Week 11: 21 Weeks of Prayer & Fasting
WEEK 11
A Call to Declaration - God the Ultimate Artist
You alone are the LORD You have made the heavens, The heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The seas and all that is in them You give life to all of them And the heavenly host bows down before You." (Nehemiah 9:6 NASB)
Something we have a lot of here in Chester are amazing sunrises and sunsets. Each day they are completely different - like a clean canvas which God sets up and shows us how truly amazing an artist He is. But even with how beautiful each one is, they could never compare to beauty He displays in how He has created you and I!
"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10 NKJV)
The Apostle Paul writes, "we are His workmanship"... in the Greek, the word there is "poema", where we get the English word poem. It literally means "a weaving together". Think about that for a few moments. What IS a poem? It is the culmination of how the writer felt - all of their thoughts, desires, emotions, and dreams poured out and woven together into word and verse. I like to think that is how created you and I - that at a given moment in time all of the Father's love, desires, and intentions were welling up inside of Him, so He called for the Son to write it all down. And as He poured out those emotions, Jesus wove them all into who He created you to be. Then He finished His poem and put YOUR name on it... and you came into being. Wow!
RESPOND
Take some time right now to read through Psalm 139 and let the full weight of those words settle into your spirit. Let them remind you of the exactness of who God created you to be - how specific and intentional He was, not only in your looks (hair and eye color, your height, the shape of your features), but also in your personality, the things you like and that make you smile, and even the things that make you sad or angry. He was the one who put all of that into you.
In Psalm 8:4, the psalmist asks, "What is man that You are mindful of him?" Here's another way to read that: "What is man that Your mind is full of him?" What does that say to you about God's love for you? How does it encourage you to know you are in God's thoughts all day long?
REPENT
Heavenly Father, I come to you right now, and I ask you to forgive me for thinking you do not care. Forgive me for the times I've thought You just created me and left me on my own. Help me to let Your word come alive in me - for the reality of what You have declared over me to speak hope to my situation. And help me to take the hope I receive and pour it out into the people around me.
I also ask that You forgive me for thinking You don't care about my community, or what happens in our state. Forgive me for my lack of prayer and committing these things to You. Change my heart and let the plans You have for me - those things You spoke into me as You created me - come to pass. I am Yours. Use me as You will to affect change in those around me.
PRAY
For God to open the eyes of your neighbors to how much He cares about them. That Holy Spirit would reveal to them His plan for them - plans to prosper them, not to harm them like the enemy says. Plans to give them hope and a future.
That our state leaders would craft and pass legislation which honors the amazing beauty of God's handiwork in creating human life. That they would be overwhelmed with the reality of how precious every human life is.
WORSHIP
Heavenly Father, I declare Your word as I worship today, and I come into agreement with it!
I agree with Psalm 100:3-5... that You Yourself are God. It is You who have made us, and not we ourselves. Lord, we are Your people and the sheep of Your pasture. Today I enter into Your gates with thanksgiving and Your courts with praise! I thank You Lord and I praise Your name, Jesus! I declare that You ARE good and Your love endures forever! Thank You that Your faithfulness doesn't just stop with me, but it continues through ALL generations!
I agree with Isaiah 42:6-7, where You declare that You have called me in righteousness and promise to take hold of my hand. Thank You for keeping me, and I allow You to make me to be an example of Your covenant with man, and to let Your light shine through me as a light for the lost. Use that light in me to open eyes that are blind and to free those captive in prisons of addiction, spiritual darkness, and sin - and to release those in that darkness from the dungeons they are in.
You are the Creator, Lord! Let Your name be lifted up and magnified in all the earth! From the rising of the sun in the morning, until it sets in the evening, let Your name be praised!