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Part A – Bless These 21 Days
Day 1 – Supernatural Focus
God I pray that you would prepare, protect, and provide for me over the next 21 days. Prepare me by making me fertile soil for your word. Help me to grow in you. Grant me a supernatural focus to draw closer to you, more than I ever have at any point in my life.
Protect me from any distraction or hindrance that will keep me from praying these prayers each day.
Provide for me all that I ask that is within your will. You are a God of unlimited resources. Increase my faith. Then help me to pray with faith and in great expectation that I will be a different and better person at the end of these 21 days. Because of a deeper relationship with you. I pray that I would praise you and bring you glory.
Grant me knowledge, understanding, wisdom, and discernment of all kinds as I pray. Make my daily prayers consistent, Lord. Help me to love you Lord. Even when I don’t want to, or don’t feel like I deserve it.
In Jesus name I pray, amen.
Digging Deeper
“As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.” -Matthew 13:23
Day 2 – Consecrate this Time
God, I pray for these next 21 days. I pray that I wound not just read these words. I pray that I would talk to you. One on one. I pray that 20 days from now I would be a different person. Totally unrecognizable from today. Time with Jesus changes people, and I pray that it would change me.
I pray that after these 21 days I would fear you God and regularly praise you for your attributes.
Jesus I pray that I would wholeheartedly believe in you. In your plan for my life. In your atoning sacrifice. I pray that I would know and see my sin, and would confess it to you and turn from it.
I pray that the Holy Spirit would control my life. I pray that I would not be a slave to this world, as are all who are apart from you. But instead would be a slave to Christ, controlled by the Holy Spirit, ready to do your good, pleasing, and perfect will.
I pray that you would teach me to pray, Lord. Teach me to love you. To love reading your word. To care about those who don’t know you. I pray that you would make me holy. Help me to want to love you Lord.
In Jesus name I pray, amen.
Digging Deeper
Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray ….”
And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves….I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. 9 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” -Luke 11: 1, 5, 8-13
Part B – God’s Attributes
Day 3 – You’re My Maker
Lord, in the beginning you created the heavens and the earth. You made me in your image. You knew me before I even came to be.
You knit me together in my mother’s womb. You knew the full length of my days before I lived one of them.
You are the potter, I am the clay. You have the right as the creator to use me for your purposes. As a tool to glorify you. I pray that I would accept that role.
While you are my creator, and judge, if I have a relationship with you, you call me your child. You call me your friend. You call me your heir. I can be grafted into your family.
I praise you for making me. For I am fearfully and wonderfully made. I pray that I would love you with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength.
In Jesus name I pray, amen.
Digging Deeper
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. -Psalm 139:13-14
Day 4 – God’s Holiness
God, please help me to understand your holiness. Help me to know and understand that in order to love holiness and good, you also must hate evil.
Your seraphim worship you by never ceasing to say “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty” – your only attribute in scripture that’s emphasized three times in a row.
Lord, help me to encounter your holiness like Isaiah and Peter.
God your selected prophet Isaiah, when he saw your holiness, immediately realized his own sin and cried “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” God, though we was among the most holy in Israel, he could not stand in comparison to you!
God help me to see your holiness like your apostle Peter! When he encountered your son Christ on that boat, he said “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!”
Lord, grant me an encounter with your holiness, and the humility to treasure it.
Help me to love you, so that like Isaiah and Peter I too may be forever changed.
In Jesus name I pray, amen.
Digging Deeper
Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders? -Exodus 15:11
Day 5 – Your Justice and Wrath
Lord, your ways are not my ways, and my thoughts are not your thoughts. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, are your ways above my ways. Open my heart to believe that your ways are best. Help me to trust in your wisdom, especially the hard truths.
God please give me an understanding of your justice and your wrath. Reveal to me why it is that you hate evil so much.
Lord, your first words to us in scripture are that you created the heavens and the earth. You created mankind in your image.
But because of man’s disdain for you, just seven chapters in, you summoned a flood to kill every human except righteous Noah’s family.
God I admit that I might not understand or even like your wrath. But remind me that you first exercise great patience. And I pray that you would be patient with my faults.
God you so loved the world that you gave your one and only son, that whoever should believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Remind me that it was your love for your creation that also poured your wrath on your son on that cross. And you did it for me, because of my sin.
Remind me that one day I will be judged. You will discern whether or not I had a relationship with you and your son, Jesus Christ. Please find me written in your book on that day.
Lord, remind me that you are the great judge. May I come to love that about you.
In Jesus name I pray, amen.
Digging Deeper
Let the wicked forsake his way
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
And let him return to the Lord,
And He will have compassion on him,
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
–Isaiah 55:7-9
Day 6 – The Fear of the Lord
God, your word says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom. Teach me to fear you, so that I might have wisdom. So that I might respect your great power and attributes.
Please give me knowledge, understanding, wisdom, and discernment of all kinds. Give me knowledge of the Holy One. God please open my mind to your truths, your ways, your precepts.
Your word says blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commandments! It says that his offspring will be mighty in the land, and that the generation of the upright will be blessed.
Your word says wealth and riches are in the house of the one who fears you, and that his righteousness endures forever.
Lord, help me to love you. And out of that love may I fear your great name, so that you would bring about every blessing, for your own glory.
In Jesus name I pray, amen.
Digging Deeper
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
For by me your days will be multiplied,
and years will be added to your life.
-Proverbs 9:10-11
Day 7 – God’s Attributes
God, I praise you for your attributes. You are omnipotent, all-powerful. You divided the Red Sea for your people, you raise the dead, you regenerate hearts. You created the heavens and earth, you raise the sun and moon. With you miracles are the norm.
You are omniscient, all-knowing. Before a word is on my tongue, you know it Lord. You know my every thought. You know all before it comes to be.
You are omnipresent, everywhere. Where can I go to escape you? If I go to the heavens, you are there. If I go to the depths, or to the remote part of the ocean, you are there. You are to be praised for these attributes God.
You are sovereign, over everything. You are eternal – you have no beginning and no end.
Who but you has measured the waters in the hollow of a hand, marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?
You are good, good to your creation and hating that which harms your creation. You are kind, and loving.
May I be a mouthpiece, a tool to praise you God. May my life be a performance for an audience of one.
In the good times and in the bad may my first and last words always be, blessed be the name of the Lord! May my praise for your attributes draw me closer to you.
In Jesus name I pray, amen.
Digging Deeper
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
2 Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
3 There is no speech, nor are there words,
whose voice is not heard.
4 Their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
7 The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple;
8 the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
9 the fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the Lord are true,
and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
12 Who can discern his errors?
Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;
let them not have dominion over me!
Then I shall be blameless,
and innocent of great transgression.
14 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 19:1-4, 7-14
Day 8 – Mercy
God, I pray that you would reveal to me my sin. Today and tomorrow, show me every time I do something that does not or did not honor you.
Convict me to the core. Stop me from suppressing the truth. For in understanding the weight of my own sin, I am able to see and be grateful for your mercy.
Mercy is not getting the punishment that I deserve for my sin. By turning from my sin, you forgive me.
God you urged your people the Israelites in Joel to return to you with all their heart. With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning, rending their hearts and not their garments.
You tell us that you are gracious and just and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and that you relent over disaster for the repentant.
Lord you say it’s for your own sake, your own praise, that you hold back your wrath on the unrepentant, giving them time to repent. Your mercy is evident throughout scripture.
Lord, I ask that you forgive me for _____________, and please replace all my wrongdoing with a deep love for you.
In Jesus name I pray, amen.
Digging Deeper
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
–Hebrews 4:14-16
Day 9 – Grace
Thank you God for your grace, which is getting what I don’t deserve.
Lord, please remind me of the analogy of the speeding ticket. When the police officer pulls over the speeder, he shows justice by giving the driver the ticket, mercy by ripping up the ticket, and grace by paying the ticket himself.
Your son Jesus paid the ticket for my sin with death. I praise you for your grace. May I keep it front of mind.
Lord, may I come thirsty to your waters, so that I won’t thirst anymore. You tell him who has no money to come, buy, and eat, to buy your milk without money and without price. That is your grace – you providing something for nothing, if I accept it.
Please remind me of your word in Ephesians, where you say it’s by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Help me to understand what grace is, and what it means, so that I will love you more.
In Jesus name I pray, amen.
Digging Deeper
The Compassion of the Lord
“Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.”
-Isaiah 55:1-2
Day 10 – Love
God, please show me the height and depth of your love. Remind me that it is my sin – even the smallest sin – that distances me and caused you Jesus to be crucified.
Help me to understand that no one hath better love than this – to lay down his life for his friend. Jesus, you would have come to earth and lived the perfect life, and died your painful death even if I was the only one here. Which is hard to understand because it means that I would have been the one pounding the nails into your hands.
You are zealous for your own glory. Jesus, while I was still, or even am now a sinner, you died for me. But remind me that it is your will that none should perish. O that you would save the lost!
If I don’t have a real relationship with you Jesus, please reveal that to me. Make me love you. Make me want you. Make me obsessed with you, my King.
Remind me that you say you leave the 99 sheep to find the lost one. And when you find that wandering sheep and forgive it, it’s as if all that sheep’s past wrongs are beneath the ocean floor. As far as the east is from the west, which is infinitely far.
You’re the good shepherd. Open my eyes and ears to hear your voice, so that I may run to you.
In Jesus name I pray, amen.
Digging Deeper
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
-John 3:14-21
Part C – Christ’s Work on the Cross
Day 11 – Propitiation (Substitute)
Jesus, help me to understand the concept of propitiation, which means that you served as the substitute in taking the penalty for sin.
In the Old Testament times, Lord, your people killed an animal to atone for their sins. The blood reminded them of the heinousness of their wrongs. But you, Christ, by your one act of dying on the cross, have taken the place of sacrifice!
Where God would have condemned me for my sin, Jesus you took on that very sin when you hung on that cross. I praise you and thank you Lord for taking my place!
Lord, your word says that the righteousness of God comes to people through faith in Jesus Christ, and it’s for all who believe. It says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. When they are justified they are justified by your grace, God, as a gift.
Thank you Lord for that gift, which is the redemption that is from Christ Jesus. Redemption, or paying the cost of my sin, came about when you, God, put forward Christ as a propitiation (substitute) for my sin by His perfect life then His death, so that I might be able to receive salvation by faith.
Lord, I admit that such concepts take time to understand, and I ask that you would reveal them to me.
Help me to love you more today.
In Jesus name I pray, amen.
Digging Deeper
Christ Our Advocate
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
-1 John 2:2
Day 12 – Atonement
Jesus, I pray that I would understand that when you died on the cross ~2,000 years ago, you atoned, or paid for, my own sin.
God, if I don’t truly know you personally, help me to know you. Help me to want to, please!
I pray that nothing in my past would hold me back from embracing your forgiveness. Lord, you made the payment for the wrongs of mankind – may mankind accept you as his and her savior.
Lord you tell your children that while their righteous acts are like filthy rags, your atoning sacrifice imputes to them your very own righteousness, dressing them in sparkling white robes.
God, the enemy will try to remind me and us of all our wrongs and tell us that we are not good enough to meet with you. To tell us that you don’t want us, and that I have to “clean myself up” before I can come to you. Remind me why that’s not true.
Remind me that if I confess my sins, turn from them, and believe, then you are faithful and just to forgive all sin, and to cleanse from all unrighteousness. In other words, I become your child! I become grafted into your family, like you adopted me.
Lord please grant me a deep confidence in your atoning sacrifice, so that I might love you more.
In Jesus name I pray, amen.
Digging Deeper
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
-1 Peter 2:24
And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation…”
-Revelation 5:9
Day 13 – Jesus Beat Death
Jesus I praise you for beating death. You came to earth, lived a sinless life, and told your disciples how, when, and why you had to die – and come back to life. Isaiah and David prophesied 700+ years before your death regarding the manner in which your death would occur, and it happened that way.
Jesus I praise you for your foresight. I praise you for rising from the dead. I praise you for your power. I praise you because you are the resurrection and the life, and everyone who lives and believes in you will never perish.
Jesus, right now I pray for anyone that doesn’t yet believe. Please enable them to confess, repent, and desire a relationship with you. Jesus I pray for me.
Give me a desire to confess, repent, and grow in relationship with you. Jesus – if I don’t know you, then I pray that this will be the most important thing I ever do in my life – forgive me of my sin. Help me to turn from my own ways to yours. Control my life. Every part of it. Live inside of me. God, help me to be a reflection of you. Help me to surrender my life to you, knowing that he who loses his life for your sake will find it.
Graft me into your lineage. Make me your son or daughter. When I die, let me spend eternity with you. I pray that every day I would love you more than the day prior.
In Jesus name I pray, amen.
Digging Deeper
…God, 9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, 10 but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel…
-2 Timothy 1:9-10
Part D – Holy Spirit’s Work in My Life
Day 14 – Holy Spirit
Christ, thank you for sending to those who know you a helper, the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, I pray that you would control every aspect of my life.
Control my thoughts, my eyes which are the light of my body, my hands and feet, my actions, and my habits.
Direct me. Communicate quickly to me when I step outside your will. Teach me to pray. Enable me to have such close communion with you that I immediately know when you are not present.
Please God, like your servant Elisha said, give me a double portion of your spirit! And with that portion may I love you with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love my neighbor as myself.
In Jesus name I pray, amen.
Digging Deeper
A Call to Persevere
17 But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 18 They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” 19 It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. 20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. 22 And have mercy on those who doubt; 23 save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.
-Jude 1:17-23
Day 15 – Reveal, Remove, Replace
God, I pray that the Holy Spirit would Reveal, Remove, and Replace all sin in my life.
Reveal to me everything in my life that does not please you, because it keeps me from you. Remove that sin, like a surgeon cuts out a cancerous tumor, and replace it with something glorifying to you.
I pray that you would use fire to burn up everything in my life not pleasing to you, so that only things refined by you will remain. Like the silversmith heats metal to remove the dross, heat my life to melt away every impurity. Like the launder uses soap to wash and make clean, do so in my life.
I understand it might be painful as you melt me and mold me. As you wash off my rough spots. But I pray that you would fill me with your Holy Spirit so you can reflect your glory off of me for others to see.
May you open the eyes of others, Lord, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. That they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Christ.
Set me apart for you, Lord, ready and excited to do your will. I praise you Lord. Please draw me closer to you.
In Jesus name I pray, amen.
Digging Deeper
But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness,
-Malachi 3:2-3
Day 16 – Surrender
God, there are things in my life that are hard for me to surrender. Some of these things are (list them here).
Help me to empty my hands and unclench my fists, to give them up to you. Where I feel like I want control, help me to surrender to you. Where I have a secret or addicting sin, help me to surrender it to you.
Where I have a dream, ambition, or desire that I’m keeping away from you, enable me to surrender it to you, God.
Lord, above all remind me that total surrender is a preference for Jesus Christ himself. It’s not because of anything I may gain out of it. Holiness and right living aren’t the end goal. You are the end goal.
Please help me to love you more, with my heart soul, mind, and strength.
In Jesus name I pray, amen.
Digging Deeper
Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act.
6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.
7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;
fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
over the man who carries out evil devices!
8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
9 For the evildoers shall be cut off,
but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.
-Psalm 37:5-9
Part D – My Response to God
Day 17 – Seeing Others as You See Them
Holy Spirit, help me to see other people as you see them. I pray that the same things that would break your heart would break my heart.
Show me the needs of others, and may I put them above my own. Show me how I can be useful to you.
Lord, today please put someone in my path so I can tell him/her about you. Show me who I can minister to, and may I love him/her. Make me willing to be inconvenienced to share you with others.
I pray that when I meet people who don’t know you, that I would desire for them to have a relationship with you. In particular, I pray this for (names of people).
Help me to love you more, and may others also love you more.
In Jesus name I pray, amen.
Digging Deeper
The Rich Young Man
17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” 20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
-Mark 10:17-22
Day 18 – Teach Us to Pray
Lord, your disciples heard you praying, and one asked you, teach us to pray. Lord, teach me to pray!
Teach me how to pray like Jesus prayed. When to pray like Jesus prayed. Where to pray like Jesus prayed. Jesus, you would get up early to pray. You would pray through the night. You prayed before big decisions. You prayed continually.
And you are God. Lord, remind me how much I have to pray. Remind me that prayer is a means you use to bring your will to fruition on this earth.
Remind me that with faith as small as a mustard seed, and when I pray according to your will, I can tell a mountain to move and it will move. Remind me to pray for my family. Remind me to pray for my community.
Remind me to pray for the world – for my country, leaders, and politicians, for the persecuted church, and for unbelievers to come to know you. God make it a habit to pause and pray like your servant Nehemiah did before King Artaxerxes.
I pray that I would pray continually, without ceasing, through the day, spending so much time in prayer that when I don’t pray I would feel like something is wrong.
I praise you Lord and ask that you would create in me a desire for you.
In Jesus name I pray, amen.
Digging Deeper
Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” 2 And he said to them, “When you pray, say:
“Father, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread,
4 and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation.”
5 And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, 6 for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7 and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? 8 I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. 9 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
-Luke 11:1-13
Day 19 – Read Your Word
God I praise you for your word. I pray that I would read my Bible and pray every day so that I will grow.
Keep me from not reading your word and not praying, so that I might not shrink. Remind me of Psalm 119:11 “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” and 2 Thessalonians 5:17, “pray continually.”
Help me to love your word, and I pray that (names of people) would also love reading your word each day. Teach me to memorize it. To know it. To understand it.
I pray that I would read your word every day for the rest of my life. When I am older, I pray that like Billy Graham I can’t recall the last day I didn’t open my Bible.
Lord, give me a supernatural hunger to study your commands. Give me the discipline to carve out a habitual time each day to study the Bible.
Your word is sharp and penetrating. Please use it to draw me closer to you, Lord, so that I might love you more and behold you as you ought to be seen.
In Jesus name I pray, amen.
Digging Deeper
How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
10 With my whole heart I seek you;
let me not wander from your commandments!
11 I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.
-Psalm 119:9-11
Day 20 – Go.
God, of the ~16,000 people groups in the world, ~6,400 of them have fewer than 2% of the population that calls themselves evangelized. God, enable me to be willing to go to the ends of the earth for your cause.
Jesus, you said that your gospel will be preached to all nations before the end will come.
God, enable me to go into all the world, making disciples and baptizing them in the name of the father, son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey your commands. Remind me that those who try to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses his or her life for your sake will find it.
Jesus, remind me that all authority on heaven and earth is yours. Remind me that if I am a believer, then you are with me always to the end of my life. If I am not a believer, enable me to love you and want you – seek me out Lord!
I pray that you would keep me and my family from fear, from suppressing the truth, from apathetic comfort, and from letting my past sin and failure hold me back from evangelism and mission work. Lord present me with a call upon my life.
Show me those around me who need to hear about you. Embolden me to tell them. Show me those in other countries who need to hear about you. Create a way for me to tell them.
You are the great way maker. I praise you Jesus. Remind me that the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Send out workers Lord! Make me willing to go!
There are few willing to give up everything for you. I pray that you would count me and my family and (names of people) among that crowd. Enable me to be willing to drop the plow and instead pick up my cross to follow hard after you.
And if you call, Lord, help me to respond like your servant Isaiah: “Here I am. Send me!”
In Jesus name I pray, amen.
Digging Deeper
“And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
and to be his servants,
everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,
and holds fast my covenant—
7 these I will bring to my holy mountain,
and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
for all peoples.”
-Isaiah 56:6-7
Day 21 – Me
I praise you God for making me in your own image. Dwell in my life so that I would reflect your image off of me.
I confess to you my sin, namely __________. Please forgive me. May it not rule over me.
Lord, help me and my family to be careful to live a blameless life, so that we will be in close communion with you. Help me to walk in my house with a blameless heart. Help me to set before my eyes no vile thing.
I pray that the deeds of faithless men will not cling to me. Keep me from men of perverse heart, having nothing to do with any part of evil, so that I may be righteous, teaching transgressors your ways.
Give me the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Remind me that you O Lord search the heart and examine the mind, rewarding me for my conduct, according to what my deeds deserve. Make them pleasing to you.
I pray that if I claim to live in Christ, then I would walk in blameless holiness, just like Jesus walked.
Purify me, so that I may be as fine gold.
Lord I ask that you would multiply my efforts over the past 21 days. Where I have fallen short of prayer, enable me to make it up. Where I have shown an interest, make it grow.
Last, Lord I pray that I would be obsessed with furthering you and your kingdom, single-minded in purpose as I strive to live a life glorifying to you. And after my death, when that fearfully glorious day comes Lord when I stand before you, may I be found worthy for you to say, “Well done, thy good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your master.”
In Jesus name I pray, amen.
Digging Deeper
Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
-Hebrews 12:14
I the Lord search the heart
and examine the mind,
to reward each man according to his conduct,
according to what his deeds deserve.
-Jeremiah 17:10
Final Prayer – Examine Yourself
Select prayers from John Wesley, written in the 1700s, with some portions updated. It’s worth praying twice. Happy Easter!
Father in heaven, it is not enough to shun evil and do good at all opportunities. Nor to have only a desire to please you, however sincere.
The great question remains: is your love poured out in my heart? Does my heart cry that you are my all? Am I happy in you, Lord? Are you my delight? Am I satisfied in you? Is it written in my heart that if I love you I will love my neighbor also?
God, reveal to me whether or not I believe that Christ loved me and gave himself for me. Do I have faith in His painful sacrifice? Do I believe that the Lamb of God has taken away my sins and cast them as a stone into the depth of the sea – giving me redemption through His blood, despite my sins?
Lord, I pray that your spirit would testify in my spirit that I am a child of God.
Help me to examine three things: 1) have I committed my life to you?, 2) do my actions prove my love for you?, and 3) have I experienced a close relationship with you such that your Spirit testifies to me about my salvation?
And Lord, do I experience these now? God are you a reality in my life now? Lord is my body the temple of the Holy Spirit now? If not, humble me so that I might turn to you.
God please let no one or no thing persuade me to rest short of working out my faith with fear and trembling. Give me the stamina to cry day and night unto you, who died for me while I was still a sinner.
May I cry to you day and night until I know that I am a Christian! If I am in you, may I cry to you day and night for the salvation of my loved ones!
May I ask, seek, and knock early in the morning and late at night, so that I might receive, find, and have the door opened unto me. Lord you don’t wish that any should perish but that all should reach repentance. I praise you for that.
Lord, enable me to experience that blessed peace with God through Jesus Christ, and to know the love of God poured into my heart by the Holy Spirit.
And Lord, once I become born of you, assure my heart that I am your child.
In Jesus name I pray, amen.
Digging Deeper
Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.
-2 Corinthians 13:5