The GT Weekend! ~ Shofar, Week 3
July 17, 2021
Faithfulness,God,GT Weekend,Holy Spirit,Jesus,Journey,Love,Mercy,Power,Prayer,Scripture,Trust
Rest your soul through reflective journaling,
praying Scripture,
and worshiping the Creator who
longs for intimacy with each of us!
This Week's Journeys
Colossians 1:15-17
[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn over all creation.
For everything was created by Him,
in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions
or rulers or authorities—
all things have been created through Him and for Him.
He is before all things,
and by Him all things hold together.
He is also the head of the body, the church;
He is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead,
so that He might come to have
first place in everything.
Prayer Journal Entry
You are our God, the blessed Three-in-One, wholly loving, almighty, immovable, and the perfect lover of our souls. You have not left us on our own in our questions and our weakness, but You have rescued us by Your great hand!
Forgive me, oh merciful God, for my doubts, my weakness, and my desire to have my own way. I have often resisted Your will and questioned your goodness.
Thank You for your great mercy and grace. Thank You for sending Your Holy Spirit to work in my heart and guide me in obedience. Thank You for comforting me with truth as I search out your goodness.
I ask for Your help as I surrender my will to Yours. Use my questions and my doubts to draw my heart toward You rather than toward the darkness. I believe in You, oh Lord, help my unbelief.
Worship Through Song
Journal Prompts
What if Jesus was not God? What if He was just a prophet or a good teacher, but not God in flesh? Or even if He wasn’t fully God, but something lesser?Â
Considering these questions can either drive us away from the Lord or drive us straight into the arms of a loving, trustworthy, and faithful God.
We saw in Monday’s Journey Study some solid reasons to believe Jesus was, and is, exactly the fully divine God He claimed to be. He defeated sin by living a perfect life. He defeated death by raising Himself from the dead. Because of these things, and more, He is worthy of our worship. We serve a powerful God. The great King of Glory does not fear our questions. There is no question too big for Him.
Will you commit to bringing your questions to the Lord? Will you be honest with Him about your doubts? Will you faithfully search the Scriptures and consult wise, mature believers as you seek out your answers? What questions do you have? Where have you been looking for answers?
Write down one or two questions about God along with the name of someone you know whom you could ask to help you find the answers. Pray over your question and ask the Lord to give you courage to step out in faith and search for truth!
Like making cake without flour, trimming the grass without a mower, or, perhaps most apt, drinking water from an empty glass, so is absolutely anything we attempt in the Christian life without the power of the Holy Spirit.Â
We, as finite, prone-to-sin human beings, are utterly incapable of accomplishing the holy, righteous work of becoming like Jesus on our own power. We cannot forgive more freely, love more deeply, give more wholeheartedly, or treat others with more lavish kindness without the power of the Holy Living God taking up residence within our beings.
Going further, even if we have genuinely surrendered our lives to Christ and He has faithfully given us the Holy Spirit inside of us, we can still adamantly choose to reject His power at work in us. Classic author Andrew Murray writes of every day being a battle of wills between our fleshly desires and the work of God. We can either choose to surrender moment by moment to His work, or we can stubbornly insist on our own abilities to accomplish His righteousness.
Determine today to live in a constant state of surrender by practicing the simple hand motion of raising one or two palms upward. When you face a challenge of your will versus God’s way today, choose total surrender to the Spirit by rotating your palm upward and breathing a prayer of surrender!
Rejoice with me as we think about our great God! His character is so far above our comprehension of holiness. He is unable to sin because of His great power and might. He is perfectly just and perfectly merciful. He is unchanging, unshakable, steadfast, and He gives us direct access to Him.
Even when we fall short, He is faithful because He cannot violate His own nature. Write a prayer of thanksgiving and praise to the Almighty God!
Spend time contemplating what His sinless nature means for your relationship with Him and your obedience to Him. You may begin to feel discouraged by the weight of your own sin and your own shortcomings as you worship. Feel that weight, but don’t stay there!
When we turn our eyes upon Jesus, we receive freedom from our sins. Repent and move forward in the strength of the Lord only He can provide. You don’t need to make yourself better to come to Him. Simply focus on His greatness, and He will work a mighty change in you!
Tags :
Almighty,courage,doubts,fear,honest,If,King of Glory,perfect,questions,righteousness,What iF
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This Week's Lock Screen
Mr. Murray is so right. Everyday is a battle of wills between our fleshly desires, battling our thoughts and aligning ourselves with the will of God. I try to live one day at a time and pray the Lord grants me another day to get it right. When you come before a merciful God and recognize the inherent sin we have, coupled with my own personal sin, I can only weep, asking the Holy Spirit to help me once again, to be pleasing to God. Thank you Erin for your encouraging words!