“Prayer is not for the purpose of getting God to help us… but for getting us in line with what God is about to do. Prayer is God’s invitation to enter His throne room so He can lay His agenda over our hearts.”

Henry blackaby, experiencing prayer with jesus, p. 22.

Please read the first blog post entitled “Why Fast?” This explains what fasting is and why we follow Jesus in this spiritual discipline as together we seek the heart of God.

21 Days Devotional Blog (with opt-in text option)

During these 21 days, a devotional will be posted each morning on our “21 Days Blog” on Ascent’s homepage. You can go to the home page each day, or you can text ASCENT21 to the number 97000 to opt-in to receive a daily text reminder with a link to that day’s devotional.

Daily Devotionals

Each day during our 21 Days, we will focus on one part of the ACTS prayer acronym – Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. We will spend between 3-5 days on each part of the ACTS prayer acronym. Each devotion will take less than ten minutes of your time.

1. We will Engage the Word – looking at a passage of Scripture that draws our mind’s attention and heart’s affection to the Lord.
2. We will Connect the Heart – considering a truth that is applicable to our lives.
3. We will Reflect on the Truth, asking a number of questions each day that invite us to look and listen with intent.
4. And we will Depend on the Spirit – We will pray, for it is in praying that we learn to pray. And it is in praying that the Spirit changes our hearts.

We want to encourage you to grab a journal or a notebook – something to write on as you walk through each devotional. Yes, it will add a few minutes to the time it takes to do the devotion, and it will also deepen your experience and shape your walk with God for years to come. This journal or notebook will be a keepsake to remind you of God’s faithfulness during this challenging season for all of us.

Confession

Engage the Word

Read Psalm 51:1-10 – A Psalm of David

1 Have mercy on me, O God, 

according to your steadfast love; 

according to your abundant mercy 

blot out my transgressions. 

2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, 

and cleanse me from my sin! 

3 For I know my transgressions, 

and my sin is ever before me. 

4 Against you, you only, have I sinned 

and done what is evil in your sight, 

so that you may be justified in your words 

and blameless in your judgment. 

5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, 

and in sin did my mother conceive me. 

6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, 

and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. 

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; 

wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 

8 Let me hear joy and gladness; 

let the bones that you have broken rejoice. 

9 Hide your face from my sins, 

and blot out all my iniquities. 

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, 

and renew a right spirit within me. 

This Psalm comes from David’s blackest moment of self-knowledge – his sin of adultery with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11 & 12) – yet it explores not only the depths of his guilt but some of the farthest reaches of grace and salvation. Later in this Psalm, we see that the nation, in its own darkest hour, found words here for its own confession and its rekindling of hope.

In Psalm 51, there is a progression from desperate pleading to confident assurance. We can learn much here about God, sin and salvation in the course of meditating on these heart-felt words of the psalmist David.

The opening plea, have mercy on me, is the language of one who has no right or claim to the grace or favor for which he begs. But steadfast love is a covenant word. For all his unworthiness, David knows that he still belongs.

In verse 10, David – in using the word “create” asks for nothing short of a miracle. This is something that only God can do – and can refer to both an instantaneous act, as well as a sustained process over time. Thanks be to God that He is able to do both, because we, in our fallenness, can do neither.

Reflect on the Truth

1. Reflect for a few moments on those areas of your life for which you need to confess or repent. God sees and knows all, but He also desires that we acknowledge these areas before Him.
2. No doubt, our sin affects ourselves and affects others – but as verse 4 tells us, it is sin against a holy God for which we should be most concerned. Take a few moments to confess to God those ways that you have fallen short of His holiness.
3. Now, spend the rest of your time meditating on verse 10 – this miracle that only God can do. Ask Him to do this in your life – to create a clean heart, and to renew a right spirit within you.

Depend on the Spirit

Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see the deeper longings, desires or motives in your heart that those thoughts are pointing to. (For example: you may write down, “Lord, I have made so many mistakes, I honestly don’t know where to start. I’m so glad that you see all and know all – and that you have forgiven all of my sins – past, present and future. Now, please help me move forward.”) The Lord can help us discern the path forward – through His word, His Spirit, His people.

For Prayer

Today, pray for church family to collectively have a heart of confession and repentance, acknowledging where each of us have fallen short, knowing that the sacrifice Jesus Christ made on the cross for all of us has paid the price we deserve to pay. Pray that as a church, we will go before God on our knees, asking Him to create in each of us a clean heart.