Quiet Walk

[Judy Harder]

October 6

1 Corinthians 8

Take care that your actions do not wound another Christian.

INSIGHT

There is an inseparable link between Christ and the church. In Acts 9:4 Jesus appears to Saul on the road to Damascus and asks, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" Yet Saul had not persecuted Jesus; he had never even seen Jesus. However, because he was persecuting the church, Jesus rebuked Saul for persecuting Him. Again in 1 Corinthians 8 Paul teaches that if we sin against our brothers in Christ-wounding their consciences when they are weak-we sin against Christ. We must be cautious with our words and actions.

PRAYER

Praise Christ, the Head of the church:
For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, . . . that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height , and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14, 17-19)

Pause for praise and thanksgiving.

Pray this confession to the Lord as you seek to keep your life free from sin:
"Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and
the glory forever. Amen" (Matthew 6:11-13).

Confess any sins that the Holy Spirit brings to your mind.

Now pray this affirmation to the Lord:
Give ear to my words, O Lord,
Consider my meditation.
Give heed to the voice of my cry,
My King and my God,
For to You I will pray.
My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord;
In the morning I will direct it to You,
And I will look up. (Psalm 5:1-3)

As you make your requests known to the Lord, include:

Perseverance
Endurance for those who work with the homeless
Whatever else is on your heart
Close this time of worship with the following prayer:
To Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21) 

[Judy Harder]

October 7

1 Corinthians 9

Paul limits his freedom for the sake of other Christians.

INSIGHT

Spiritual maturity is not a product of human effort. The fruit of the Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit, not of self-effort. Yet God will not grant spiritual maturity to us unless we are striving for it. Paul says, "I run . . . not with uncertainty. I fight . . . not as one who beats the air. I discipline my body . . . " in pursuit of spiritual goals (1 Corinthians 9:26-27). The reality is that few of us have the spiritual passion to equal the temporal passion of the unsaved. It is a challenge to care about the same things God cares about-a challenge we must accept!

PRAYER

Praise God that His work of sanctification continues in your life:
May the Lord give you increase more and more,
You and your children.
May you be blessed by the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's;
But the earth He has given to the children of men.
The dead do not praise the Lord,
Nor any who go down into silence.
But we will bless the Lord
From this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord!
(Psalm 115:14-18)

Pause for praise and thanksgiving.

Pray this confession to the Lord as you seek to keep your life free from sin:
"Execute true justice,
Show mercy and compassion
Everyone to his brother.
Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless,
The alien or the poor.
Let none of you plan evil in his heart
Against his brother" (Zechariah 7:9-10).

As you confess your sins, pray this affirmation to the Lord:
I will praise You,
For You have answered me,
And have become my salvation. (Psalm 118:21)

As you make your requests known to the Lord, include:

Purity of mind
Your spiritual goals
Today's activities
Finally, offer this prayer to the Lord:
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (Colossians 3:15-16) 

[Judy Harder]

October 8

1 Corinthians 13

Love is the greatest virtue that all Christians should exhibit.

INSIGHT

Throughout the Bible, love is clearly considered the supreme virtue. Both Jesus and Paul teach that the greatest Christian virtue is love. However, it is not always easy to measure love, especially because our society has such a distorted concept of what love is. Many people think that love is simply an emotion. We may think that if we don't feel "warm and fuzzy," we don't love. While emotions certainly may be attached to biblical love, love is primarily an act of the will. And God commands us to love. If you exhibit the qualities listed in today's chapter, you are loving regardless of your emotions.

PRAYER

Thank the Lord and praise Him that He loves us with the same love He asks from us:
Praise the Lord!
Praise, O servants of the Lord,
Praise the name of the Lord!
Blessed be the name of the Lord
From this time forth and forevermore!
From the rising of the sun to its going down
The Lord's name is to be praised.
The Lord is high above all nations,
His glory above the heavens. (Psalm 113:1-4)

Pause for praise and thanksgiving.

Pray this confession to the Lord as you seek to keep your life free from sin and in fellowship with Him:
So Samuel said:
"Has the Lord as great delight in burnt
offerings and sacrifices,
As in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
And to heed than the fat of rams" (1 Samuel 15:22).

Confess any sins that the Holy Spirit brings to your mind, and pray this affirmation to the Lord:
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. (Romans 8:18)

As you make your requests known to the Lord, include:

Greater love for fellow Christians
The work of missions in Europe and Asia
Whatever else is on your heart
Finally, offer this prayer to the Lord:
Let the words of my mouth and the
meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.
(Psalm 19:14) 

[Judy Harder]

October 9

1 Corinthians 15

Christ's resurrection is the basis for our resurrection, which is the final victory over sin.

INSIGHT

It is difficult for us to imagine what our resurrected bodies will be like. Yet there are snatches of information in the Scriptures that may give us some idea. In Matthew 17, for example, we read about Jesus, Moses, and Elijah who, having lost their earthly appearance, glow with a dazzling light. From this one brief example, we might conclude that our bodies will shine with dazzling light, that we will be free from gravity, that we may travel at fabulous speeds, and will be able to appear and disappear. C. S. Lewis once wrote that if we were to see our glorified selves coming down the street, we would be tempted to fall at our own feet and worship ourselves.

PRAYER

Praise the Lord that each believer will have a wonderful resurrected body:
Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us,
But to Your name give glory,
Because of Your mercy,
Because of Your truth. . .
You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord;
He is their help and their shield. . .
But we will bless the Lord
From this time forth and forevermore.
Praise the Lord! (Psalm 115:1, 11, 18)

Pause for praise and thanksgiving.

Now pray this confession to the Lord as you seek to keep your life free from sin:
David's heart condemned him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord, "I have sinned greatly in what I have done; but now, I pray, O Lord, take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly"
(2 Samuel 24:10).

Confess any sins that the Holy Spirit brings to your mind, and pray this affirmation to the Lord:
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:1-2)

As you make your requests known to the Lord, include:

Greater faithfulness with your time
The president, national leaders, and national and world affairs
Whatever else is on your heart
Finally, offer this prayer to the Lord:
Who is wise?
Let him understand these things.
Who is prudent?
Let him know them.
For the ways of the Lord are right;
The righteous walk in them,
But transgressors stumble in them.
(Hosea 14:9) 

[Judy Harder]

October 10

2 Corinthians 1

The Lord comforts us in our affliction so we may comfort others.

INSIGHT

There is a fellowship of suffering. Someone who has suffered the same things we have suffered is better able to minister to us. And if we have been comforted in our suffering, we are better able to comfort someone else who experiences the same difficulties. Suffering can make us compassionate toward others. As the sufferings of Christ overflow into our lives, so can the compassion of Christ overflow from our lives into the lives of others.

PRAYER

Praise the Lord that Jesus was willing to lay down His immediate comfort for our sakes:
Praise the Lord!
Praise the name of the Lord;
Praise Him, O you servants of the Lord!
You who stand in the house of the Lord,
In the courts of the house of our God,
Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good;
Sing praises to His name, for it is pleasant.
For the Lord has chosen Jacob for Himself,
Israel for His special treasure.
For I know that the Lord is great,
And our Lord is above all gods. . .
Blessed be the Lord out of Zion,
Who dwells in Jerusalem!
Praise the Lord! (Psalm 135:1-5, 21)

Pause for praise and thanksgiving.

Pray this confession to the Lord as you seek to keep your life free from sin:
O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger,
Nor chasten me in Your hot displeasure.
Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak;
O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled.
My soul also is greatly troubled;
But You, O Lord - how long? (Psalm 6:1-3)

Confess any sins that the Holy Spirit brings to your mind, and pray this affirmation to the Lord:
When the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit . . . that having been justified by His grace we should become heirsaccording to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-5, 7)

As you make your requests known to the Lord, include:

The renewing of your mind
The needs of your extended family
Your activities for the day
Offer this closing prayer to the Lord:
This is the day the Lord has made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalm 118:24) 

[Judy Harder]

October 11

2 Corinthians 4

Man's evident weakness presents an opportunity for God to manifest His power.

INSIGHT

When we look at Israel and the Mosaic Law, we tend to think that the Jews performed poorly. All they had to do was be obedient to some basic laws, and God would bless them beyond measure. Yet they might say the same about us. With the Holy Spirit living in us, we have only to live in love toward God and man and God will bless us spiritually beyond measure. While human frailty is glaring in both systems, the work of God is being accomplished nevertheless. God's message is carried in "jars of clay" so that in eternity the glory of the redeemed will go to God and not to man.

PRAYER

Offer your praise to the Lord as an expression of the gratefulness of your heart:
I will extol You, my God, O King;
And I will bless Your name forever and ever.
Every day I will bless You,
And I will praise Your name forever and ever.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
And His greatness is unsearchable.
One generation shall praise Your works to another,
And shall declare Your mighty acts.
I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty,
And on Your wondrous works. (Psalm 145:1-5)

Pause for praise and thanksgiving.

Now pray this confession to the Lord as you seek to keep your life free from sin and in fellowship with Him:
Who can understand his errors?
Cleanse me from secret faults.
Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins;
Let them not have dominion over me.
Then I shall be blameless,
And I shall be innocent of great
transgression. (Psalm 19:12-13)

Confess any sins that the Holy Spirit brings to your mind, and pray this affirmation to the Lord:
Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans 6:11)

As you make your requests known to the Lord, include:

The Lord's leading in your life
Opportunities for evangelism
Whatever else is on your heart
Finally, offer this prayer to the Lord:
Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy,
That we may rejoice and be glad all our days! (Psalm 90:14) 

[Judy Harder]

October 12

2 Corinthians 5

We should live for the eternal rather than the temporal, and we will be rewarded accordingly.

INSIGHT

One of the marks of maturity is the ability to put off immediate reward for the sake of a future goal. Likewise, the willingness to put off temporal reward for the sake of eternal reward is a good mark of Christian maturity. The Scriptures teach that someday we must all appear before the bema seat of Christ. In ancient Greece, the bema was the grandstand where judges gave out honors to the winners of athletic competitions. Thus, it is before the divine "bema" that we will all appear. If we compete according to the eternal rules, we will gain the honor of reward from the eternal Judge. As Paul wrote, we must set our minds "on things above, not on things on the earth" (Colossians 3:2).

PRAYER

Offer your praise to the Lord as you "set your mind on things above":
Unto You I lift up my eyes,
O You who dwell in the heavens.
Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters,
As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,
So our eyes look to the Lord our God,
Until He has mercy on us. (Psalm 123:1-2)

Pause for praise and thanksgiving.

As you seek to keep your life free from sin and in fellowship with Him, pray this confession to the Lord:
"My God, I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God; for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens" (Ezra 9:6).

Confess any sins that the Holy Spirit brings to your mind.

Then pray this affirmation to the Lord:
We make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5:9-10)

As you make your requests known to the Lord, include:

Greater commitment to Him
The work of specific Christian ministries
Your activities for the day
Finally, offer this prayer to the Lord:
Oh, love the Lord, all you His saints!
For the Lord preserves the faithful,
And fully repays the proud person.
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart,
All you who hope in the Lord. (Psalm 31:23-24) 

[Judy Harder]

October 14

1 Kings 18

The prophet Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel.

INSIGHT

The confrontation between Elijah and the prophets of Baal is one of the most exciting chapters in the Bible, with fire raining down from heaven — consuming meat, water, and stone! Then after Baal worship is defeated, it rains, signifying an end to that judgment. Elijah prays, "Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again" (v. 37). God does not punish His children for sin but rather chastens them in the hope that they will repent and return to Him.

PRAYER

Let us praise the Lord in the words of this psalm:

I will bless the Lord at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul shall make its boast in the Lord;
The humble shall hear of it and be glad.
Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
And let us exalt His name together.
Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good;
Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
(Psalm 34:1-3, .

Pause for personal praise and thanksgiving.

Pray this confession to the Lord as you seek to keep your life free from sin:

I have sinned greatly in what I have done; but now, I pray, O Lord, take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly (2 Samuel 24:10).

Confess any sins that the Holy Spirit brings to your mind. Now pray this affirmation to the Lord:

Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

As you make your requests known to the Lord, include:

-- The leading of the Lord in your life
-- Opportunities for personal evangelism
-- Whatever else is on your heart

Offer this closing prayer to the Lord:

The Lord is your keeper;
The Lord is your shade at your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day,
Nor the moon by night.
The Lord shall preserve you from all evil;
He shall preserve your soul.
The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in
From this time forth, and even forevermore
(Psalm 121:5-8).

[Judy Harder]

October 15

2 Corinthians 12

Paul was given a vision of heaven and then "a thorn in the flesh" to keep him humble.

INSIGHT

The Bible gives us a number of reasons why Christians suffer adversity. One reason is to strengthen and mature us. Another is that it is the natural consequence of our own foolishness from which God does not necessarily protect us. And another reason Paul gives us in today's chapter is to keep us humble. If things always went well for us, if life was always "coming up roses," we would tend to become conceited, to think more highly of ourselves than we ought and perhaps think less of others. Notice that Paul only prayed three times for the removal of his "thorn in the flesh" (vv. 7-8). When it was clear that God was not going to remove it, Paul accepted it.

PRAYER

Because the Lord always has a reason for allowing adversity, we can praise Him for all things:
Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts,
And I will declare Your greatness.
They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness,
And shall sing of Your righteousness.
The Lord is gracious and full of compassion,
Slow to anger and great in mercy.
The Lord is good to all,
And His tender mercies are over all His works.
(Psalm 145:6-9)

Pause for praise and thanksgiving.

Pray this confession to the Lord as you seek to keep your life free from sin and in fellowship with Him:
Show me Your ways, O Lord;
Teach me Your paths.
Lead me in Your truth and teach me,
For You are the God of my salvation;
On You I wait all the day. (Psalm 25:4-5)

Confess any sins that the Holy Spirit brings to your mind, and pray this affirmation to the Lord:
God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)

As you make your requests known to the Lord, include:

Patience in difficult circumstances
The work of missions in South America
Whatever else is on your heart
Finally, close with this prayer to the Lord:
Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,
And establish the work of our hands for us;
Yes, establish the work of our hands. (Psalm 90:17) 

[Judy Harder]

October 16

Galatians 5

As Christians walk by the Spirit, they will manifest His characteristics.

INSIGHT

As Paul teaches in Romans 7, a civil war rages within every child of God. The opposing forces are the power of the flesh and the power of the Spirit. Paul refers to these as the "outer man" and the "inner man." What is at stake is the control of the child of God. As we yield ourselves to the control of the Spirit, then love, joy, peace, patience, etc., begin to take root and bear fruit in our lives. As we yield ourselves to the control of our unrighteous promptings, then anger, jealousy, impurity, etc., begin to take root and bear fruit in our lives. We must yield our "members as instruments of righteousness to God" (Romans 6:13) and begin to taste of the fruit of God.

PRAYER

Because we can taste the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, give thanks and praise to Him:
Praise the Lord!
Praise God in His sanctuary;
Praise Him in His mighty firmament!
Praise Him for His mighty acts;
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness!
Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet;
Praise Him with the lute and harp! . . .
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord! (Psalm 150:1-3, 6)

Pause for praise and thanksgiving, and pray this confession to the Lord as you seek to keep your life free from sin:
Remember, O Lord, Your tender mercies and Your lovingkindness,
For they are from of old.
Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions;
According to Your mercy remember me,
For Your goodness sake, O Lord. (Psalm 25:6-7)

Confess any sins that the Holy Spirit brings to your mind.

Now pray this affirmation to the Lord:
They said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household" (Acts 16:31).

As you make your requests known to the Lord, include:

Faithfulness with your talents
The ministry of Christian radio
Your activities for the day
Offer this closing prayer to the Lord:
Bless the Lord, all you His hosts,
You ministers of His, who do His pleasure.
Bless the Lord, all His works,
In all places of His dominion.
Bless the Lord, O my soul! (Psalm 103:21-22)