Day 15 Devotional: “Pray Without Ceasing”

For the second half of the fast we are going to move from just Bible passages to an additional reading that goes along with that passage. This is geared toward helping you move deeper with the Lord during your time of fasting. Keep up with your prayer journal and your devotional journal as it will be a blessing to look back on what God has done in your heart during your season of fasting.

On your fifthteenth day of fasting, remember:

1. Water needs to be with you at all times
2. Rest and relax as much as possible
3. Remember your prayer time.
4. Work hard to remain focused on the reason you are doing the fast. Only 6 days are left!

Physical Effects:

1. Continued weight loss.
2. Bad breath.
3. Cravings can continue

Today’s Passage: 1 Thessalonians 5

Today’s Reading:

The closet and solitary prayer is a necessary duty, and a profitable one. It does much for the enlargement of the heart. When a man seeks to deal most earnestly with God, he should seek retire- ment, and be alone. Christ in his agonies went apart from his dis- ciples. It is notable that when Jacob sought to wrestle with God, it is said, ‘And Jacob was left alone’ (Gen. 32:24). When he had a mind to deal with God in great earnestness, he sent away all his company. A hypocrite finds a greater flash of gifts in his public duties; but he is slight and superficial when he is alone with God. Usually God’s chil- dren are able to most affectionately pour out their hearts before him in private. Here, they find their affections free to wrestle with God. Here, one finds most communion with God, and enlargement of heart. In private we are wholly at leisure to deal with God in a child-like liberty. Now, will you omit this duty where you may be most free, without distraction, to let out your heart to God? The sweetest experiences of God’s saints are when they are alone with him. Without seeking God often, the vitality of the soul is lost. We may as well expect a crop and harvest without sowing, as living grace without seeking of God. God is first cast out of the closet, and then out of the family, and within a little while, out of the congregation. Omit secret prayer, and some great sin will follow. A man who is often with God, does not dare to offend him so freely as others do. Religion, as it were, dies by degrees. Whatever else is forgotten, God must not be forgotten. Make God a good allowance. Make a prudent choice yourselves, and consecrate such a part of time as will suit with your occasions, your course of life, and according to your abilities and opportunities.

Thomas Manton, Works, i:13-20

Today’s Questions:

1. How does prayer “enlarge your heart”?
2. What is meant when Thomas says, “A hypocrite finds a greater flash of gifts in his public duties;”?
3. When is the last time that you had a sweet time with the Lord while being alone?
4. Is there anything that you need to wrestle with God about?
5. What were some of your additional observations from today’s reading?

Today’s Prayer Emphasis:.

1. If needed, take some time to repent for not spending time with the Lord in prayer like you should have. Repent for making prayer more about what others will think than what your heart needs.
2. Ask God to give you a strength that only comes from Christ to ask God to bear the fruit of a genuine prayer life with Him.
3. Pray that God help bring your soul into focus on Christ and the Gospel above all else.
4. Continue in prayer, focusing on what God has showed you to be fasting about.

Day 14 Devotional “We Glory in Christ”

For the second half of the fast we are going to move from just Bible passages to an additional reading that goes along with that passage. This is geared toward helping you move deeper with the Lord during your time of fasting. Keep up with your prayer journal and your devotional journal as it will be a blessing to look back on what God has done in your heart during your season of fasting. 

On your fourteenth day of fasting, remember:

1. Water needs to be with you at all times
2. Rest and relax as much as possible
3. Remember your prayer time.
4. Work hard to remain focused on the reason you are doing the fast. This is about the time when most people fizzle out on their commitment.

Physical Effects:

1. Continued weight loss.
2. Bad breath.
3. Cravings can continue

Today’s Passage: Philippians 3:3

Today’s Reading:

Consider the excellencies of the knowledge of Christ. The comfort of believers are streams from this fountain. Jesus Christ is the object of a believer’s joy. Take away the knowledge of Christ, and Christians would be the most sad and melancholy beings in the world. Let Christ but manifest himself, and dart the beams of his light into their souls, and it will make them kiss the stake, sing in the flames, and shout in the pangs of death, as men that divide the spoil. We can perform no duty, enjoy no comfort, nor can we be saved without it (John 17:3). If it is life eternal to know Christ, then it is eternal damnation to be ignorant of Christ. Christ is the door that opens
heaven, and knowledge is the key that opens Christ. It is profound; all other sciences are but shadows; this is a boundless, bottomless ocean; no creature has a line long enough to fathom its depths, there is height, length, depth, and breadth ascribed to it (Eph. 3:18), yea, it passes knowledge. Eternity itself cannot fully unfold him. It is like exploring a newly discovered land; by degrees you search further and further into the heart of the country. Ah, the best of us are yet on the borders of this vast continent! The study of Jesus Christ is the noblest subject that ever a soul spent itself upon. The angels stoop to look into this deep abyss. The truths discovered in Christ are the secrets that from eternity lay hid in the bosom of God. Studying Christ stamps a heavenly glory upon the contemplating soul. How little do we know of Christ, in comparison with what we might have known? O, how much time is spent in other studies and worldly employments; but how little in the search and study of Jesus Christ? O then, separate, devote, and wholly give yourself, your time, and your strength to this most sweet, transcendent study.

John Flavel, The Fountain of Life, pp. 13-19

Today’s Questions:

1. What is meant by this statement: “We can perform no duty, enjoy no comfort, nor can we be saved without it (John 17:3)”?
2. What are your thoughts on this statement: “Christ is the door that opens heaven, and knowledge is the key that opens Christ”?
3. What ways practically make everything, including this fast about nothing but Jesus and the Gospel?
4. What were some of your additional observations from today’s reading?

Today’s Prayer Emphasis:.

1. If needed, take some time to repent for making life about anything but Christ and the Gospel.
2. Ask God to give you a strength that only comes from Christ to ask God to turn your affections toward Christ and the Gospel.
3. Pray that God help bring your soul into focus on Christ and the Gospel above all else.
4. Continue in prayer, focusing on what God has showed you to be fasting about.

Day 13 Devotional “Seeking First the Kingdom”

For the second half of the fast we are going to move from just Bible passages to an additional reading that goes along with that passage. This is geared toward helping you move deeper with the Lord during your time of fasting. Keep up with your prayer journal and your devotional journal as it will be a blessing to look back on what God has done in your heart during your season of fasting. 

On your twelfth day of fasting, remember:

1. Water needs to be with you at all times
2. Rest and relax as much as possible
3. Remember your prayer time.

Physical Effects:

1. Continued weight loss.
2. Bad breath.
3. Your senses become heightened.
4. Cravings can continue

Today’s Passage: Matthew 6:16-34

Today’s Reading:

Until we get our hearts out of the world, how easily our hearts are carried away with the thoughts of earthly concerns! Until we can separate and purge our spirits, how we mingle our prayers with many ridiculous thoughts! It is too usual for us to deal with God as an unskilled person that will gather a posy for his friend, and put in as many or more stinking weeds than he does choice flowers. The flesh introduces, and our carnal hearts insert and interlace our prayers with vain thoughts and earthly distractions. Then, when we come to offer incense to God with our censer, we mingle sulphur with our incense. Therefore, we should always labour to get our hearts above the world into the presence of God, as if we were by him in heaven, and wholly swallowed up with his glory. Though our bodies are on earth, our spirits should be in heaven. Until we get above the mists of the world, we can see nothing of clearness and comfort; but when we can get God and our hearts together, then we can see there is much in the fountain, though nothing in the stream; and though little on earth, yet we have a God in heaven! This is our great aim, to be with God in heaven. His residence is there, and we seek that our hearts might be there. We have liberty to ask supplies for the outward life, but chiefly we should ask spiritual and heavenly things: ‘First, seek the kingdom of God’ etc.. If God is our heavenly Father, our first and main care should be to ask things suitable to his being, and his excellencies. When we ask supplies of the outward life, food and raiment, God may give it to us, but it is far more pleasing to him when we ask for grace. In every prayer we should seek to be made more heavenly minded by convers- ing with our heavenly Father.

Thomas Manton, Works, i:60-62

Today’s Questions:

1.  How do we exist in this world but have our hearts set on heaven?
2. How does fasting assist in focusing our sights on the things of God?
3. What ways practically can you have your heart set on heaven?
4. What were some of your additional observations from today’s reading?

Today’s Prayer Emphasis:.

1. If needed, take some time to repent for spending more allowing your heart to dwell more here in worldly things than in heaven.
2. Ask God to give you a strength that only comes from Christ to ask God day after day for grace.
3. Pray that God help bring your soul into focus on the things of Him.
4. Continue in prayer, focusing on what God has showed you to be fasting about.

Day 12 Devotional “In Serving Others, We Serve Christ”

On your twelfth day of fasting, remember:

1. Water needs to be with you at all times
2. Rest and relax as much as possible
3. Remember your prayer time.

Physical Effects:

1. Continued weight loss.
2. Bad breath.
3. Your senses become heightened.
4. Cravings can continue.

Today’s Quote:

Christ is the glory of God. His blood-soaked cross is the blazing center of that glory. By it He bought for us every blessing–temporal and eternal. And we don’t deserve any. He bought them all. Because of Christ’s cross, God’s elect are destined to be sons of God. Because of His cross all guilt is removed, and sins are forgiven, and perfect righteousness is imputed to us, and the love of God is poured out in our hearts by the Spirit, and we are being conformed to the image of Christ.

Therefore, every enjoyment in this life and the next that is not idolatry is a tribute to the infinite value of the cross of Christ–the burning center of the glory of God. And thus a cross-centered, cross-exalting, cross-saturated life is a God-glorifying life–the only God-glorifying life. All others are wasted.

— John Piper

Today’s Passage: Matthew 25:34-40

Today’s Questions:

1.  What did Christ mean when he said: “‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”?
2. We have hit on this point several time already in the first 12 days. However during your time on your fast it is easy to become overly concerned with just yourself. Why is it important to fight this temptation?
3. What is the connection between the Kingdom of God and serving others rather than yourself?
4. What can you practically turn the focus from yourself to others this week?

Today’s Prayer Emphasis:.

1. If needed, take some time to repent for spending more time focused on yourself than Christ or others.
2. Ask God to give you a strength that only comes from Christ to serve others humbly, placing them before yourself.
3. Pray that God would give you an opportunity to serve others today and sacrifice your own desires.
4. Continue in prayer, focusing on what God has showed you to be fasting about.

Day 11 Devotional “Conforming to Christ”

On your eleventh day of fasting, remember:

1. Water needs to be with you at all times
2. Rest and relax as much as possible
3. Remember your prayer time.
4. The fast can get hard halfway through. Be encouraged, your halfway there!

Physical Effects:

1. Continued weight loss.
2. Bad breath.
3. Your senses become heightened.
4. Cravings can continue.

Today’s Quote:

“Our Lord has accomplished something in history — in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension — that qualifies him to be the judge and the justifier of the ungodly. Jesus is both the Lord of the Covenant who commands and the Servant of the Covenant who fulfills all righteousness and wins for us forgiveness, the new birth, resurrection, and the renewal of the whole creation.”

— Michael Horton

Today’s Passage: Romans 12:1-21 

Today’s Questions:

1. In not being conformed to this world, how were they to be transformed
2. What feeling or attitude should we have for one another and how should we prefer one another as Christians?
3. Make a list today of what things deepened your conformity to Christ and what things deepened your conformity to the world.
   
4. What can you practically do to pursue conformity to Christ rather than the world?

Today’s Prayer Emphasis:.

1. If needed, take some time to repent for your pursuit of things that conformed you more to the world than Christ.
2. Ask God to give you a strength that only comes from Christ to pursue Him and the things that will conform you to His image.
3. Pray that God would continue to focus you on Him and the things of the Kingdom more than anything else.
4. Continue in prayer, focusing on what God has showed you to be fasting about.

Day 10 Devotional “Gospel Obedience”

On your tenth day of fasting, remember:

1. Water needs to be with you at all times
2. Rest and relax as much as possible
3. Remember your prayer time.
4. The fast can get hard halfway through. If needed, seek out some encouragement from others.

Physical Effects:

1. Continued weight loss.
2. Bad breath.
3. Your senses become heightened.
4. Cravings can continue.

Today’s Quote:

At its core, the gospel is Jesus as the substitute for sinners. We could summarize the whole by saying that in his life Jesus lives in perfect submission to the will of God and he fulfills his righteous standard (the law). In his death on the cross he quenches God’s wrath against sin, satisfying the sovereign demand for justice. In his resurrection he is victorious over sin and death. All of this is done on behalf of sinners in need of redemption and offered to all who believe. This is therefore very ‘good news.’

Jesus’ life is good news, for his obedience to the Father and fulfillment of the law is for us. While we as sinners fail to keep the law, Jesus was perfectly faithful. Jesus’ death is good news because his death was a payment for our sin, and by it we are cleansed from our guilt and released from condemnation. Jesus’ resurrection is good news because his victory over death is ours and through it we look forward to a resurrection of our own.

-Joe Thorn

Todays Passage: Philippians 2:12-18

Today’s Prayer Emphasis:.

1. If needed, take some time to repent for your lack of obedience to His voice during the fast.
2. Ask God to give you a strength that only comes from Christ to obey.
3. Pray that God would continue to humble you through this fast and refine you into a more obedient servant.
4. Continue in prayer, focusing on what God has showed you to be fasting about.

Today’s Question

1. How does the phrase ‘as you have always obeyed’ help us understand what ‘work out your own salvation’ means?
2. How does the word ‘therefore’ indicate that the kind of obedience required here is motivated by the gospel?
3. What does it mean practically, when Paul says that God is working in us constantly, purposefully, and effectively?
4. Explain this statement: The powerful gospel-work of the Spirit cannot be contained within the soul; it breaks forth into a life of gospel-obedience.
5. Why does the gospel produce obedience that is without grumbling and disputing?
6. How does gospel-obedience become a light that shines in a dark world?
7. In what way is gospel-obedience an offering up of our lives as sacrifices?
8. Why do Jesus’ words (IF YOU LOVE ME, KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS) neatly sum up gospel-obedience?

Day 9 Devotional “The Pursuit of Humility’

On your ninth day of fasting, remember:

1. Water needs to be with you at all times.
2. Rest as much as possible.
3. Spend plenty of time in prayer.
4. Utilize your journal.

Physical Effects:

1. Senses can continue to heighten.
2. Cravings will continue to occur.
3. Weight loss can continue.

Today’s Quote:

Humility agrees and is glad that everything we have is a free gift of God, and that this severs the root of boasting in our distinctives. Whatever talents, whatever intelligence, what ever skills, whatever gifts, whatever looks, whatever pedigree, whatever possessions, whatever wit, whatever influence you have, put away all pride because it is a gift, and put away all despair because it is a gift from God.

— John Piper

Today’s Passages for Study: Philippians 2:1-11

Today’s Prayer Emphasis:.

1. If needed, take some time to repent for putting yourself first before Christ.
2. Ask God to give you opportunities to serve other people around you.
3. Pray that God would continue to humble you through this fast.
4. Continue in prayer, focusing on what God has showed you to be fasting about.

Today’s Questions

1. Why cant you truly love someone till you serve them?
2. Is it easy or hard for you to lord your position over anyone?
3. Is it easy or hard for you to lower your self than someone else?
4. What are your thoughts when you hear this statement: “Serving is humility in action”?
5. What are some practical ways that you can pursue humility during this fast?

 

Remember… don’t just answer these in your heads…. be sure to keep a journal as you go through this experience. Every day you will be provided with a quote, passage for reading, prayer focus and a few questions to guide you with your thought process. Spend some time on each portion, reading, praying and journaling as you go along.