Day 2 (March 2)

“Father, increase our intimacy with you.”

Daily Direction

• Days 2-4 are prayers building on the prayer of Day 1. As the Spirit comes and fills us up, we are beginning today to ask for more of an intimacy with Jesus. It says in Scripture that in Jesus the ‘veil of the Temple was torn from top to bottom.’ Jesus brought the beginnings of New Creation, and in doing so he tore the veil from the top down; in other words, God took it upon himself to restore our relationship with him.

• God is not distant; he is dwelling now in our midst. So, as we cry out for more intimacy with Jesus we are declaring that he is near and we are asking for more of that reality. We are a people created in his image; we are a people born to hear His voice. Only in intimacy with the Father do we find our identity, not only as persons but as a community.

• Jesus is in our midst to be near to us, to show us more of who he is, and consequently more of who we are. As we draw closer to him, as we hear his voice, as we feel his heartbeat, we become more ‘us’ than we’ve ever been before. We long to live in the constant reality that the God of the universe is near, present, and active in our lives. He took it upon himself to invite us into an intimate relationship together, and so we are responding to that invitation.

Daily Devotion

• “What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and he found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.” Philippians 3.8-9

Daily Help

• Plan your time of prayer. There will be ‘open’ space now where eating (or whatever you are fasting) would have been before. Plan what you will do during this time. If the time is simply empty, then it will be hard to focus and stay with the purpose you have set. Whether it’s worship, prayer, Bible reading, etc.; Have a set plan for your ‘open’ space so that you can stay focuses; and that plan might simply be sitting before the Lord in silence. No matter what the plan is, the point is to have one.