Day 18: Renew | Lamentations 3:22-23 ESV Psalm 51:10-12 NIV

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Psalm 51:10-12 (NIV)

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23 (ESV)

For Reflection:

Springtime is one season I look forward to with great anticipation each year. I can’t wait for the seed catalog to come in the mail so that I can spend countless hours combing through the pages on cold winter nights, dreaming about my summer garden. I carefully sort through my current seeds and list ones I need to refresh this year, checking on my soil and container supplies. As I prepare and dream, I can practically feel myself mixing dirt with warm water, creating a perfect cozy space for each individual seed as I push it lovingly into its new home with a gentle encouragement to, “grow strong little buddy, you’re doing amazing”.

I know that soon enough my seedlings will be growing their best, stretching for sunlight, encouraged each day by my offering of lightly spritzed water, help from the warmth of grow lamps and of course, constant encouragement spoken over them, “grow strong little buddies, you’re doing amazing.”

I wonder what about gardening creates such anticipation and tender care in me. I ponder and reflect if maybe it has to do with giving life to something good and helping to produce beauty. Perhaps it’s the fact that spring comes carrying a hope of renewal from the cold, dark days; a promise for warmth and light and newness. Plants tucked beneath the icy cold surface of the earth reawaken from months of quiet stillness, refreshed and renewed, ready to grow strong and beautiful for all to see.

But what about me? What does refreshed and renewed look like or feel like to me? More than 8 hours of sleep? A long vacation on a tropical island? A hike in God’s creation? We are promised in Lamentations that the Lord’s love never ceases and that His mercies are new every morning. We can awake refreshed and renewed in the promise that God loves us and renews our spirit each day. We are not alone on this journey called life, but are instead cared for by the Master Gardener as He tends to each of us with His tender love and mercy. I picture myself as God’s seedling, tucked gently in the soil waiting to be watered, nurtured and cared for, encouraged with loving words each day. I smile as I picture God spritzing me with water as His mercies wash over me. And as I sit with this image I hear His tender words, “grow strong little buddy, you’re doing amazing.”

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, thank you for your tender mercies that wash over me each day. Help me to awaken renewed each morning, fully aware of your love and mercy. Thank you for your promise of hope and renewal, evidenced in your creation. Open my eyes to see the beauty of the world around me and to appreciate with wonder all that you have made new, tending gently with care and love. Renew my heart, my mind and my spirit as I enter today with anticipation for all you have in store for me. I love you. Amen.

I wonder what awaking renewed might feel like to me

Where do I see God’s promise of renewal around me?

Day 19: Receive | James 1:16-18 (NLT)

So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters.  Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.  He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession.

For Reflection:

It is about this time each year that winter starts to wear me down. I can make it through a couple of months of cold and dark by cozying in for the season. But eventually, my vitamin D stores deplete, the lack of sun and extra effort of bundling against the cold drain my energy and my spirits. This morning, even getting the kids to the bus stop, there was a bitter northern wind that made me want to go back to bed. In self-protection, I turned my back to the wind and by doing so faced into the sun that is nearly due south this time of year. The miniscule warmth of the January sun touched my face and it was enough. Enough to remind me that God is the God of light, and even in the depths of winter he is giving good gifts. Gifts of the brightest blue skies and the most spectacular sunrises, of a mirror smooth lake to skate and cute rosy cheeks, of long evening hours allowing for warm tea infused conversations with friends. He does not change like shifting shadows or with the tilt of the Earth. He consistently chooses us, gives to us and cherishes us like a prized possession. I am restored and revived by the mere receiving of his gifts. It's more simple than I often try to make it. We just get to turn our face towards his light and receive.

Let us pray:

God, I can think in circles about who you are. The upside down ways of your kingdom often leave my brain baffled. I should be giving to you, my creator and savior. But in your awesome ways, you somehow want to give to me. I give up on my over thinking, my analysis and self-reflection and I just recieve. I breath in and open myself. I breath out and receive your blessing. I breathe this prayer to you until it settles into my soul. I receive your love in my life. I trust you as the giver of all good gifts. I look to you as the origin of all light, ready to bring to my life a light brighter than the noonday sun (Job 11:17, NIV), brighter than a mid-summer day, never changing or fading away. I receive your light especially in the depths of winter, especially when I can barely feel its presence. Although in the winter of my soul I don't always feel it, I trust you when you say I am your prized possession because in your upside down kingdom you call those who are at the end of their rope as blessed (Matthew 5:3, MSG) and I receive your blessing today.

The Lord bless you and keep you;

The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;

The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26, NIV)

I wonder where I see God’s good and perfect gifts and light in my life right now…

I wonder what blessing God is gifting me with today…

Day 20: Rejuvenate | Romans 15:13, Matthew 14:13-14, 22-23

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13 NIV)

When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick….

Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. (Matthew 14:13-14, 22-23 NIV)

For Reflection:

On this cold and snowy day, the thought of being rejuvenated—revitalized, given new energy—sounds beyond amazing! What gives me energy? Options flood my mind: A brisk morning walk through snowy wooded trails along the shore? A rigorous workout? A good, slow stretch to awaken my muscles and lungs after a generously full, restful night of sleep? The morning sunrise with its fresh air and songs and sounds of nature waking up always invigorates my body, heart, mind, spirit, and soul, in the promise of a new day ahead.

Where do I look for energy? What depletes my energy? Do my patterns of re-energizing look like Jesus’s? As I reflect, I am aware that this season of winter on my calendar mirrors a season in my life. I try to remember the last time I walked to the water’s edge and quietly watched the sun rise, savoring the peaceful stillness before light awakens the gentle movements and songs of the new day. It has been too long. I long to be re-energized and look to Jesus—whose invitation to come in our burdened weariness to Him—comes with His promise of compassion, gently teaching us His unforced rhythms of life.

In our passage, Jesus has just received the news that his cousin, John the Baptist, the one who prepared the way, who baptized Him, has been brutally executed. Jesus is grieving and processing. What does He do? He takes action to create space for connection with God the Father. While the time in the boat would have provided some space, He was immediately greeted on the other side by crowds again. Weary, I might desire to turn the other way; yet Jesus leaned in. Even as grief and weariness weighed, Jesus had compassion on the people. He moved toward them and healed them. How is this possible? What does He want us to see and know (and do)?

After healing the sick (and performing another miracle), Jesus then sends His disciples ahead to the other side, and Jesus went up to the mountain to pray. Alone. Jesus instructs and models that time alone, in solitude, resting in connection with God is needed to restore, rejuvenate, fill and guide. He lived it.

While it might seem that Jesus kept going from place to place, from need to more needs, there is more to His pattern. Although Jesus’s movement was forward, it wasn’t nonstop. He met many needs, yet not all. He paced and prioritized, sought and found those in-between moments for connection, abiding, with God. To be still in His presence.

What does His pattern teach me? Time being still, in prayer and solitude with God the Father provides strength, wisdom, and cultivates resilience. Even short moments of connection and rest in God, little Sabbaths–are restorative. They enabled Jesus to continue. While Sabbath has roots in the Old Testament, the concept of sabbath is important and relevant in our lives and world even today. If we’ll look beyond the barriers to the invitation to come to Him, to be still and know and listen. From a few minutes to a full day a week or more, these opportunities to reconnect with God fill us, restore our peace, our hope and faith, provide strength and endurance for all we do.

I linger in our Romans verse, in the idea of being filled with all joy and peace, overflowing with hope. I notice how this is connected with trusting God. Am I trusting Him? Am I creating space to be alone with Him? Jesus shows us how.

Let us pray:

Precious Jesus, you show us how to live, to lean in, to create space for connection with You. Thank you! Would you show me how to be still, to integrate patterns of connecting and resting in You; teach me to work from that place of rest and strength. Lord, help grow in me a desire for your presence and guidance, your grace and power to strengthen, rejuvenate, re-energize, and restore me.

Lord, we walk through seasons of life that are hard and draining. Amid our very full days, we are faced with many needs and expectations. Thank you that you see us and you understand. Would you cultivate resilience in us, so that we may be more present, compassionate, and loving with the people around us--in our families, neighborhoods, schools, and churches, no matter what comes our way.

Would you grow a desire in our hearts to create space for solitude and prayer, for mini-Sabbaths and extended opportunities to connect with and in you. Help me to abide in you, open myself to be seen, known, loved, and filled by you. Thank you for loving me, for making your home with and in me. Help me to follow your example, to live out your rhythms of grace and life, that I might learn to live and love fully, as you teach us. Oh how I love you. In your holy and precious name, Jesus, I pray. Amen.

I wonder why I keep trying to power through in my own strength? 

Am I willing to be still?

I wonder what it would look like in my life to intentionally integrate patterns

of connecting with God,

then operating from that place of strength and rest in Him the way Jesus lived?

Day 21: Remain | John 15: 4-5, 9-12 (NIV)

Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:4-5 (NIV)

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.  If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.  I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.  My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. John 15:9-12 (NIV)

For Reflection:

The bright sunshine feels welcoming this morning. As I reflect on abiding, the rays reflect brilliantly on the snow that still covers the ground, casting light in all directions. A squirrel scurries across the yard, and as I watch it, a cascade of deep purple flowers on the window sill catches my eye. The orchid blooms are stunning in contrast to the backdrop of snow. I count six of them arrayed along a thick, dark green stem, with a seventh bud ready to burst open and stretch its petals. Another stem, once prolific, with its supporting stake still connected, extends in the opposite direction: dehydrated, faded and lifeless, its flowers long gone. I make note that I need to cut and remove it. I am moved by this picture before me of a life connected and nourished by the root and one whose connection has been disrupted.

Jesus is teaching His disciples how and why to abide, to remain, to stay connected with Him – deeply at the core—so that they and we may be fully alive and fruitful. In the upper room, knowing He will be taken away soon, Jesus uses this analogy of a vine and branches, with God as the gardener, to illustrate what I see in this orchid on my windowsill. He speaks also of love, joy, friendship, and loving one another. A promise here is when we remain in Him, we can become fully alive, grounded in His love and bear the fruit of His love in our lives, families, schools, workplaces, churches and the world we live in. All of this is rooted in our ongoing, deep connection in relationship with Him, and through this, He restores us day by day. I reflect on my relationship with Jesus. How would I describe it?

I think about my actions, thoughts, and interactions over this past week. Lord, what do you want me to see? Is there anything about this passage that makes me feel defensive? I talk with Jesus about that.

Abiding is so important to Jesus that He prays this for His disciples and us in John 17, just before they go the garden where He will be taken captive: ”…that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us… Then, “…that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

Do I feel the same urgency Jesus felt? What steps can I take to remain more deeply connected with and in Him as I work, play, study, or take care of children or aging parents, that His love, joy, and peace might flow through me to others?

Let us pray:

Jesus, I am blown away to know that you so deeply desire an abiding relationship with me that you prayed for this – for you and for me – even before you sacrificed your life... I sit in silence with you and listen for a moment… Lord, I want to learn to remain in you and you in me; will you show me and help me live in your grace and forgiveness, in peace, with joy, and share Your kindness and love nourishment that comes only from You. Help me to grow in relationship with you…to experience you, receive your love, fullness of joy, and peace… help me to see and live out your vision for ongoing connection between us—I in you and you in me… that from the core of my being, heart-to-heart with you, that I might live fully nourished and fueled by your wisdom, grace and love, forgiveness freely given to me, to guide all I am and do.

I pray along with Jesus: This prayer is not for me alone. I pray also for those all who believe and will come to know you, that all of us may be one. Holy God—Our Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, just as you are One and are in me and I am in you, I pray that we may all be one… May the love you share be in us and that each of us, that I myself, would remain in your love as you remain in me, and each of my brothers and sisters in you.

I wonder what it could look like to remain in God more as I move through my day?

I wonder what fruit you would like to bear in and through my life?

I wonder what ways Jesus will restore me as I grow in relationship with Him?

Day 22: Abide, Remaining with God | Ephesians 3:14-21 (NIV)

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Ephesians 3:14-21 (NIV)

Moving forward from these 21 days, we pray Paul's prayer from Ephesians 3, as each of us seek to remain in God, abiding in His love, as He abides also in us.

Wondering about a next step? If you are looking for ways to continue growing and abiding in God, to cultivate a pattern of connecting with Him in His word each day, we have compiled a few resources and practices below focused on connecting in His word that you can integrate into study and prayer time.

Pay attention to your growing desire for God and His word! Find quiet moments, however brief, to connect with Him, to reflect on His word…independently and/or with others in Community. Draw near with the expectation and confidence that He is near. He promises it! He loves you and is with you; He remains in you as you remain in Him! 

Prepared content for Scripture and devotions:

  • Apps that provide daily devotions with scripture passages, reflections and prayers, Bible study plans and more. A few examples: Lectio 365 (with audio), You Version Bible App, The Bible Project App

  • Daily verses or devotions delivered to your Inbox. There are many! A few examples: Today Devotional (also includes audio), Faith Gateway, Bible Gateway daily verses. You Version also will push daily verses to your email if desired.  

  • The Bible Project website has a variety of resources and tools

  • Are there other Bible teachers, preachers, authors, or spiritual leaders whose blogs you read or podcasts, sermons you listen to? Check their websites, as many also may provide free subscriptions to daily devotions or other tools and resources.

  • Sign up to repeat these 21 Days reflections and prayers. See more details and the link at the end of this message.


Practices for Engaging Scripture With God

Read, Reflect and Pray (Psalms, Gospels): Read and pray through a psalm, or a few passages in one of the Gospels, Paul's letters, or from another book of the Bible each morning. This is something you can do independently, with family or a friend, or a small group. Some possible questions for reflection and prayer:

  • What word or phrases stand out to me in this passage? (Ask Him. Notice.) Remember, Jesus is near. He loves you, longs for relationship with you, and continues to pray for you.

  • Observe how it made you feel and reflect why. Ask: what might God be stirring me to notice in myself, my life, patterns, relationships, etc.?

  • What are the promises in this passage?

  • Are there commands? Warnings?

  • Is there an example that God is illustrating for me through His people in this passage?

  • Ask God questions, such as, "God, what would you have me see or to understand in my mind and in my heart? What would you have me do? When?

  • Reflect: What is God saying to me? What will I do about it?

  • Pray.

  • You may also wish to take notes and / or journal as you go.

Imaginative Prayer. Explore a Bible story through your imagination. (See Day 12 for an example that was shared during these 21 Days of Prayer.) Read a story or passage where Jesus is engaging with others. Read it a couple times to familiarize yourself with the story. Close your eyes, pray and picture yourself in the story. With Jesus. Let it play out in your mind...let your imagination carry you. Where are you in the story? Let your imagination take you through the story. Notice what you might see, hear, smell, feel. How does the story unfold? Imagine engaging personally with Jesus. What does He say?... Reflect, journal, and talk with God in prayer about the experience. 

Engage in Community Groups for Bible Study and Spiritual Growth. Winter groups begin rolling out this week and provide great opportunities to open and explore God's word together, pray and grow in relationship with Him and others. Find your place. Check our website for details!

 


Abide: Remaining with God | 21 Days of prayer | January 5-25, 2025

Abide: Remaining with God

Jesus invites us to connect our hearts with His. Let’s move into 2025 with intention as we seek to be with Him throughout our days. During this time, we will refocus our attention, intentions, and energy; remember His presence, promises, and where we have seen Him move; as He restores us in His way and timing. Passages and reflections are released daily beginning January 5th.