21 DAYS of HOW to USE THIS GUIDE Select a Specific Time and Place

21 DAYS of HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE Select a specific time and place. The best time to get alone with God is any time you can do it consistently without interruption. Find the time that works best for you! Mark 1:35 -- Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, He got up, went out, and made His way to a deserted place; and there He was praying. Prepare your heart - Let the Holy Spirit draw you into God’s presence. Open your heart to Him; enjoy the closeness of His presence and fellowship. Psalm 51:10 -- God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Meditate on the Scriptures - Hide the Word in your heart! What is the Holy Spirit showing you about God, His plan, and His work in you? Psalm 19:14 -- May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Repent and confess - Let the Holy Spirit bring you into a right relationship with the Father. This is a time of examination and confession through repentance. Acts 3:19 -- Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out. Conclude with thanksgiving - God hears the prayers of His people and responds. Always give thanks for what He has done in your life. The Apostle Paul tells the believers in Philippi, “In every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Psalm 9:1 -- I will thank the Lord with all my heart; I will declare all your wondrous works. Taken from Long Hollow Baptist Church DAY 1 - Worship The question we need to ask ourselves is not,“ Am I going to worship?”, but “What am I worshipping?” We are worshipful beings with the innate desire to worship something and someone. However, God created us to worship Him and Him alone. Pray today that God would give you an undivided heart to only worship the Lord. 1 Samuel 7:3-4 -- Samuel told them, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, get rid of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths that are among you, set your hearts on the Lord, and worship only him. Then he will rescue you from the Philistines.” So the Israelites removed the Baals and the Ashtoreths and only worshiped the Lord. DAY 2 - Unconfessed Sin According to Scripture, everyone sins. But God offers grace & mercy for our sin. In Psalms 51 David is confessing his sin of adultery - in all its ugliness - and throwing himself on the mercy and grace of God. That is what confessing sin looks like; it’s honesty to God about your sin and receiving His mercy for your sin. Psalms 51:1-10 -- Be gracious to me, God, according to your faithful love; according to your abundant compassion, blot out my rebellion. Completely wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin. For I am conscious of my rebellion, and my sin is always before me. Against you — you alone — I have sinned and done this evil in your sight. So you are right when you pass sentence; you are blameless when you judge. Indeed, I was guilty when I was born; I was sinful when my mother conceived me. Surely you desire integrity in the inner self, and you teach me wisdom deep within. Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Turn your face away from my sins and blot out all my guilt. God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me. DAY 3 - Love God Jesus says the greatest thing we can do is love God with an undivided heart. Jesus uses the metric “with all” to show how we should properly love God. Pray that you would love God with an undivided heart and with all that you are and do. Matthew 22:34-40 -- When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. And one of them, an expert in the law, asked a question to test him: “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.” DAY 4 - Love People Jesus ties together our love for God with our love for people. Jesus is making the point that when we love God supremely we are able to love others selflessly. It’s only when we experience God’s love for us that we can rightly love the people around us. Pray that God would give you a love for others that comes from loving Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Luke 10:25-37 -- Then an expert in the law stood up to test him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the law?” he asked him. “How do you read it?” He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself.” “You’ve answered correctly,” he told him. “Do this and you will live.” But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus took up the question and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion. He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’ “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” “The one who showed mercy to him,” he said. Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.” DAY 5 - Forgiveness One of the most defining marks of a disciple of Jesus is a forgiving heart. Forgiveness is never free; it always costs someone something. Our forgiveness cost Jesus His life because He was willing to absorb all of our offenses. Remember, before we are able to extend forgiveness to others we must first receive the forgiveness of God. Pray that God would remind you of how much He has forgiven you so you will have a forgiving heart toward others. Ephesians 4:32 -- And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ. DAY 6 - Pride C.S. Lewis called pride the granddaddy of sin. At the root of all our sins is a prideful heart. Pray that God would reveal areas of pride in your life and give you a humble heart. Philippians 2:3-4 -- Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others. DAY 7 - Humility Humility is the opposite of pride. We should strive to have a humble heart because Jesus humbled Himself for us. Pray that you would adopt the same attitude of Jesus and seek ways you could put others before yourself. Philippians 2:5-11 -- Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death — even to death on a cross. For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow — in heaven and on earth and under the earth — and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. DAY 8 - Sacrifice As a disciple of Jesus, He may ask us to make sacrifices so His message of salvation will reach the lost and our mission to make disciples will be fulfilled. Paul says we are to be a“ living sacrifice.” As we have mentioned before, the main problem with a living sacrifice is that it tends to want to leave the altar of sacrifice. The more you fully relinquish yourself to God, the more you will discover that He has your best interest at heart. In what areas do you struggle the most to sacrifice to God? Pray that God would give you a greater trust in Him in these areas.

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