COUN5073 Devotional One
COUN5073 Devotional One
Instructions: Attached are devotionals. Please provide feedback in 1-2 paragraphs on each devotional ensuring that each has a heading (Dev. 1, 2, 3, etc). 1-Devotional The following is an excerpt from Richard Foster’s book Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home: Today the heart of God is an open wound of love. He aches over our distance and preoccupation. He mourns that we do not draw near to Him. He grieves that we have forgotten Him. He weeps over our obsession with muchness and manyness. He longs for our presence. He is inviting us to come home to where we belong, to come home to that for which we are created. His arms are stretched out wide to receive us. His heart is enlarged to take us in. For too long we have been in a far country; a country of noise and hurry and crowds, a country of climb, push, and shove, a country consumed by technology, a country of frustration, fear, and intimidation. And He welcomes us home: home to serenity and peace and joy, home to friendship and fellowship and openness, home to intimacy and acceptance and affirmation. The key to this home, this heart of God, is prayer. And if the key is prayer, the door is Jesus Christ. How good of God
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to provide us a way into His heart. He knows that we are stiff-necked and hard-hearted, so He has provided a means of entrance. Jesus, the Christ, lived a perfect life, died in our place, and rose victorious over all the dark powers so that we might live through Him. We may enter through the door of God’s grace and mercy in Jesus Christ. 2-Devotional The following is an excerpt from Richard Foster’s Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home: “Prayer is the inner bath of love into which the soul plunges itself.” St. John Vianney How very strange that the Prayer of Examen has been lost to we who live in an age of obsessive introspection. It is actually possible for people today to go to church services week in and week out for years without having a single experience of spiritual examen. What a tragedy! What a loss! No wonder people are weak. No wonder they are barely hanging on. How much richer and fuller is the biblical witness. The Psalmist declares, “Yahweh, you examine me and know me” (Ps 139:1). King David witnesses, ‘The LORD searches every mind, and understands every plan and thought” (1 Chronicles 28: 9). Paul reminds us that “the Spirit searches everything even the depths of God” (1 Cor 2:30). These folks of faith knew the examen of God, and they experienced it not as a dreadful thing but as something of immeasurable strength and empowerment. So what is this prayer of examen? It has two basic aspects: 1. Examen of Consciousness through which we discover how God has been present to us throughout the day and how we responded to His loving presence. It is the means God uses to make us more aware of our surroundings. He invites us to see and to hear what is around us, and, through it all, to discern the footprints of the Holy. 2. In the Examen of Conscience we are inviting the Lord to search our hearts to the depths. Far from being dreadful, this is a scrutiny of love. We boldly speak the words of the Psalmist, “ Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps 139: 23-24). Precious Savior, why do I fear Your scrutiny? Yours is an examen of love. Still I am afraid…afraid of what may surface. Even so I invite You to search me to the depths so that I may know myself and You in fuller measure.” Amen. 3-Devotional From Jesus Today by Sarah Young: When you trust in Me, you take refuge in Me. So trusting Me is much more than a matter of your words; it is mainly a matter of your will. As you go through this day, you will encounter many things that can make you anxious, including some of your thoughts. If you don’t stay alert, anxious feelings can slip into your day without your noticing them. When this happens, you may wonder why you suddenly start to feel bad. Usually, you just ignore those feelings. Or you may try to numb them with food, drink, television, gossip, or other distractions. How much better it is to “catch” the worry-thoughts before thy take hold of you. That is why I say, “Be on the alert!” If you are watchful and alert, you can choose to take refuge in Me whenever anxiety comes to you. A refuge is a place that provides protection or shelter: a safe haven. It is something you turn to for help, relief, or escape. I am eager to be your Refuge, and I am with you at all times. Nonetheless, you must exert your will by turning to Me for help. Thus, you make Me your refuge, demonstrating your trust in Me. I Peter 5:8, Proverbs 18:10, Ps 57:1, Ps 34:8 4-Devotional The following is an excerpt from E.M. Bounds Prayer: It was said of the late Charles Spurgeon that he glided from laughter to prayer with the naturalness of one who lived in both elements. With him, the habit of prayer was free and unfettered. His life was not divided into compartments, the one shut off from the other with a rigid exclusiveness that barred all intercommunication. He lived in constant fellowship with his Father in heaven. He was ever in touch with God, and thus it was as natural for him to pray as it was for him to breathe. That is the attitude with regard to prayer that ought to mark every child of God. There are, and there ought to be, set seasons of communion with God, when everything else is shut out and we come into His presence to talk to Him and to let Him speak to us. And out of such seasons will spring tat beautiful habit of prayer that weaves a golden bond between earth and heaven. Without these seasons of prayer, set as a pattern in our lives, the habit of prayer can never be formed; without them, there is no nourishment for the spiritual life. By means of them, the soul is lifted into a new atmosphere—the atmosphere of the heavenly city, in which it is easy to open the heart to God and to speak with Him as friend speaks with friend. Thus, in every circumstance of life, prayer is the most natural outpouring of the soul, the unhindered turning to God for communion and direction. Whether in sorrow or in joy, in defeat or in victory, in weakness or in health, in calamity or in success, the heart leaps to meet with God, just as a child runs to his other’s arms, ever sure that her sympathy will meet every need. Lord Jesus, help me to live in an attitude of prayer. May I not allow worries to consume me; instead, may I pour my heart to You, and learn to rest in Your arms as I learn to pray with a sincere heart. Amen. 5-Devotional We must pray with great urgency, with intensity, and with repetition. We must not only pray, but we must also pray again and again. We must not get tired of praying. We must be thoroughly in earnest, deeply concerned about the things for which we ask, for Jesus Christ made it very plain that the secret of prayer and its success lie in its urgency. We must press our prayers upon God. Too often we get fainthearted and quit praying at the point where we ought to begin. We let go at the very point where we should most strongly hold on. Consequently, our prayers are weak because they are not impassioned by an unfailing and resistless will. God loves the importunate pleader, and send him answers that would never have been granted but for the persistence that refuses to let go until the petition craved for is granted. E. M. Bounds Dear Heavenly Father, help me to remain persistent in my prayers. May not become discouraged or fainthearted. Help me to remain passionate about prayer. Help me to continue with my quiet time and not make excuses. Help me to listen to Your still quiet voice, and to wait in Holy expectation. Amen. 6-Devotional From Jesus Today by Sarah Young: I want you to love Me, listen to My voice, and hold fast to Me—for I am your Life. This is the way of wisdom. I am training you to stay close to Me as you walk along perilous paths. In any close relationship, listening and loving are vitally important—and they are interconnected. Listen to Me as I rejoice over you with gladness and quiet you with My Love. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you receive My glorious Love in full measure. This will dramatically increase your love for Me. The world is full of dangers so it is wise to hold tightly to My hand. Listen through my Spirit and My Word while I talk you through tough times. Pour out your heart to Me, remembering I am your refuge. As you stay in dialogue with Me, I help you handle whatever is before you. Hold fast to Me, beloved, for I am your Life. Deuteronomy 30:20, Zephaniah 3:17, Ps 62:8 7-Devotional From Jesus Today by Sarah Young: It has been said that a family can survive without a nation, but a nation cannot survive without the family. God established the family by bringing a man and a woman together in marriage. Then came children and grandchildren. That is His order. The Bible tells us, however, that in the last days there will be an attack on the family. One of the signs of the end times will be a lack of respect for one’s parents. We read in 2 Timothy 3, “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy” (verses 1–2). We have certainly lost sight of God’s commandment to “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.” (Exodus 20:12). Notice the commandment is to honor your father and mother—not honor your father and father, or your mother and mother, or your mother and her live-in lover or partner. We tamper with God’s order at our own peril. Know this: Satan always hates what God loves. God loves the family. He established the marriage of a man and woman as a physical representation of His love for the church and the church’s love for Him. God effectively says, “You want to know how much I love my people? Look at the way that Christian man loves his wife. You want to know how much My people love Me? Look at the way that Christian woman loves her husband. This is my model. This is my example for all of you to observe.” Therefore it should come as no surprise that the devil would try to undermine the family. By Greg Laurie
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