21 Days of Prayer and Fasting Pursuing Intimacy with God

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1 of past sins, but rather too much pride in what we have already done. We can allow the successes and blessings of the past to lull us into believing that we have already arrived and need not strive toward perfection any longer. Paul the apostle who spread Christianity throughout the Roman Empire and who wrote much of the New Testament refused to embrace this satisfaction with the past, and so we must refuse it as well. Instead, we must let however God has used us in the past serve as motivation for continuing to be used by him in the present and the future. We must remember the limitless thought of Christian progress, as Broadus put it, and know that until we reach eternity we will always need to press forward to grow in Christlikeness and to serve Christ s Kingdom. Take time now to renew your commitment to pressing on toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. This prayer can help you get started: Heavenly Father, thank you for calling me to yourself and setting me on the race of following Jesus. I confess that sometimes I lose sight of you as my true goal. Sometimes I get stuck in what lies behind me. Sometimes I become satisfied and stagnant. Lord, remind me each day that the goal of becoming like Christ is still ahead of me. Help me to run this race each day by forgetting what is behind, keeping my eyes fixed on Jesus, and moving forward with you, O God. In the name of Jesus, Amen. 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting Pursuing Intimacy with God Day 1: May 4, 2017: Thirsty for God Psalm 63:1: O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Have you ever felt your need for God? Not only in your soul, but also in your body? Have you ever physically longed for God? There is an awareness of our need for God that has the power to reduce the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions (1 John 2:16) to rubble and leave us physically hungry and thirsty for God. David was in the wilderness of Judah when he prayed the prayer we know as Psalm 63. He was on the run from enemies who sought to destroy his life (v. 9), and he was almost certainly hungry and thirsty. Yet his experiences of desperation impressed upon his soul and his body not his need for shelter, food, or drink but rather his absolute need for God. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me (v. 8). God wants us to know, seek, and love Him. Often we erect barriers between ourselves and God. A barrier is anything which keeps us from the personal immediacy of experiencing God in prayer. If we allow these barriers to persist long enough, God will bring us into situations where they will fail and we will have no choice but to depend upon and draw near to God. I do not know what David s barriers were, but his experience in the wilderness of Judah was certainly a time in which everything else was stripped away and he was left with God alone. A contemporary hymn begins with these words: You brought me to the desert, so You could be my water/you brought me to the fire, so You could be my shield/you brought me to the darkness, so You could be my morning light. This is how God will bring us to that place where we spiritually and physically hunger and thirst for Him. He will bring us to the desert a place where there is no water so that He can

2 be our water. Our bodies will long for his presence and power. Our souls will pant for the nourishment of his Spirit moving in us; and we will find that the satisfaction of God s love is better than life itself (Ps. 63:3-4). Take a few moments to pray and ask God to help you know how completely you need Him. This prayer can help you get started: O God, I need You. I want You. I long for You. Take away everything in my life which keeps me from You. Tear down the barriers I have built. You are my water. You are my shield. You are my morning light. Lead me to Yourself, O God, that I might pursue You and be with You. In the name of Jesus, Amen. Day 2: May 5, 2017: Seek the Lord Continually Psalm 105:1-4: Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples! Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works! Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice! Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually! By reflecting on the mighty works God did for Israel, Psalm 105 encourages us to give thanks to God, sing praise to God, and continually seek God. Sometimes we can become discouraged or distracted in our walk with the Lord. Sometimes we allow other things to become more important to us than seeking Him. By reminding us of God s faithfulness, power, provision, and grace, Psalm 105 calls us to return to putting God first in our lives. God promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that their descendants would inherit the land of Canaan (v. 7-11). When the family of Abraham was still a small band of wanderers in Canaan, God protected them (v ). When God brought famine on the land, He sent Joseph ahead of his family into Egypt and then raised him up to become ruler of Egypt next to Pharaoh (v ). Then Jacob and his sons and their families came to Egypt, and over the course of hundreds of years God fulfilled his promise to multiply the Israelites into a great nation (v ; Gen. 15:5; Ex. 1:7). As Israel grew the Egyptians oppressed and afflicted them, and so eventually God sent Moses and Aaron and through them he brought his mighty signs of judgment upon Egypt (v ). After forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus has made us his own. He has laid hold of us. The call of Jesus Come, follow me has set us on the race of discipleship. Our goal is God himself to reach our eternal home in Him. In order to faithfully finish the race we must keep our eyes fixed on the goal. Paul said that he pressed on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus had taken hold of him. Paul ran the race of discipleship in order to reach the prize which Christ himself had set. Another way to say this is that God s goal for us must be our goal for ourselves. Sometimes we can become confused about the goal. Health and wealth preachers distort the gospel by saying that treasures and comfort are the goal. If we think that having it all is the goal of following Jesus, we have become confused. Or, we may be fixated on seeing our children and grandchildren achieve happiness and success. This too is a confusion. While God wants to bless our families, He is not a means to the end of children who live the American dream. Neither did Christ Jesus make us his own to give us good social standing, promote our business, or make us peddlers of religious goods and services. Instead, we have received the upward call of God and so the goal is that we might be pure and blameless for the day of Christ (Phil. 1:10) and thus prepared to dwell with God for eternity. An essential part of pressing on toward the goal is forgetting what lies behind. Behind us are our sins, disappointments, and failures. Each day we can leave our sins in the past through confession, repentance, and trust in God s forgiveness (1 John 1:8-10). Each day we can leave our disappointments and failures behind by living in the faith that God who began a good work in us will bring it to completion on the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6). Getting stuck in what lies behind will only keep us from moving forward to what lies ahead. As John Broadus said, Don t go hunting in the rubbish of the past but open your eyes on the future, and thank God for the life of the present. Behind us also are our accomplishments. Sometimes what holds us back in the Christian life is not confusion about the goal or the burden

3 the poor and oppressed? Consistently investing ourselves in serving others develops the attitude and discipline of self-denial within us. Risk: Jim Martin writes, Most of us, in order to grow in our faith, will need to learn to trust God more deeply even in the midst of the possibility of fear and failure. The first step toward deeper trust might be to remove our training wheels. When we put ourselves in positions where we could fall, we have no choice but to trust God. In order to become like Christ we must move out of our comfort zones and take the risk of trusting God to do what we cannot do. Sacrifice: As disciples of Jesus we are called to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God (Romans 12:1). Being a living sacrifice means constantly offering up our whole selves on the altar of devotion and surrender to God. In order to live this out, each of us must prayerfully ask, Lord, what are you calling me to give up for the sake of your kingdom? Self-denial, risk, and sacrifice are costly. They are the contours of cruciform discipleship. These steps of faith could lead to sharing in Christ s sufferings and becoming like Christ in his death, as they did for Paul. Regardless, the more we pour ourselves out for the sake of others [Philippians 2:17] the closer to, and the more like Jesus, we will become. Take time now to pursue deeper intimacy with Christ Jesus. This prayer can help you get started: Lord Jesus, my desire is to know you and to be conformed to your image. I want to love others as you did. Teach me to deny myself in order to serve others. Lead me to step out of my comfort zone and trust you in situations where I could fall. Show me what you want me to give up for the sake of your kingdom. In your name I pray, O Lord, Amen. Day 7: May 10, 2017: Pressing on Toward the Goal Philippians 3:12-14: Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining the plagues God brought Israel out of Egypt (v ) and miraculously provided for their needs as they traveled in the wilderness (v ). Eventually, God fulfilled his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob by bringing Israel into Canaan so that they could obediently serve him as his people (v ). The history of God s works on Israel s behalf teaches us to seek the Lord continually because he is 1) faithful: he is the God who fulfills his promises and keeps his word; 2) powerful: he is the God who works miracles to judge and deliver; 3) the Provider: he is the God who provided for Israel s well-being throughout their entire history; and 4) gracious: he is the God who blesses his people not because they deserve it, but because that is the nature of his love (Dt. 7:6-11). To seek the Lord and his presence continually is to walk with Him in a daily relationship of fellowship and obedience. It involves daily setting aside time for prayer and meditation on Scripture. At a broader level, however, we constantly seek the Lord by keeping our hearts and minds fixed on Him throughout the day. Only in this way can we commune with Him continually. Take a few moments to thank God for His mighty works for and faithfulness to His people. Commit yourself to seeking the Lord continually. This prayer can help you get started: Lord, I praise you for all that you did for Israel. Truly you are faithful and powerful. Truly you provide for your people. Truly you are full of grace. Lord, I want to walk with you and seek you each day. Help me, Holy Spirit, to seek the Lord and his presence continually. In the name of Jesus, Amen. Day 3: May 6, 2017: Rejoice in the Lord Philippians 3:1: Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. The Christian life is a life of holy joy. Because God is love (1 Jn. 4:8), and because God has shown us his love in Jesus Christ (1 Jn. 4:9-10), and because God has poured his love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5), we have come to taste, see, and know that the God is good (1 Peter 2:1-3). Therefore, we delight in God. Our hearts are

4 drawn toward Him. His goodness, truth, beauty, and love bring infinite satisfaction to our souls. Paul wrote the letter to the church in Philippi from a prison cell (1:12-14). Yet his imprisonment did not hinder his joy in the Lord (1:4, 1:18, 2:2, and 2:17). How could prison bars possibly affect his delight in God s goodness? How could chains possibly break the satisfaction and confidence of being united with Christ (1:21)? Christian joy is not something we muster up. Rather, it is something we receive. Jesus said, These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full (Jn. 15:11); and So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you (Jn. 16:22). When we are united to the Crucified and Risen Christ through the indwelling Holy Spirit we receive the gift of holy joy which is our knowledge of, as well as our delight and satisfaction in, God s unchanging goodness. While we cannot create our joy, we can exercise it. Paul exhorted the Philippians Christians: Rejoice in the Lord! (3:1, 4:4). He was instructing them to celebrate God s greatness and all that God had done for them through Christ Jesus. We too can exercise the joy we have received from Christ. We too can rejoice in the Lord. We can spend time each day thanking God for the gift of salvation and for his many blessings to us. We can think about who God is the infinite Triune Creator of the Universe and delight in the fact that he is also our loving Heavenly Father. We can recognize that God s glory is all around us in the sunrise, in the cool spring air, in singing birds, and in the love of our family and friends and we can allow the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with holy happiness at these things. Even in the midst of hardship and suffering, we can rejoice in the Lord. When the world seems to be against us, we can remember that God is for us and we can rejoice! (Rom. 8:31-32). When loss and disappointment come crashing in, we can know that absolutely nothing can separate us from God s love and we can rejoice! (Rom. 8:35-39). for my sake. Each day help me to remember that everything else in life which is to my benefit is like the tiny light of a candle in comparison to the glorious light of your Son. Help me so to follow Jesus that I gladly lose all things in order to gain him and be found in him. For your glory I pray in Jesus Name, Amen. Day 6: May 9, 2017: Intimacy with Christ Philippians 3:10-11: that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. The intensity of Paul s passion for Jesus burns at its brightest in this passage. Here Paul s desire for intimacy with Christ was so great that he was yearning to share his sufferings and become like him in his death. This downward movement from the heights Jewish identity, knowledge, and zeal (3:2-6) to the depths of Christian suffering is rooted in Jesus own journey from equality to with God to death on a cross (2:6-8). Scholar Michael Gorman has coined the term cruciformity as a description of Christian spirituality as Paul expresses it here in Philippians 3 and in many other places in his writings. Cruciformity is conformity to the crucified Christ. It is a dynamic correspondence in daily life to the strange story of Christ crucified as the primary way of experiencing the love and grace of God. How do we grow closer to God? How do we become more like Jesus? Spiritual growth does not happen only through prayer, Bible study, and worship, although these practices are of foundational importance. These disciplines will bear their full fruit in our lives only when we are actively serving others for the sake of the gospel. Cross-shaped service requires self-denial, risk, and sacrifice. Selfdenial: When we put others first, we place ourselves second. When we use our time, abilities, and resources to bless another with Christ s love, we are not using those things in the service of our own wants and needs. How can you consistently serve the church? How can you consistently serve the community? How can you consistently serve

5 In order to grasp this we need to see how Paul s own life was an intentional imitation of Jesus. Earlier in the letter Paul had said to the Philippians, Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus (2:5). The Christ-like mindset which Paul was calling for was this: in humility count [same verb as in 3:7-8] others more significant than yourselves (2:3). Jesus was the example par excellence of this others-first mindset: He was in the form of God, [but] did not count [same verb again] equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant (2:6-7). In love God the Son put us before himself. He did not cling to his equality with God. Rather, he humbled himself by assuming human nature and becoming obedient to death on a cross for our sake (2:7-8). Jesus therefore lost more than we will ever be able to understand: He gave up the joys of heaven, the limitless pleasures of infinity, and his unbroken communion with the Father and the Spirit in order to live and die as a man, at the hands of the men he had created. Yet the selfgiving love of Jesus did not end as a loss. Instead, the Father raised him from the dead and exalted him to the place of Lordship over all things in heaven and on earth (2:9-11). Through his loss Christ gained the salvation and redemption of the world to the glory of God the Father. In order then to gain Christ and be found in him we must become like Him. In humility we must count other people as more significant than ourselves. We must come to see that we cannot cling to our privileges, possessions, and pride. We must understand that in comparison to knowing Christ our Lord, all of those things are rubbish. Further, we are called to lose what is to our gain (as Paul did) in order to gain Christ. Obedience to and fellowship with Jesus are found only along the way of the cross (Luke 9:23-27), which is the way of losing our lives for the sake of the gospel (Mark 8:35). Paul counted everything as loss because he was following the example of Jesus. So must we. Take time now to surrender yourself in a renewed way to knowing and following Jesus. This prayer can help you get started: Holy Father, thank you that Jesus gave up all of his privileges and suffered death When we are rejected or persecuted because we follow Jesus, we can remember that the prophets were treated in this way and that with them we share in the blessings of God s eternal kingdom and we can rejoice! (Matt. 5:10-12). When our enemies or our problems are too big for us, we can remember that our God reigns over them all and we can rejoice! (Psalms 97-98). Take time now to rejoice in the Lord. This prayer can help you get started: Merciful God, I rejoice in you. I rejoice in your perfect love. I rejoice in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I rejoice in the Holy Spirit who lives in me. I rejoice in being your child. Thank you, O God, for being who you are, and for loving me as you do. May your joy always be my strength and shield. In the name of Jesus, Amen. Day 4: May 7, 2017: No Confidence in the Flesh Philippians 3:2-6: Look out for those dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh though I myself have reasons for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reasons for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. We must always be on guard against religious pride and selfconfidence. We must always be aware of the temptation to think that our family name, or our religious zeal, or our good works, are the basis of our good standing with God. After encouraging the Christians in Philippi to rejoice in the Lord (3:1), Paul then proceeded to warn them against dangerous false teachers (the dogs, evildoers, and mutilators of v. 2). These false teachers were Jews who insisted that in order to be righteous before God, Gentiles had to convert to Judaism by being circumcised and becoming obedient to the Law of Moses. Paul opposed this teaching as a distortion of the gospel of grace.

6 If anyone could ever have boasted of being righteous before God, it was Paul: His ancestry was perfect he was a true Israelite and member of the tribe of Benjamin. He had the covenant marker of circumcision in his flesh. He was a well-educated Pharisee who knew the Law inside and out. He was so zealous for the Jewish faith that he actively and violently persecuted the church of Jesus as a heretical and dangerous sect. He was meticulous in his observance of the mandates of the Law and Jewish tradition. At one time Paul thought that all of these achievements of his own were the basis of his righteousness. Then Paul personally met Jesus (Acts 9) and discovered that he had been persecuting Israel s Messiah. Suddenly, Paul came to understand that all of his reasons for confidence in his own righteousness amounted to nothing: his Hebrew identity, his circumcision, his Pharisaic training, and his great zeal had not kept him from misinterpreting Israel s Scriptures and from being a violent enemy of God s Anointed One. These realizations turned Paul s world upside down and convinced him that no ethnic identity or religious works could make him righteous before God because at his core he was a proud and selfish and violent sinner. We must have the same realization as Paul did. Even if our family members have been devoted Christians and faithful church members for generations, that does not establish our righteousness before God. Even if we have consistently attended church, read our Bibles, and given our tithes for many years, that does not establish our righteousness before God. Even if we have shared the gospel and served the poor, that does not establish our righteousness before God. Even if we have never committed adultery or murder and have always been a good neighbor, that does not establish our righteousness before God. No, as followers of Jesus we know that our confidence before God does not come from ourselves but rather from whom Jesus is and what he has done for us. As Paul wrote, we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh Take time now to place your trust in Jesus, and not yourself, once again. This prayer can help you get started: Lord, I confess that I am a sinner and that all of my righteousness is like dirty rags. I do not place my confidence in myself, but rather in your Son Jesus Christ. I know that my righteousness comes from him alone. Protect me, Lord, from religious pride and self-confidence. Help me always to trust in you for my salvation. In Jesus name, Amen. Day 5: May 8, 2017: Losing the World to Gain Christ Philippians 3:7-9: But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith In his homily on this passage St. John Chrysostom said, For when the sun hath appeared, it is loss to sit by a candle: so that the loss comes by comparison, by the superiority of the other. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the Sun of Righteousness (Mal. 4:2), the very Light of God in the world (John 1:1-13). He is superior to the Law and Prophets which came before him. He is superior to anything else on which we might depend for our righteousness before God. After coming to know Christ as Lord, Paul came to count or consider (v. 7, 8 [2x]) everything in which he previously placed his confidence (3:2-6) as rubbish in comparison to the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus. For the sake of knowing Christ Paul lost everything: his excellent standing in Judaism as a Pharisee and opponent of Christianity, his obedience to the Law as the source of his own righteousness, his comfort, safety, and eventually, his life (Acts 21:13, 2 Cor. 11:23-29). Yet, for Paul, none of these losses were actually losses. In fact, he was glad to suffer these losses because by means of them he gained ever deeper intimacy with Jesus. Christ was the Sun, and in comparison with him everything else in the world was just a candle. So, and here is one of the paradoxes at the heart of Christian discipleship, gain comes through loss. We can only gain fellowship with Christ and transformation into his image by losing our attachment to the world (which is really our attachment to ourselves).