Category: Prayer

  • DAY 2 | TUESDAY | Identify your distractions

    When we start intentionally taking steps in the Spirit, the enemy takes note. With every level there’s another devil.

    And as we explore this truth, we see an example of it in the Book of Nehemiah, where this man, inspired with a vision from God, chose to lead God’s people to take steps to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

    Nehemiah experienced opposition from three men attempting to stop his steps as he rebuilt the walls. The names of those opposing him were Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem, and each one of them had a different tactic.

    1. Sanballat mocked Nehemiah’s attempts at rebuilding and tried to distract him.
      • Don’t let the enemy’s mockery of the size of your step stop you from walking.
    2. Tobiah attempted to sabotage Nehemiah’s progress.  
      • Protect your progress by taking a step even when you haven’t perfected things.
    3. Geshem falsely accused Nehemiah and intimidated him.
      • Don’t let the enemy’s accusations convince you that you can’t get back up because God’s grace has run out.

    In Nehemiah 6:3 (NIV) Nehemiah responds to those trying to distract him from his walk in a war of words by saying, “Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?”

    The work God was doing would only stop if Nehemiah stopped walking. Nehemiah’s response to the enemy was, “You won’t stop me from taking my next step in God’s purpose!” and because of that, the walls were completed, Gods people could belong in the safety of the city and a legacy was left for generations.

    My prayer response:

    • The enemy may mock the size of your step stop you from walking.
    • The enemy may attempt to sabotage your progress by making you feel you’re not perfect.
    • The enemy might try and intimidate you with false accusations.

    Invite Jesus to come into those areas of your life in which you are struggling to walk in the Spirit or feeling the enemy’s opposition against you.

    Pray back to God, a declaration of faith based on the following scriptures:

    • Isaiah 54:17 (NLT)
      “no weapon turned against you will succeed.”
    • Romans 8:31 (NLT)
    • “If God is for us, who can ever be against us?”
    • Romans 8:37 (NLT)
    • “despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.”

    My daily practice

    Be mindful today of the moments, spaces and places in which you feel most distracted or discouraged from walking in the spirit. In those moments allow yourself to pause and remember the verses you declared in your prayer for the day:

    • “no weapon turned against me will succeed.”
    • “If God is for me, who can ever be against me?”
    • “despite all these things, overwhelming victory is mine through Christ, who loves me.”

    Then make a conscious decision to keep instep with the Spirit instead of allowing the distractions to derail you.

  • DAY 1 | MONDAY | Take a step

    DAY 1 | MONDAY | Take a step

    Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it

    Matt 11:29 Msg

    To work with God in our lives, we need to walk with him, and to walk with him, we need to be taking one step at a time.

    • If you keep taking next steps, you don’t get spiritually stuck.
    • If you keep taking steps, you grow through life instead of just going through life. Bishop and theologian Gregory of Nyssa said, “Sin happens whenever we refuse to keep growing.” 

    That means:

    • If you keep taking next steps sin cannot ensnare you and you are protecting your spiritual progress. 

    In Philippians 3:16 (NLT) Paul the Apostle writes, 

    “But we must hold on to the progress we have already made”.

    Our spiritual walk with God is measured by our progress, not by our perfection, so we need to protect our progress by continually taking the next step, not by perfecting a once-off move.

    Paul the Apostle writes to the church in Galatia from the NT book of

    Galatians 5:25 (NIV)

    “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”

    If I was to keep in step with the Spirit today, what step could I take?

    This is Gods invitation to us personally in our vision, the question:

    “What step can I take?”

    Whether it’s: 

    • as you’re about to react to something your spouse said, 
    • or while facing a familiar temptation, 
    • or deciding whether to participate in an activity with friends, 
    • or processing someone’s criticism, 
    • or choosing whether to give the car guard the ten rand note in your pocket after shopping.

    Every day you and I can take one step somewhere in our lives that aligns with God’s Spirit.  What I am called to do within God’s purposes in this season of my life is to intentionally keep taking next steps in becoming everything my Lord has for me.

    Those daily steps may seem insignificant, silly or small, but 

    God can do a lot with one small step that others don’t see so don’t stop walking.

    My prayer response:

    • Share with God your desire to keep in step with the Spirit.
    • Confess the areas of your life in which you feel you have been walking in the flesh rather than His Spirit.
    • Ask God to help you recognize where in your life you could take a next step today.
    • Commit yourself and your day to Gods care as you walk into the new day.

    My daily practice:

    • Intentionally move through the day seeking the place and space in which you could take a practical next step in alignment with the Spirit. 
    • At the end of today, make a note describing the step you chose to take. Use the below guide to complete your reflection and pray it back to God in commitment.

    Reflection on my step today.

    • The step I took today was:
    • Taking that step required me intentionally:
    • My desire in taking that step in the Spirit is to:
  • LIFESTYLE PRAYER

    LIFESTYLE PRAYER

    How can we most effectively engage in this week’s prayer and fasting?

    Firstly, we can learn from three things that Jesus did …

    Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed (Mark 1:35).

    CONSIDER:

    • A CERTAIN TIME
      • Jesus got up very early in the morning to spend time with his heavenly Father. Choose a certain time in which, guided by your booklet, you commit to prayer this week.
    • A CERTAIN PLACE
      • Jesus had a prayer place. Your prayer place needs to be in a distraction-free environment where you can pray out loud and, perhaps, have some worship music playing in the background.
    • A CERTAIN PLAN
      • Go into your prayer time with a plan. Use this prayer guide and engage with its content. As part of preparing your plan, read our suggestion for starting each day with the serenity prayer and our explanation of fasting so that you can include it in your week of prayer.

    Understanding fasting as a follower of Jesus

    Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:1-4

    Jesus’ response to the devil was that he would not rely solely on human sustenance for fullness of life, but beyond the provision of the flesh, place his trust in God first, even if it meant sacrificing his own will. This is what fasting communicates, and placing our trust in God as we fast makes room for His presence in our hearts.

    “Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.” Eph 3:17

    Fasting is a form of giving up to go up

    What sustains your flesh is rooted in spiritual provision. Fasting makes us focus on the spiritual provision of God over the sustenance received by the flesh. 

    Fasting removes “static” from the line of our busy lives, guiding us, and aligning our focus toward God (see Acts 13:2; Daniel 9:3-23; Joel 2:12).

    In Mark 2:18–20 it tells us:

    Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?”

    Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.

    Jesus was referring to the time of his crucifixion, then His resurrection that gave way to the great commission that could only be achieved through prayer and fasting.

    Prayer and fasting keeps us close to the one who has commissioned us.

    Pastor, author and speaker, John Mark Comer, explains:

    “In fasting, you are literally praying with your body, offering all that you are to God in worship. As you yield your body to God, you are breaking the power of the flesh to control you and opening up to the power of the Spirit in its place.”

    You may choose to fast food or screen time. The key is that you give up something that usually feeds your flesh and use that time to focus on God in prayer. This would be part of your plan as you find a certain place and time for prayer this week. As you make room, may God lead you into the fullness of resurrection life. (See John 10:10.)

    Starting Each Day with the Serenity Prayer

    Reinhold Niebuhr, an American theologian, penned the original Serenity Prayer in the early 1930s or 1940s. Its simple yet profound message quickly resonated, especially after it was published in a 1943 booklet for military chaplains.

    Later, the 12-step recovery movement adopted a modified version, and over time, the prayer has been expanded by various authors. This powerful prayer guides us toward surrendering to God’s sovereignty in all aspects of life. Martin Luther King Jr., for example, embodied these principles, aligning his leadership and personal struggles with the prayer’s core message.

    This week, as you engage in your daily devotional during this time of prayer and fasting, I encourage you to begin each day by slowly reciting the Serenity Prayer.

    To help you truly experience its meaning, we’ve added suggested pauses. After you pray, take a minute of quiet reflection before you begin your devotional reading.

    THE SERENITY PRAYER, with pauses:

    “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, (PAUSE)

    The courage to change the things I can, (PAUSE) 

     and the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, (PAUSE)

    accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, taking, as Jesus did, this  sinful world as it is, not as I would have it, (PAUSE)  

    trusting that you will make all things right if I surrender to your will, so that I may know peace in this life now and wholeness forever in the next, (PAUSE)

    in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”