March 1: Personal Renewal
Morning Focus: General Confession of Sin
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
• Confess and repent to God for known patterns of sin in your life. • Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal other areas of your life where He is displeased. • Repent of prayerlessness in your life and obeying His Word. • Repent of any lack of love you have for others and unforgiveness in your heart • Repent for being too busy to behold beauty in God’s Word and meditate on His mercies in Christ.
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold,I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. - Psalm 51:4-7
• In a spirit of confession jot down some areas where God is bringing conviction to you.
• Ask God to do a work of renewal in your life over the next month as we fast together.
Then we will not turn away from you; revive us, and we will call on your name. Restore us, Lord God Almighty; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved. - Ps 80:18
Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? – Psalm 85:6
Afternoon Focus: Holiness of Life
Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god. - Psalm 24:3
• Pray for Integrity • Pray that God would reveal any idols in your life that you need to repent of
• Pray for a sensitive conscience • Pray for an awareness of your sin • Pray for greater transparency and vulnerability with others • Pray for a habit of regular confession of sin and repentance
Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. 2 Tim. 2:20
• Pray that your desires will be reoriented around God’s desires • Pray that you will live for an audience of One • Pray that prayer and communion with God would be the highest priority in your life
• Pray that God would change your desires and make them more holy • Pray that you will find increasing delight in God • Pray that you will be a holy habitation, useful to God for his service (2 Tim 2:20) • Pray for a fresh outpouring of God’s Spirit upon your life
Prayer: O, to love the Savior with a passion that can never cool; O, to believe in God with the confidence that can ever stagger! O, to hope in God with an expectation that can never dim! O, to delight in God with a holy overflowing and rejoicing that can never be stopped, so that we might live to glorify God at the highest bent of our powers, living with enthusiasm, burning, blazing, being consumed with the indwelling God who works all things in us according to his will! Thus, Lord, would we praise and pray at the same time, confess and acknowledge our responsibilities, but also bless the free, the sovereign grace that makes us what we are. Lord, bless us and abide with us now and forever, Amen. - Charles Spurgeon, Pastoral Prayer December 2, 1877.
Evening Focus: Treasure in Heaven
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. – Matthew 6:19-21
The Rich Young Ruler
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. 23 And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” 24 And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him “Then who can be saved?” 27 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” 28 Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
– Mark 10:17-31
• Pray through this passage examining your heart throughout • What are the treasures on earth you are currently laying up for yourself? • Pray for grace to set our minds on things above, not on earthly things, Colossians 3:2
• What are some examples of treasures in heaven? Pray for an increase of that. • Pray that you would heed the warning of Mark 10:23-31 • Pray for a Godward perspective on riches and treasure • Pray for a sacrificial and generous life
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