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Apr 28
Love0

Prayer & Fasting: Ourselves

By Prayer & Fasting Devo 2024 One Comment

“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting!” Psalm 139:23-24

DEVOTION – by Andrea Cheetham:

When I read this passage, I am in awe of David’s courage and humility to cry out these words. It is not easy to come face to face with our own sin, our own depravity, or our own selfishness. At times, our flesh wants to ignore it or sweep it under the rug. However, as believers, the Spirit will continue to bring it all front and center where we must be dependent upon the Lord for His grace and discipline to cover us. Hebrews 4:16 reminds us that with confidence [we can] draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Praise Jesus for the Cross and the ability to call upon Him. 

I pray this prayer quite often. Like everyone else, my flesh can be weak, and sin can envelop me when I am not anchored in Jesus and His Word throughout my days. Oftentimes, my thoughts are written all over my face. Busyness, lack of rest, and being too independent for my own good result in my need to cry out these words. In humility and true dependence, I rely on Jesus to reveal, heal, and lead me in the way everlasting. Praise Him that I cannot do this on my own. It is only because of His love, grace, and discipline that I can continue to be transformed in heart, mind, and soul. 

Over this next week, I encourage all of us to make David’s prayer our own. Ask God to reveal to you any grievous thoughts or actions. Guess what…He already knows. Allow the Father to reach deep into your soul and lead you in the way everlasting.

PRAYER:

Matthew 6:5-13 teaches us how to pray. One of the ways we teach children to remember this passage is through the A.C.T.S. acronym.

Adoration

Heavenly Father, you are the Almighty One. You continue to transform my heart and draw me closer to You.

Confession

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!  And see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting!

Thanksgiving

I am grateful that I can approach Your throne of grace with confidence. Your love and grace fill and heal my soul.

Supplication

Father, my desire is to love You, love others, and make You known. Lead me to be a light for You. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock, and my Redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14)

 

Our staff is praying for our Faith Family as we enter a season of prayer and fasting. If we can come alongside you, please reach out to us individually or through the prayer team at prayer@sanctuaryinhim.org.

Invitation:

We invite you to join us in person at any of our weekly prayer gatherings this month:

  • Monday Mornings at 7:00am in the Auditorium

  • Tuesday Mornings at 10:00am in the Green Room (Room 125)

  • Sunday Mornings at 8:30am in Room 104

  • Women’s Prayer Night on May 15 at 7:00pm

Apr 25
Love0

Prayer & Fasting: Introduction

By Prayer & Fasting Devo 2024 One Comment

For many, we may not feel very “good” at praying, and for most of us, fasting is a foreign concept. Be encouraged by the words of James: “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” When we look at the life of Jesus, we find that He fasted (Matthew 4:2), and He assumed that His followers would fast when He spoke of “when” not “if” they fast (Matthew 6:16-18). We also see that worship and fasting were closely connected for the early church (Acts 13:2). As we accept this call to prayer and fasting, we pray this will be a beautiful step of faith for all of us. Jesus is simply inviting us to come…how He chooses to move and meet with us is totally up to Him!

Prayer – We invite you to anchor your prayers around the A.C.T.S. acronym. We will send out a weekly devotional that will include prayer prompts written around these themes.

  • Adoration – Proclaiming who God is and why He is worthy of our praise and worship.

  • Confession – Humbly repenting of our sins and asking God to forgive us of our sins.

  • Thanksgiving – Joyfully thanking God for all that He has done for us.

  • Supplication – Bringing our requests before God and asking Him to meet our needs.

Fasting – We invite you to fast one day a week during the month of May.

  • At its core, fasting is focused on setting aside good gifts (specifically food), so that we can grow in our love for the Giver.

  • By giving up food for a full day or a single meal, we want to take this time to draw near to God and recognize that our deepest need/hunger is Jesus.

We invite you to join us in a few specific ways in May:

  1. Pray regularly throughout the week for the topic/focus for that week and intentionally draw near to God.
  2. Fast once a week. Whether this is a meal, a day, or something else, we are inviting all of us to intentionally set aside food for the purpose of growing our hunger for Jesus.
  3. Read the weekly devotionals highlighting a specific theme for that week.
  4. Gather to pray with others. This month we invite you to join us on Monday mornings at the church between 7-8:00 am for a time of prayer.
There are several other opportunities available to join together in prayer:

  • Tuesday Mornings at 10:00am in the Green Room (Room 125)

  • Sunday Mornings at 8:30am in Room 104

  • Women’s Prayer Night on May 15 at 7:00pm

We are expectant for what God wants to do in each of us and in our Faith Family as we draw near to Him and ask Him to grow our love and desire for Him. Thanks for joining us on this journey!

Mar 24
Love0

I Have Come…To Give My Life

By Lent Devotional 2024 No Comments

“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45

DEVOTION – by Brad Avery:

I remember the day my brother was shipped off by the Marine Corps to Operation Desert Storm. A couple years prior, he had enlisted in the reserves as a way to help pay for college and a potential pathway to med school. Although we all acknowledged the possibility that he might be called up to support active forces, our minds reasoned with our hearts that the most action he would probably see would be national weather emergencies and community service. Mom’s voice shook that day over the phone as she told me that he would be a grunt. I didn’t know what that meant exactly, but it didn’t sound promising. I surmised that he certainly wouldn’t be the one giving orders.

A quick web search reveals that the acronym GRUNT (General Replacement Unit, Not Trained) possibly originated in WWII, where the newbies were sent to the front lines while more seasoned troops fought from behind. Although my brother enlisted as a means to an end, he didn’t do so as a means to his end. That wasn’t his calling…or at least he hoped it wasn’t.

Juxtapose that with Christ. In the beginning, Jesus, The Word Made Flesh, knew His calling. His Mission: The Undisputed Ultimate Act of Service – “give His life as a ransom for many.” Ransom is a powerful word picture for us to ponder. The Greek word in the text is lutron which translates – the price or debt for redeeming from bondage: slaves, prisoners of war, the many – sentenced to eternal death.

Jesus came to this world and flipped the script. The Great I AM, The LORD of all, The ETERNAL KING of kings became The SERVANT of all. Your servant, my servant, our enemy’s servant. We have nothing to offer…no words, no deeds, no way to repay. We can’t help Him (Acts 17:25). He doesn’t need it. John Piper puts it this way, “Our God is so full and so self-sufficient and so overflowing in power and life and joy, that he glorifies himself by serving us.”

The familiar Marine Corps motto Semper Fi, shortened from the Latin Semper Fidelis, translates “Always Faithful” …an eternal commitment to victory, prosperity, and steadfast loyalty. I am so very grateful for my brother’s sacrifice (and return home), and am truly thankful and indebted to all who have gone before me.  Their willingness to say “Here am I, send me,” has served to protect our and many other nation’s freedom.

In John’s Revelation (3:14, 19:11), Jesus refers to Himself as “The Amen, Faithful and True.”  He alone is our true Freedom. His death in exchange (ransom) for our lives. He died so that we might live. To God be the Glory!

As we celebrate that He alone has come for us, we are invited by the hymnists, Fanny Crosby and William Howard Doane to:

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the earth hear His voice;
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the people rejoice;
Oh, come to the Father, through Jesus the Son,
And give Him the glory; great things He hath done.

Mar 17
Love0

I Have Come…To Be the Light

By Lent Devotional 2024 No Comments

“I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.” John 12:46

DEVOTION – by John Decarreau:

One of my favorite worship songs begins with the following lyrics:

Light of the world You stepped down into darkness

Opened my eyes let me se

Beauty that made this heart adore You

Hope of a life spend with You

(Here I Am To Worship)

Every time I hear this song, I am instantly grabbed by the simplicity and depth of the lyrics.  Maybe it is because I recall the darkness that He removed.  Maybe it is because I more fully enjoy the beauty of all He created.  Maybe it is the excitement of an eternity worshipping Him with songs like this one.  Maybe it is ALL of the above.

As we get closer to Easter Sunday, it is a perfect time to remember that Jesus came into our darkness to illuminate our world through His truth…to show us a world the way God originally intended.  Living in His light shows us the physical beauty of His creation and the spiritual beauty of His plan for His people.  As the verse says, Jesus brought the light to us, it is through faith in Him that He offers eternal life.  It is through His work on the cross that we are saved from the darkness.

This worship song continues:

I’ll never know how much it cost

To see my sin upon that cross

Here I am to worship, here I am to bow down

Here I am to say that you’re my God

It’s hard to imagine the depth of Jesus’s suffering for our sins.  As His sacrifice becomes more real to us, it can drive us to a deeper place of worship in response to his unending mercy and grace.  He does not want us to remain in the darkness, He wants to draw us to Himself and strengthen us in His light.  In 1 Peter 2:9 it says “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”  This is a powerful reminder of the way God sees us in His light.

As we get closer to Easter Sunday, we can take some time to praise Him and celebrate the areas of our lives that Jesus has illuminated for us AND pray that He continues shine His light in new areas of our lives that may still be in the shadows.  Pray for continued Transformation into the light of his truth.

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