21 Days of Prayer & Fasting - Day 16

Day 16 - Tues 1/23/24
Good day to each of you!  Let's go in...

Devotional Scripture & Thought
Here is today's scripture with underlined areas of the verse(s) for us ALL to contemplate. I will share a brief thought and you are invited to share your thoughts about the scripture and those highlighted areas in the comments below...

"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." James 5:16 (NIV) 

What do we look like telling other flawed people about our shortcomings? Well, best I can tell, we look like folks who are applying today's verse. A question for glory here (these are questions I look forward to asking God - or another qualified representative in heaven) is why could we have just skipped right to the praying for each other so we might be healed? I mean we all know we all are imperfect and can pretty much take it for granted that each of us has just finished sinning, are sinning at that moment, or will sin in the foreseeable future. So, why not just hop right on over the the praying for each other part?  

There is something about allowing the Holy Spirit to have more and more control of our lives and in moments where we have fallen short and missed the mark, there's a humility in being able to say so. I mean, God graces us with the Holy Spirit, who then allows for us to contemplate our wrongdoing and see where we messed up, and then we sit back and stonewall the magnificent work that the Spirit is attempting to do because of pride or rebellion or anger or seeking to control everything and everyone including God? I think we'd all be better it we leave enough space for ourselves when we are wrong to just say so.

What are you reading and what are some of your thoughts...?

My Journey's Observations
So, on yesterday I had an all day work meeting where we have breakfast and lunch. This is where a fast can get tricky. I made it through the morning with surrendering to the lovely assortment of breakfast breads. The lunch was safely navigated by only working of the veggies in everything and not losing the battle with the veggie pasta (let me tell you, that was a bit of a challenge for sure). The kicker was them bringing out brownies and cookie types of treats near the end. I STAYED STRONG AND MADE IT OUT OF THERE WITH THE FAST UPHELD!

How about you?

(I also wanted to remind us of a great resource called RightNow Media that you have free access to for quality teaching. If you need help getting to it, please give me a call. In fact, here is an invite if you haven't already signed up.)

For those of you who are news junkies and are seeking a more healthy alternative I wanted to share something called The Pour Over. It strives to be a neutral source of news bites that decidedly points people to the bible. Remember, we should always be working to allow the Holy Spirit to empower us to plant our feet on higher (and higher, and higher...) ground.

Finally
Remember, if you slip and eat or do something you were intending to fast from, just reset and restart. That is part of the learning curve as well.

I love you with the love of God...

Have a wonderful day and a tremendously blessed week!

Blessings,

Pastor Kris

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