Day 31: “‘O Lord, hear. O Lord, listen and ac! For your own sake, O my God, do not delay for your people and your city bear your name.‘ I went on praying and confessing my sin and the sins of my people, pleading with the LORD my God for Jerusalem, his holy mountain.” Daniel 9:18-20
Daniel was a man of God, His prophet in Babylon. Yet even he new that he was a sinner. Yet he prayed not only for himself but for the people still in Jerusalem and for the people in captivity with him in Babylon. Is it not right then, that we pray for the sins of others, that they might have the forgiveness and protection of God?
Is it not also right that we pray for our leaders and for the rulers of nations that they find the peace of God? As we seek forgiveness and reconciliation with the Father, we are to also pray for reconciliation for others. Even as we undergo crisis after crisis in our land, we are to ask with confidence for the forgiveness of our foolishness and our behavior against God and each other. We are to pray for the redemption of all the people.
Open my eyes, Lord that I may forgive and ask for forgiveness for the many. Let my prayer be an honest one that welcomes the lost and seeks to redeem nations in Your Grace. Cleanse my mind of sinful thought towards others and greet them in your name that they may desire forgiveness in your Name. Amen.
Day 32: “Everyone is required to wear sackcloth and pray earnestly to God. Everyone must turn from their evil ways and stop all their violence. Who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will have pity on us and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us.” Jonah 3:8-9
while we are not required to wear sackcloth, (a sign of humility) we are still asked to pray earnestly and to turn from our evil ways. God has turned back his anger, that we richly deserve. He has shown mercy on us and He has rewarded us for more that we should be.
Dear God, how merciful you are, that you forgive a wretch like me. You have shown great mercy and a peaceful heart toward me. Let my ways be kind and gracious toward others as you have been with me. Amen.
Day 33: “But afterwards, Jesus found him in the Temple and told him. ‘Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.’” John 5:14
These are words that many do not seem to hear, STOP sinning or something WORSE may happen to you. To many feel that because they have been forgiven they are except form the judgment of God. Jesus said to stop the bad behavior that was sinful. He heals the body, the spirit and the soul but we still are required to change and not return to the ways that made us the spiritual cripples that we were before Christ.
Even as we enter into the tabernacle of the Lord, we still persist in living the sinful life that we had before, only we try to claim victory over sin. Only through the Blood is our victory made true. Only by the virtue of contrition, the changing of our ways, is the blood received for our sins. So stop sinning! Who knows what God has in store for us if we fail to STOP SINNING!
” My Lord; to often I have taken lightly the forgiveness f my sins. Many times I have returned to the ways of my youth and sought only the pleasures of the flesh, to enjoyment of sinful things. Yet it was your command for me to stop the ways of deception and I have failed time and time again. Be merciful to me, My Lord, I am weak. Me kind to me because I hasten to destructive ways even when I know that I should not. Forgive me and chastise me for my folly, My love for You is all I truly seek. Amen.
Day 34: “Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’
But some of the teachers of the law who were sitting there said to themselves, ‘What? this is blasphemy! Only God can forgive sins!’ Mark 2:5-6
Only God can forgive sins! How true, but through Jesus we are commanded to forgive sins in His Name. When we confess our sins to one another, we are by the Grace of Christ, to forgive each other. So there is no blasphemy. It is not the sacrifice of atonement that is the forgiveness but the will of God through Jesus Christ. And Jesus told His disciples to forgive in His name.
We are the disciples of Christ and therefore, we are given the authority to forgive as Christ forgave us. Since Christ Jesus is the Same as the Father, God of all, and He resides in us, we can and should with confidence forgive by His Power and with His Purpose.
What a gift it is to forgive, O Lord, that you would entrust us to do your will. To forgive as You have forgiven, even the most vile of men and the most gentle of people. May we use you gift with wisdom and mercy as You have shown us. Amen.
Day 35: But afterward Jesus found him in the Temple and told him, ‘Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse will happen to you.’” John 5:14
Stop sinning! Or something worse may happen to you. It is to easy to slip into the belief that once saved, we are free to do as we like. But Jesus told the man who was healed of his disease to stop sinning. When we came to Christ, our spirits were healed of the disease of sin and yet we so easily go back into the addictive habits of sin.
Just as drugs and alcohol are addictive, so are the all the desires of the flesh. So is anger, greed and the selfish whims of men. These are not pleasing to God and He requires that we stop behaving in sinful ways.
By the Power and Grace of Your Love, we are healed in the Spirit for Your pleasure, O Lord. It is with Your Grace that we seek to sin never again. We fear the pain of being separated from You, O Lord and seek never to sin again. Be with us. Amen