Focus on Faith! Week 4: Focus Our Lives

Week 4: Focus Our Lives
Five minutes with God each day
 
Monday: In Galatians 2:20, Paul writes: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” How might Christ live through you this day? Spend time in prayer, asking this question to Jesus – then listen to hear his answer.
 
Tuesday: Henri Nouwen said that he used to be frustrated by the interruptions to his ministry – until he realized that the interruptions were his ministry. This day, ask God to surprise you through the interruptions. How might this change your responses to them? How might God work through those interruptions to touch your life? How might God work through you to touch those who interrupt your day?
 
Wednesday: In Philippians 3:13-14, Paul says that he forgets what lies behind and presses on towards God’s call to him in Christ Jesus. What might God want you to forget today? Is there some area of life in which you need to forgive? To be forgiven? Do you need to let go of some worries for the future? This day, ask Jesus to help you let go of these so that you can focus more clearly on him.
 
Thursday: Part of giving our lives to God is realizing that we are already dead. In Romans 6:3, Paul writes, “All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.” This day, thank Jesus for his death on the cross for you. Ask Jesus to help you to die to the life of sin and to experience his resurrection, his new life in your life.
 
Friday: In Martin Luther’s Morning Prayer (from his Small Catechism), he encourages us to commend ourselves to God, as Jesus did on the cross (Luke 23:46). Join Luther in this prayer for today: “Into your hands [O God] I commend myself: my body, my soul, and all that is mine.”
 
Saturday: As you spend Sabbath time with friends and family, thank God for the gift of life. Thank God for gift of new life in Christ Jesus. And thank God for the opportunity to give that life in service to God and to others. There is no higher calling than this – the calling God gave to you in your baptism! And it’s all because of Jesus…

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