Friday is a day where we focus on cultivating God’s wisdom.
This is Week 1: Our focus is on Growing in Grace.
My prayer goal for this week is __________________________________________.
Let’s pray:
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us, not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Read the following passage from James 4:4-10.
You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
"God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble."
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
Reading for Wisdom
When we read, we are seeking to grow wise, to have the text mentor us so that we will be able to live out God’s Word in our day-to-day lives. The text trains us in righteousness and equips us for good works. And as we seek God’s face and listen to his voice, God fills us with his grace and begins to develop in us the mind of Christ so that we may live out his will in our world.
Our passage from James 4 calls us away from “friendship with the world” and to “submit ourselves to God.” In fact, the whole point of the passage is to remind us that God wants us to be unreservedly his and his alone.
If you submitted yourself completely to God, what would it look like?
How are you now flirting with the world, its attitudes, values and perspectives?
The two other main themes of this section are that God desires that we be his faithful and beautiful bride more than we realize (he is jealous for us) and that he provides everything we need so that we can be his people (he provides more grace).
What do these truths mean to you?
What do we need to do so that these truths become a powerful force in our lives?
A Thought to Ponder
"Never think that you can live for God by your own power or strength; but always look to and rely on him for assistance, yea, for all strength and grace." (David Brainerd)
Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father, grant us your grace so that we may know you and love you more and more each day and love the people you put in our path. Help us to delight in you as you delight in us. Fill us with your grace so that we may be your faithful bride and make us humble so that we may receive your grace. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
Posted on
Fri, October 8, 2010
by Dane Lewis
filed under