Day 5 - SET OURSELVES APART
God has empowered us to stand strong and be courageous, even when we go through difficult circumstances. We must stand firm and not concede any ground that God has given to us and move forward in His plans and purposes!
Father, we open our hearts to you in prayer today thanking you for setting us apart. “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). Help us to honor the position you have given us by seeking to set ourselves apart, to “not be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewal of our minds, that by testing we may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2). We ask Father that over the next 21 days and into 2021 you will continue to renew our minds, help us to discern your will, and guide us to set ourselves apart as your beloved children who love you, honor you, and walk in your will.
Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, you walked this earth as a human, experiencing temptation, pain, chastisement, and persecution, yet you clung to your Father in prayer and gave us a perfect example by never falling into sin. Help us precious Shepherd, to live by your example. Help us commit to walking in holiness, to honor God in our thoughts, words, and actions, to resist temptation, to seek forgiveness and reconciliation quickly when we do sin, and to turn to you in constant prayer. Jesus, please keep fresh in our minds the prayer you prayed to your Father for us: “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your Word is truth. As you sent Me into the world, so I have sent them into the world” (John 17:15-18).
Holy Spirit, please help us to make kingdom choices, to not conform to the world by loving the world or the things in the world. Your Word tells us that “if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). As God’s children, we are to be holy, for God is holy (1 Peter 1:16). Precious Spirit, please help us to remain in you and to walk by you, so that we will not gratify the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). Over the next 21 days please reveal to us the desires of the flesh that we are currently battling, and please help us to overcome them once and for all, casting them into our past and not carrying their burden into 2021. Help us to “cleanse ourselves from what is dishonorable, so that we will be vessels for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work” (2 Timothy 2:21). We offer up all of these requests in the precious name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
