21 Days of Prayer and Fasting- 2021

Day 14- Purity

Author: Sydney Russom

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Matthew 5:8

I recently heard a man say that looking at Jesus is like looking at the Sun. The light of the Sun shows no partiality- it touches everything it can reach. The only place it cannot touch is the place that its rays have been obstructed to.

The Light of God's face cannot touch me if I have lifted up something to a high place between Him and I. The only way a shadow exists is when something has come between itself and the light.

I believe the Lord is moving in His church and mercifully calling her back to Himself. The scripture says in Exodus 34:14, “you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” What God is saying here is that He is unrivaled. For those of you who may be reading this and thinking “every experience I’ve had with jealousy has been controlling and manipulative and fear-based,” you can rest assured that this is not how your God expresses jealousy. It is not boastful for Him to call Himself unrivaled because He is telling the truth about Himself, and when He tells the truth about Himself, we ought to listen. When God speaks truth of Himself (which is all the time, by the way), there is something for us to learn about ourselves from it.

We were made for God’s glory (Isaiah 43:7), and worship is the default of humanity, but who or what we worship is entirely up to us; for too long Christ’s Bride has set her affections on worthless idols and on things that will never satisfy her. This grieves the heart of our Bridegroom Jesus. A pruning and a refining is necessary for us to be made ready for His coming and for our marriage with Lamb of God, Jesus (Revelation 19:7).

The word “pure” in Matthew 5:8, as translated from Greek, means “to be purified as if by fire” and can also mean “pruned.” Being pure in heart does not mean to have good intentions or good motives. It means to be tried in fire. It means that we have let Jesus’ words cut us and make us clean (John 15:3). The word “see” in the Greek in this verse means “to know or to perceive.” We can only know Him if we let Him tear down the people, the possessions, the expectations and the lies that we have set up in the high places of our hearts. Our God is a jealous God, and He loves us too much to let us waste our worship on what is perishable. 

If this all seems too heavy and too difficult to attain, let the truth set you free. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ (Romans 8:1), so shake that lie off of you.

Here is the Good News: we are weak to set ourselves free, and we cannot do it, but His name literally means Rescuer and Deliverer. The bible has named the Father our Vinedresser (John 15). It is His job to make the cuts. The bible has also named Jesus our Refiner (Malachi 3:3). It is His job to purify us. What is our job? We yield to His work in us.

All of this pain, this pruning, this refining, this breaking… is unto something. It is unto someone. If you humble yourself and say “Jesus, I give up. I need You. Come have Your way in me,” He will wash your eyes clean. He will wipe the dirt from your hands. He will purify your heart. And now as you see Him, you’ll see Him with an unobstructed view… and the beauty and love of Jesus will touch your heart and transform your life in ways you never could have imagined!

PRAY: Father, I thank you that Your Word is truth, and we can bank our lives on it. I know You are coming back for a Bride who is made ready for you, so I pray that we would yield to your work in our hearts. Purify us with your refining fire and love. Let us see You for who You are. You are worth it all, Jesus. We love you! In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Day 13- Silence

Author: Abbie Davis

There is “…a time to be silent and a time to speak.” Ecclesiastes 3:7

The Lord spoke to me one day while going on a walk, “silence knows something the noise does not.” I shuddered at this thought and began pondering, in the silence, what He meant by that.

That day, stirred with curiosity, I wrote in my journal the following:

For most, silence is uncomfortable and almost always attempted to be avoided. But why?

For me, I suppose, have always enjoyed the silence. It’s hard but in the end, it’s comforting. The Lord said today, “silence knows something the noise does not.” The noise can easily clutter and block… yet there, too, is beauty in the noise. But… what is the beauty of silence? Perhaps, the beauty is that silence is the space where everything and nothing is heard.

Do you abhor silence? Are you someone who, when everything falls quiet and still, gets unsettled and ventures for the remote to play something…anything? It’s interesting to me that not all enjoy the silence. In Ecclesiastes 3:7, we learn from one of the wisest men, King Solomon, that there is actually a time for silence. This word “silent” in Greek, according to Strong’s definition, means “to hush or keep quiet:— to hold peace, keep silence, or be silent.” I believe that this is a part of our fellowship with Jesus- learning what it is to be silent. Even Jesus Himself knew when to be silent and He remained silent at what seemed like the most inopportune times (ie. Isaiah 53:7; Matthew 26:63; Mark 14:61).

Lately, I have been caught in the awe silencing presence of God. I have discovered, yet again, as I choose to silence my soul before the Lord, that He really does fight for me (Exodus 14:14). As I have practiced "hushing my soul”, I have truly seen how the Lord “becomes everything to my nothingness” (Eric Gilmour). In what seems like an empty and barren place, I have been quietly reminded of the loudest kind of Love. Silence has created a space for me to hear God’s very own heart; it has created such closeness and such proximity to the Lord that I’ve become more whole and well. Grounding myself in the silence with the Lord really has taught me something the noise can’t.

Today, I simply want to call you into remembrance of the goodness and the great need of silence to be present in our daily walk with the Lord. Not only is it for our benefit spiritually but also physically. According to psychologists, being silent can benefit your health in ways like: enhanced sleep, increased focus, increased awareness, lower stress levels and stimulated brain growth. I want to ask you to take inventory on what’s happening internally. Ask Holy Spirit to show you what steps are necessary to create space for the invitation of silence.

PRAY: Father, I pray by the power of Your Spirit that You would help me venture into a place of silence and solitude to discover You more intimately. Help me to lean into the uncomfortable comforts of the silence. May I be found with a quieted spirit before You, even in the midst of the most chaotic of times. In Jesus’ name.