remain in Him, but

one commentary writes this:

“As God’s children, we need to walk in fellowship with Him. This idea offellowship is expressed, especially by John, with the word “abide” or “remain,”

which is the Greek meno, “to abide, dwell, live, remain.” Our refusal or failure

to abide in fellowship with Him means the loss of His abiding in us in the sense,

not of His presence, but of His intimacy, control, and ability to direct our lives.”

Today, don’t only desire what He can give you, crave intimacy with Him and

pursue Him. What a truly blessed people we are.

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“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and when you pass

through the rivers, they will not sweep over you”. Isaiah 43:2

When you go through deep waters I will be with you. Life has a way of taking

us through times when we feel we are going to drown or be swept away. It isinteresting that the bible makes it clear, we will at some time find ourselves in

deep water. One day all can be calm and plain sailing and before we know it we

are in a storm. It reminds me of that incident in Mark 4 when Jesus asks His

disciples to cross the lake, at first all seems good, so much so that Jesus goes for

a nap in the stern of the boat. Then out of nowhere a storm hits the lake and

panic ensues. The disciples, experienced fishermen and sailors, can’t cope and

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in the middle of all this Jesus is asleep. Have you ever felt that way, it seems

you are in the eye of a storm and as a Christian, a follower of Jesus, you can’t

cope? All those questions fill your mind, why me? I thought Jesus would take

care of me, where is He now?

How can God be asleep while I am in danger of drowning, being swept away?

The disciples in the boat up to their knees in water had one thing going for

them. They knew who to turn to in time of trouble. They wake Jesus up, all be

it roughly, “Lord, don’t you care if we drown”?

Jesus, a bit bleary eyed rebukes the wind and waves and all is calm again. If only

they had known and trusted, in those promises in Isaiah 43:2 they would have

realised that God would see them safely through this storm. In our lives weneed to hold fast to God’s promises and when trouble undoubtedly comes to our

door, turn to the only one who can speak peace to the elements. Even if the

water is up to our neck, at the right moment, God will lift us up and we will not

drown or be swept away.

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Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world

gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27

There can be no doubt in our minds when we read this promise that God means

what He says, it’s so good He says it twice! “Peace I leave with you; my peace I

give you.”

CS Lewis puts it like this: “God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from

Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.”

We know that our hope is experienced in Him; we realise that our joy is

complete in Him, and of course we now see that our peace can only be found in

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Him. The world has a way of tricking us into thinking that we have a semblance

of peace, when things seem to be going well, when our families are healthy,

when we have food to put on our tables, but this peace that Jesus gives is so

much more and it shows up not only in the thankfulness of those times of

blessing, but even more so in times of trouble.

We are reminded in Philippians 4:6&7 that we should “not be anxious about

anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,

present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all

understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Now we are seeing that God’s peace is a guard over our hearts and minds, a

promise that is vital for our well being and actually our mental state. To be atpeace is to say that we trust our lives to a God who can indeed be trusted, and as

we bring our prayers to Him and choose trust over anxiousness then that peace

promises to guard us.

What an incredible way to finish our 10 days of Prayer & Praise, with the

promises of a healthy, guarded mind and heart as we trust in His sovereignty

and goodness for our lives.

Thank You Lord that You never fail us, thank You that after giving us the

greatest gift of Your only Son Jesus that You still continue to Father us and pour

out your blessing and peace upon our lives through Your promises. You alone

are worthy of every part of us, so today again we will pursue Your presence and

honour You with our lives. We love You Lord. Amen

10 Days of Prayer and Praise Devotional

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