The devotions are merely guides to your time in prayer if you need it. This was prepared to help those that may not have time to construct framework for time spent with God.

January 2

Day 1 

Focus:  Confession and Repentance

Cleansing is the first step in preparation to enter the Shekinah Glory of God.

The Old Testament priest washed in the laver before entering the Holy Place, so we confess our sins, known and unknown, before God and ask for forgiveness.

When judgement was pronounced on the people of Nineveh (Jonah 3), the people repented, robed themselves in sackcloth and ashes in brokenness before the Lord. By repenting the Lord withheld judgement from the people.

So we start this fast by spiritually clothing ourselves in sackcloth and ashes in the form of confession of sins and repentance. This is letting God know we desire to be in his holy presence and we are preparing ourselves to do so.

Scripture Reading:  Psalm 139:1, 23-24  

¹ O Lord, you have searched me and have known me.

²³ Search me [thoroughly], O God, and know my heart;
Test me and know my anxious thoughts;
²⁴ And see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.

Worship Song:  Search Me O God/I Surrender All Medley

Search me, O God, and know my heart today,
Try me, O Savior, know my thoughts, I pray;
See if there be some wicked way in me;
Cleanse me from every sin, and set me free.

I praise Thee, Lord, for cleansing me from sin;
Fulfill Thy word and make me pure within;
Fill me with fire, where once I burned with shame;
Grant my desire to magnify Thy name.

Lord, take my life, and make it wholly Thine;
Fill my poor heart with Thy great love divine;
Take all my will, my passion, self and pride;
I now surrender, Lord, in me abide.

O Holy Ghost, revival comes from Thee;
Send a revival, start the work in me;
Thy Word declares Thou wilt supply our need;
For blessings now, O Lord, I humbly plead.

Petition:

This is where you speak your requests to God. When you address God, it is as you would your father and as you would a best friend. God hears you and knows what you need but He delights in you acknowledging Him as your heavenly Father. He loves your company and accepts your worship. He’s ready to hear you. He has his own way of answering so don’t be anxious, trust.

Thanksgiving:

Take a moment and thank Jesus for his sacrifice for you; for the blood that washed away all our sins… past, present and future. By faith, thank Him for answering your petitions. Praise him with your voice. Don’t worry about how you sound just say it in your own words. He loves to hear from you!

Praise Song:  Praise is What I Do 

Meditation/Journal:

How do you feel? What thoughts come to mind? Write them down in your journal.

 

End Day 1:  Shofar

January 3

Day 2

Focus: Fasting that God Regards

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 58:6-11

Fast to free the oppressed.

⁶ “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

Fast for a heart of compassion for others.
⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

When you fast and pray for others, then your needs will be met.
⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness^[a] will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.

Your petitions will be answered.
⁹ Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

You will be a light to others.
¹⁰ and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

And He will bring you water when all other mouths are dry from the desert heat.

¹¹ The Lord will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.

Worship Song:  Let the Rain of Your Presence Fall on Me 

Petition:

Write down the names of people you need and want to pray for during this fast. Write their need next to their name. Add names as they come to mind.

Pray for …

1. Family
2. Fellow Christians and unity in the body of Christ
3. The poor and sick
4. Those that are not in Christ
5. Those that lead this country.
6. Yourself

Pray as you are moved to pray.

Thanksgiving:

Oh Lord we thank you for the rain from Heaven. Open the floodgates of your Spirit and let Him flow afresh in our hearts. Let Him overflow replacing our doubts and fears with courage and boldness. Let us rise up in the power of your might, your will, your way, your mind! We thank you for opening heaven and drenching us with your presence!

Praise Song:  Let It Rain!

Meditation/Journal:

Think on the words of the songs you heard. Now take your journal and write what you feel.

End Day 2:  Shofar

January 4

Day 3

Focus: He Knows You

Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 16:3-6   

³ …‘Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem (all of Israel), “Your [spiritual] origin and your birth are from the land of the Canaanite; your [spiritual] father was an ^[a]Amorite and your [spiritual] mother a Hittite.

⁴ And as for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing, nor were you rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths.

⁵ No eye looked with pity on you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you; but you were thrown out in the open field, for you were loathed on the day that you were born.

⁶ “When I passed by you and saw you squirming in your [newborn] blood, I said to you while you were there in your blood, ‘Live!’ Yes, I said to you while you were there in your blood, ‘Live!’

 

This passage of scripture is addressed to Israel.  God  is saying by the way you [Israel] live, your upbringing must have been by a people that did not know Me. You weren’t loved or nurtured but spiritually cast off in your own blood to die.

Although the passage speaks of Israel, we can identify. Many of us if not all of us have felt rejected and unloved. We may have even reasoned whether what was said of us was true. Did we even deserve life? But thank God, Jesus came walking by! He saw what could have become our carcass and said “Live!” “Live  (your name), live! I love you and have need of you.”

Worship Song:  You Know My Name

 

Petition of Thanksgiving:  Pray Psalm 139

² You know when I sit down and when I rise up [my entire life, everything I do];
You understand my thought from afar.
³ You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And You are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
⁴ Even before there is a word on my tongue [still unspoken],
Behold, O Lord, You know it all.
⁵ You have enclosed me behind and before,
And [You have] placed Your hand upon me.
⁶ Such [infinite] knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is too high [above me], I cannot reach it.

⁷ Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
⁸ If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead), behold, You are there.
⁹ If I take the wings of the dawn,
If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
¹⁰ Even there Your hand will lead me,
And Your right hand will take hold of me.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness will cover me,
And the night will be the only light around me,”
¹² Even the darkness is not dark to You and conceals nothing from You,
But the night shines as bright as the day;
Darkness and light are alike to You.

¹³ For You formed my innermost parts;
You knit me [together] in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I will give thanks and praise to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was being formed in secret,
And intricately and skillfully formed [as if embroidered with many colors] in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were appointed for me,
When as yet there was not one of them [even taking shape].

¹⁷ How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ If I could count them, they would outnumber the sand.
When I awake, I am still with You.

Praise Song:  Graves into Gardens

Meditation/Journal:

By now, if you are really faithful to your times of fasting and devotion, I know by the time you reach this section you are ready to journal. Your mind is filling with thoughts, wonderful, good, refreshing thoughts. You actually can’t quite write fast enough! If that’s the case, feel free to use a recorder and play it back later!

End Day 3:  Shofar