Day 2 - Monday January 9
Today’s Theme: Complete Surrender
We’ll see the best of God when we give our all to God.
James 4:8 (NLT)
Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.
Your hands are what you do and your hearts are what you feel.
What’s the first thing to do? Repent.
You love God, but your love is divided. We need to really put God first.
Today we’re going to ask God for revival and live it out through repentance.
In the book of Samuel they were crying out for revival. A former leader Eli is mentioned.
Eli was called “fat”. Eli’s fatness - not just weight, but he over indulged himself.
We have just come out of a season in many ways in which we have over indulged ourselves (like Thanksgiving, Christmas/New Years eating too much or too much in gifts). A lot of times our lifestyles then reflect that. Sometimes then we allow ourselves to be satisfied with other things.
With all of this indulgence, and the presence of God not there, here’s what Samuel the prophet directed the people as he witnessed all this indulgence and the presence of God gone.
1 Samuel 7:3-6 NIV
3 So Samuel said to all the Israelites, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” 4 So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths, and served the Lord only.
5 Then Samuel said, “Assemble all Israel at Mizpah, and I will intercede with the Lord for you.” 6 When they had assembled at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the Lord. On that day they fasted and there they confessed, “We have sinned against the Lord.” Now Samuel was serving as leader[a] of Israel at Mizpah.
We need to rid ourselves of all foreign, little “g” gods. What have I allowed in my life and list that have gone above God? I need to get rid of that.
Here the people of Israel fasted and confessed. So may we today and in this season, likewise fast and confess.
What marks all the revivals in history? If you want God to move in an unprecedented way - there was always repentance.
Repentance - When we repent, God responds.It gets his attention. He has to respond. (a broken and contrite heart He will not despise - Psalm 51).
So today, let’s enter this new season of 21 days of prayer by fasting and repenting.
Jesus, we praise your mighty name today. We confess our sins and the sins of our culture. We are setting aside anything that we’ve allowed to come into our life ahead of you. We fast and repent and worship your name.
