A Daily Devotional

I madly invented and wrote this up in the last two days for a few people I'm trying to keep tabs on and wanting to help. This is Very Basic. Not too much scripture. The 'Prayer each day' is really just the collect for Sunday. Enjoy!

Daily Devotional Instructions
1. Pray the prayer each day. Think carefully about each word that you are praying. Each day think especially about a particular word, I’ve written each focus word for each day.
2. Look up and read the Bible Passage for each day.
Write down your answers to the following questions each day.
A.Where did this happen?
B.Who is speaking?
C.Who is being spoken to?
D.What does this tell me about the character and nature of God?
E.What does this tell me about myself?
F.Is there anything I need to change about my life based on what I have read?
G.What steps will I take to make these changes?

3. Read my note to you each day
Only After you have done everything else.

4. Pray A. for yourself B. for your family C. For the church and world

5. Write out Three things you are thankful for
that God has done for you this day or the day before.


Prayer for 7/21-7/26
Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask; through the worthiness of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Monday (7/21)
Pray the Prayer
Meditate on the Focus Word: Fountain of all Wisdom
Scripture: Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Answer the Questions
My Note to You
The word ‘fear’ here does not mean ‘afraid’ in the way that you are probably used to. It really means ‘awe’, ‘wonder’. It implies that God is bigger than you, that you cannot fully know him, and you don’t always know what he is going to do next, especially if your heart and mind are full of foolishness. When you begin to contemplate the vastness and greatness of God, you are entering the realm of wisdom, of understanding. This is hard work. Today, begin to do the ‘Hard Thing’. Put away foolishness. Quiet yourself before God so that he can teach you, so that you can become wise.
Close in Prayer and write your Thank You List

Tuesday (7/22)
Pray the Prayer
Meditate on the Focus Word: Necessities
Scripture: Matthew 11:25-30
Answer the Questions
My Note to You
In the world, without the knowledge and love of Jesus, a person will work very hard, will bear the full measure of anxiety and worry, and be all on their own. If you begin to follow Jesus and to love him, more and more he will ask you to give him what you have. And what do you have to offer him? Wealth? Probably not. Brilliance? Maybe. Time? Not that much. No, you have yourself to give him—your sin, your anxiety, your worry, your busyness, your children, your relationships, your time, your interests, your work, your poverty, all the things that you hide from other people, and even sometimes from yourself. Give him all these things, and in return, he will give you his ‘burden’, which is his love, his work, his concerns, his wisdom, his vision. His ‘burden’ is much lighter and easier than yours.
Close in Prayer and write your Thank You List

Wednesday (7/23)
Pray the Prayer
Meditate on the Focus Word: Ignorance
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:20-30
Answer the Questions
My Note to You
The world values very different things than God does. In the world, we must make our own way, we must work very hard to convince other people, and sometimes even ourselves, that we are intelligent, capable, interesting, and able to succeed. With God, we discover that we cannot do anything on our own, that in the light of His Glory, everything we have turns to a shadow. Our knowledge, our wisdom, our wealth is nothing compared to his. In fact, the greatest thing we have is Him. He gives us His wisdom when we are foolish. He gives us His love when we are lonely. He gives us His intelligence when we lack understanding. He gives us His strength when we are weak. In return, he receives the credit, the glory.
Close in Prayer and write your Thank You List

Thursday (7/24)
Pray the Prayer
Meditate on the Focus Word: Compassion
Scripture: Matthew 9:35-38
Answer the Questions
My Note to You
When we see how patient and compassionate and merciful Jesus was, and is, it opens our eyes to the needs of so many around us. Rather than considering their behavior, the awful way that most people act on a daily basis, the compassion of Jesus can open our eyes to see what might cause people to be so difficult. They are like ‘sheep without a shepherd’, they are following their own hearts, rather than God. That is a difficult place to be. Jesus was patient with the crowds. Practice, today, being patient with those in your life who are wandering around directionless, unable to see what God is doing.
Close in Prayer and write your Thank You List


Friday (7/25)
Pray the Prayer
Meditate on the Focus Word: Unworthiness
Scripture: Luke 15:11-32
Answer the Questions
My Note to You
At different moments in life, we might find ourselves standing in each place in the parable*. Initially, when we come to faith, we are in the place of the younger son, having run from home, having discovered that we need the Father, and then turning around to go back and meet him. That turning around is called Repentance. But after a while it is easy to find ourselves in the place of the older son—jealous, distrustful, not taking full advantage of life in the Father’s House. And even sometimes, when you seek to bring people into God’s House, you might find yourself in the place of the Father, heartbroken when someone you love walks away, but hopeful that they will repent and turn around. Ultimately, however, God is our Father, calling us day by day to turn and seek him, welcoming us when we repent and turn to him, rejoicing when we seek his face. (*This idea comes from Henry Nowen’s The Prodigal Son)
Close in Prayer and write your Thank You List

Saturday (7/26)
Pray the Prayer
Meditate on the Focus Word: Blindness
Scripture: Mark 10:46-52
Answer the Questions
My Note to You
Not very often do the people who were healed by Jesus get their names recorded in the Gospels. But for some reason Mark preserved this man’s name. Perhaps Bartimaeus was known in the Christian Community and Mark wanted people to know it was he who had been healed in this way. Notice how much Bartimaeus wants to be healed, how he is shouting out, how he leaps up, and even more, how Jesus hears him. So many things make us blind spiritually—sin, pride, unwillingness to do the hard thing that God is asking—all these things make our hearts hard. But with one word, Jesus can heal us and help us see him, his will, and his plans.
Close in Prayer and write your Thank You List

Prayer for 7/27-8/2
O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Sunday (7/27)
Pray the Prayer
Meditate on the Focus Word: Protector
Scripture: Matthew 13:31-33,44-49
Answer the Questions
My Note to You
The Kingdom of Heaven, also called the Kingdom of God is God’s Reign on earth. It is an interesting place to abide. The Kingdom of God is something only we Christians know about. We know that Jesus, in living, dying, rising and ascending to the right hand of God, has won, has beat sin and death completely. We know the end of the story—that he is coming back to judge the world and gather us to himself. But for a while, we live in a world that doesn’t know this. In this way, the Kingdom of Heaven is hidden. You have to pay attention to see it and know it is there. If your eyes are open, if you are attentive, you will begin to see it all around you.
Close in Prayer and write your Thank You List

Monday (7/28)
Pray the Prayer
Meditate on the Focus Word: Trust
Scripture: Proverbs 3:5-6
Answer the Questions
My Note to You
Try to memorize these two verses. Consider, then, what it means to trust someone, what makes them ‘trustworthy’. You wouldn’t want to depend on, or trust someone who has previously let you down. Look at the word ‘lean’. You might lean on someone when you need help walking. Spiritually, I have asked you sometimes to lean on me, to let me hold you up. But really, you need to lean on God, to trust him, rather than yourself. If you lean on yourself, you’re more than likely to fall over. Sometimes when you have leaned on me, you have still fallen over, because I haven’t always been able to hold you up. If you lean on God, you’re leaning on something solid, something that won’t give way.
Close in Prayer and write your Thank You List

Tuesday (7/29)
Pray the Prayer
Meditate on the Focus Word: Strong
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 12:1-10
Answer the Questions
My Note to You
Paul is showing here how God turns our understanding of reality on its head. In the world physical strength, emotional strength, wealth and success are the most valuable things. We adore and admire, as a culture, those most strong, most beautiful, most ‘together’. But in the Kingdom of God, the only strong one is God himself. If we ever shift the focus or attention away from him, and on to ourselves, and if we are honest, we will find that we have nothing to brag about. In fact, when we are weakest, God’s glory shines the greatest because he is able to do so much in our lives. Paul uses himself as an example. God gave him a great vision, a transforming experience of himself, but at the same time, he allowed him to be afflicted, or hurt, and weak in his body so that Paul would have no reason to brag, or boast to anyone, having instead to depend every day on God for strength. Likewise, if you trust God, if you lean on him, he will take your weakness and use it to show the whole world his power and glory.
Close in Prayer and write your Thank You List

Wednesday (7/30)
Pray the Prayer
Meditate on the Focus Word: Holy
Scripture: Isaiah 6:1-6
Answer the Questions
My Note to You
In the same way that Paul was ‘taken up into heaven’ Isaiah saw into heaven himself, had a glimpse if Good’s holiness. It is hard for us to understand the holiness of God because nothing in our life is free from trouble and sin, even the good and wonderful things of life (like having a baby) involve some level of difficulty and pain. But when you belong to Jesus and love him, he begins, slowly, to make you holy. He does this first by sharpening your conscience, the terrible feeling you have when you give in to temptation. Second, he gives you a new longing for and understanding of goodness. Someday, when Jesus comes back, we will see God’s holiness and beauty uncluttered by the sin and trouble of the world, but until then we long for it, and pray every day for God to continue to give us his perfect holiness.
Close in Prayer and write your Thank You List

Thursday (7/31)
Pray the Prayer
Meditate on the Focus Word: Increase/Multiply
Scripture: 1 Kings 17:8-16
Answer the Questions
My Note to You
This is my favorite miracle in the whole Bible. Notice the resigned desperation of the widow. Notice the requirement of generosity—she had to take care of Elijah. Notice the way God provided for her at the most basic level. With God there is always enough. Sometimes he gives you more than you need, but not very often. When we have more than we need we tend to stop trusting him and so he gives us only what we need, when we need it, and no more. God does this with information as well. He doesn’t let us know about the future, because then we would try to control it. He doesn’t give us all the answers we want, because then we might take credit for that knowledge. He often doesn’t give us all the money we think we need, because we misuse it. He gives us Enough, because he loves us.
Close in Prayer and write your Thank You List

Friday (8/1)
Pray the Prayer
Meditate on the Focus Word: Ruler/Guide
Scripture: Matthew 21:1-10
Answer the Questions
My Note to You
Jesus is really on his way to the cross, here, to die for all the people who are shouting and praising him now, but who will, in a few days, reject and despise him. Jesus accepts their praises, but when they turn against him, he doesn’t stop his plan, his purpose in going to the cross for us. He keeps going. It is easy to become weary in daily following Jesus, to feel like life isn’t getting better, or the glory that you once experienced, when you first met Jesus, is diminished and difficult to see. It is difficult to look at the suffering of the cross and see Jesus there as the King that he is. This happens to every Christian. It happened even to the disciples who were afraid and ran away at the most critical moment. But Jesus is patient, merciful, abounding in steadfast love. When you feel yourself drawn away, turn instead your steps back towards him. Ask him to guide you, to be King in your life.
Close in Prayer and write your Thank You List

Saturday (8/2)
Pray the Prayer
Meditate on the Focus Word: Temporal/Eternal
Scripture: Matthew 24:3-14
Answer the Questions
My Note to You
As Christians, members of the hidden Kingdom of Heaven, we live in an interesting time. Knowing already the end of the story—that Jesus has destroyed death and the grave, that he is coming again—we live with the knowledge and understanding of heaven already. Eternal life, living with Jesus forever, is already happening for us. Our daily lives become more and more heavenly the more we seek after Jesus and love him. But at the same time, we live in a world broken by sin, clouded by blindness and troubled by sorrow. Our daily lives are a cluttered mixture of God’s love and eternal action, and the limited and ‘temporal’, the passing work of our hands. We live with one foot in those things passing away, and the other foot in those things that will last forever. But as we go on, our lives should more and more be marked by things that will never pass away—by the sharing of our faith, by the investment in our children, by the love of Jesus permeating everything we do and say.
Close in Prayer and write your Thank You List


Sunday (8/3) Go to Church.