Jan 25
Jan 25 https://thex.church/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Day21-squares.png 1024 1024 X Church X Church https://thex.church/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Day21-squares.pngJohn 15:5 NLT
“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.”
This is the last day of our 21 days of fasting and praying. Tomorrow you can eat the cookie, have a cup of coffee, eat the meal you have been fasting or whatever it is that you have been denying yourself. Today is day 21!
Today is also a good day to reflect back on the past 21 days. What have you learned about God? What have you learned about yourself? What scriptures have spoken to you? How have you been changed? How have you been challenged? And what is your next step on the path to God?
Tomorrow is day 22. The day after is day 23 and after that day 24 on and on and on. I think you get it.
The point is that these 21 days are not to be an isolated episode in your walk with Jesus, like, “21 days of fasting and praying? Done!!!”
Absolutely not.
No, this has been the first fruits of your year. The very beginning. There’s still another 344 days left, not to mention all the days ahead that you have until Jesus calls you home. The problem is that none of us know how many we have ahead of us.
That’s why how you choose to live day 22 and 23 and 24 and all the rest is important. We can choose toremain in Him – that means spending time talking and listening to him, reading Scripture and thinking about what we’ve read, growing in dependence on him, in other words, what we have been doing the past 21 days. When we do that, when we choose to walk with him that way we will produce much fruit.
Fruit like “…the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.” (Galatians 5:22 NLT)
Doesn’t that sound like Jesus? And isn’t that what we as Jesus followers are to be? More like Jesus?
So, let’s end with this prayer from Ephesians 3, starting with verse 16:
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
The 21 days are over. And the rest of the path is before you. Keep walking. Keep praying. Stay connected with community. Cling to Jesus. And expect him to work in you and through you as you walk on the path to God.