Week Two – Day 6
SERVICE DAY – Visit someone who is sick or is a shut-in. Take time to encourage them with a meal, prayer, or gift. Ask God to use you to be a blessing to their lives. Ask if you could pray for their healing or strength. Follow God’s leading.
Devotional:
Salvation is only the starting point in following Christ. Then we are told to have as our goal the desire to live as Christ intended when He paid such a steep price on the cross. It is true that Jesus bore our sins, but now He calls us to be dead to sin. We should no longer live the way we used to before being forgiven. Instead, our lives are to be characterized by His righteousness. Remember that our salvation is not just an escape from Hell or guilt, but freedom from the life of sin and freedom to live as God intends. We must be motivated to keep the “old man” (our pre-Christian selves) dead and learn how to be alive to the “new man” (our forgiven Christian state). This occurs by the way we live and the choices we make in everyday decisions.
The main challenge for most Christians is we don’t want to “die to sin,” but still desire to maintain some of our independence. We want to “live on the edge” and gamble that Jesus understands our “weaknesses” and will tolerate the manner in which we choose to live some of the time. God calls us to become 24/7 believers. Something is wrong with our faith if we desire to still maintain some of our old lifestyle when we fully know that He died on a cross so we could be free to follow Him. Then, and only then, will we have true peace of mind and the life He paid so dearly for us to enjoy.
Service Suggestions:
- See if they need anything from the grocery store.
- Ask them if there is a favorite snack or treat you can pick up for them.
- Bring over a copy of your favorite book or movie to share
- Take a moment and pray for God to heal them and give them strength
Prayer Focus:
Pray that you will live your life as Christ intends and sacrifice yourself so that others may find the Shepherd of their souls.
Key Scripture:
“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”
I Peter 2:24 NIV
“In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.”
Romans 6:11-14 NIV
