Use this devo as you are able, in whole or in part. Don’t feel compelled to read it all. Simply read and meditate upon whatever catches your attention. The goal is enjoying time with God through His Word and in prayer. Questions about the devotional elements?

Call to Prayer

Prayer of Confession

Wise God, your salvation is no hastily thrown-together plan. The universe-altering accomplishment of the cross and resurrection was part of your good plan from the beginning. I pray that you keep working out your effective and generous purposes, gathering a countless crowd from every nation before Jesus. Amen. (Prayer based on the Canons of Dort, Question 2.8)

*Prayer borrowed from Philip Reinders’ Seeking God’s Face: Praying with the Bible through the Year

Reading Plan

This reading plan will help you to develop the habit of being in God’s Word each morning and evening. Come to this time with expectation. Expect God to reveal himself to you. Expect that he delights in you being there, even when you’ve wandered away. Growing a spiritual habit is a slow, patient process. So be kind to yourself as you grow! 

Readings are hyperlinked. Simply hover over the passage or click Morning/Evening Reading (email version).

Morning Readings:

Pray Psalm 91 | Read 2 Corinthians 11

• Praying the Psalms: Read slowly. Take note of words and phrases. Bring them before the Lord in prayer and personalize the passage as you pray.
• NT Context: “Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians is a classic of pastoral response: affectionate, firm, clear, and unswerving in the conviction that God among them, revealed in Jesus and present in his Holy Spirit, continued to be the central issue in their lives, regardless of how much of a mess they had made of things.” Meditate on the passage, noting a few words or a phrase that stood out. Take them to God in prayer.

Evening Readings:

Pray Psalm 92 | Read Nehemiah 3

• OT Context: “Nehemiah started out as a government worker in the employ of a foreign king. Then he became—and this is the work he tells us of in these memoirs—a building contractor, called in to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. His coworker Ezra was a scholar and teacher, working with the Scriptures. Nehemiah worked with stones and mortar. The stories of the two men are interwoven in a seamless fabric of vocational holiness. Neither job was more or less important or holy than the other. Nehemiah needed Ezra; Ezra needed Nehemiah. God’s people needed the work of both of them. We still do. Reflect on the passage. Who was the original audience, and what was their situation? How is that relevant to you today?

Sermon Devo

We are in our Spring series in Romans 8. Each day we will dig into a different aspect of this incomparable chapter and see how it alters the way we live “in Christ!”

Read: Romans 8:26-27

To be human is to have and experience our limitations. We are creatures, not in the lower sense, but in the created sense. We are not self-caused nor self-sufficient. If these observations seem obvious, then I mention them only because we humans have the propensity to audaciously attempt navigating our lives out of sync with this reality. 

Bold? Yes. Wise? Not in the slightest!

At the same time, however, we have been discussing what it means to be made alive by God in Christ, to have the Spirit of the living God dwelling within us. This can only come from recognizing our insufficiency and limitations in relationship to sin and salvation. So it is only natural for us to wonder, then, what limitations do we have as people in whom the God of the universe has taken up residence (and what exactly does that mean)? 

Our passage this week points out that the limitations are still there. Ray Ortlund notes, “We come inevitably to those moments in life when nothing will suffice but what is directly and immediately of God. We come to the end of ourselves – no more answers, no more cleverness, nothing but need. Even our faith struggles. And there God meets us.”

That’s what this week is about. Navigating our need in reliance upon the Spirit. With this in mind, let’s notice two things about our passage: 

1. The Spirit helps us because we are weak, and don’t have the strength to pray as we ought. He intercedes for us and makes our meager prayers into mighty ones. 
2. The Spirit knows the true nature of our hearts. He knows our struggles and he knows the things we try to hold back from God’s presence. But he also knows God’s mind and will and heart toward us, and so he takes our prayers that are hampered by sin and makes them holy and aligned with God’s will. 

REFLECT: If God knows your weakness and the true nature of your heart, and yet he loves to intercede for you anyway. What does this tell you about how he views you?

Evening Prayer of Examen

• Where did you move with or feel close to Jesus today?
• Where did you resist or feel far from Jesus today?
• Where is Jesus leading you tomorrow? Ask for joy as you follow him.

Benediction