Church of the City Guided Prayer

SCRIPTURE

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On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.” “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.” - John 2: 1-11 (NIV)

Jesus replied, “My dear one, don’t you understand that if I do this, it won’t change anything for you, but it will change everything for me! My hour of unveiling my power has not yet come. - John 2: 1-11 (TPT)

REFLECTION

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(Ponder and grow in your awareness of Jesus’ life of sacrifice by reflecting on the following questions.)

Jesus, as The Word you didn’t have a rite of passage into becoming, you always were...

What did it feel like to be pushed out into something you weren’t expecting?

...into something you were born for, but didn’t feel ready for?

Jesus, when your mother asked you to bring a solution to the problem, did you know what you were going to do?

What level of risk did you experience when you told the servants to fill the jars with water?

Did the Father and the Holy Spirit tell you what was going to happen? Did you have to wait and see?

RESPONSE

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The fact that you did this for me, that you struggled with the tension of being God and man, that you allowed yourself to be pushed into something that you might not have felt ready for, and that you counted all things lost for my sake inspires me and moves my heart toward you in love.

I say with Paul:

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be 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 on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 3 7-14 (NIV)

Scripture

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The scriptures tell us that (12 year old) Jesus and his parents had gone up to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. After the festival the family was returning home when they realized Jesus was missing. So they went back to Jerusalem to look for him.

After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he was saying to them. Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. - Luke 2:41-52 (NIV)

Reflection

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Ponder and grow in your awareness of Jesus’ life of sacrifice by reflecting on the following questions.

What did it feel like to have your wisdom increasing as you sat with Rabbis?

Did you feel excited? Did you feel tension? Did you feel fear?

Were you aware of how different you were? Did this make you feel lonely? Did you have someone that you could talk to?

What did it feel like to not have your parents understand you?

Could you feel God’s comfort and encouragement for you to continue to press in?

Response

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Jesus, the fact that you counted all things lost for my sake. That you took on flesh and had to grow in wisdom and stature. That you had to struggle with being misunderstood by your parents and loved ones. This inspires me and moves my heart toward you in love.

I say with Paul:

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be 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 on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 3 7-14 (NIV)

SCRIPTURE

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“The news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him...but Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” - Luke 5:15-16 (See also Mark 1:45)

DEVOTION

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Over this past week we’ve seen how important it was for Jesus to withdraw to solitary places to pray to and be with Father God.

A lonely place doesn’t have to be a physical space. We carry lonely places in our hearts as well. And just as we may avoid physical places that make us feel lonely, we may tend to avoid the lonely places inside ourselves as well. We avoid with sarcasm, self-protection, busyness, eating, shopping, to-do lists, drinking, working, screen time, Netflix, exercising, socializing, etc. But the Holy Spirit desires to lead us beneath this activity. It is there that Father God is longing to meet with us just like He met with Jesus.

The depth of feeling lonely is feeling unseen, unknown, and disconnected. However, we are created to be seen, be known, and to be intimately connected. In this way loneliness may serve as a sign to places that need to be filled, that need to know connection. God is Yahweh… The Great I Am. You can trust that Father God is longingly waiting to be with you in every space because in every place that you confess “I am lonely”, your tender God replies, “I AM”.

Move toward the lonely places and the lonely spaces. God is with you.

REFLECTION

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Where do you notice you feel the most alone? Where does the Accuser try and tell you that you are alone? Where does the accuser challenge your identity as a son or daughter of God? Take some time to confess these spaces and ask for God to come into those spaces with a picture, a promise, or just the beauty of his peace as you bring this lonely place to the one who sees you, knows you, and will never leave you.

PRAYER

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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I love you. I adore you. Thank you for your nearness, your love, your unconditional acceptance of me. There are places inside of me that feel so alone. But even still, you are with me. Open up my heart to experience the knowledge of your abiding love. Make me more conscious of your leading, your guiding, and grace me with the trust and faith to follow the path of my pain and loneliness into the new discoveries of your love that you have waiting for me.

SCRIPTURE

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“Jesus was led by the Spirit.” Matt 4:1 (NIV)

DEVOTION

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The Holy Spirit was present in the lonely places. In fact, the Holy Spirit led Jesus, the Son, into the wilderness to be with the Father. The Holy Spirit was leading and guiding Jesus in his daily life whether in the crowds or being led to the wild.

The Holy Spirit is God as the Comforter, the Guide, the Power of God. Jesus leaned on The Holy Spirit and trusted him to care for his needs and direct him into all truth. Jesus’s relationship with The Holy Spirit while on earth required faith and trust.

Jesus’s limitations required him to depend upon the leading and revelation of The Holy Spirit. As Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man…Jesus grew in trust. And the Holy Spirit guided him and led him to walk away from certain things in his daily life.

These things may have been easy things for Jesus or they may have been hard. Some things may have been obvious, some things obscure. The Holy Spirit guided Jesus towards things as well. Some things the Holy Spirit asked would have been easy and fun for Jesus, but other things would require great sacrifice, or create pain and confusion. But through it all, whether The Holy Spirit was leading Jesus to a place or from a place, He was always WITH Jesus.

REFLECTION

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Jesus carried with him the weight of living as the Messiah...the answer to a broken world. What were some of the things that Jesus might have struggled to pull away from? What sort of feelings do you imagine Jesus experienced as he was growing in trust and being led by the Holy Spirit?

PRAYER

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Father God, thank you for letting Jesus walk with the Holy Spirit. Thank you for waiting patiently in the lonely places. Jesus, thank you for being willing to be led from and to challenging places by the Holy Spirit. Thank you for being willing to be tested. Precious Holy Spirit, thank you for always being WITH Jesus. Thank you for being a constant companion, a trusted comforter, and a faithful and trusted teacher and guide. Amen.

SCRIPTURE

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“Jesus went up into the high hills to spend the whole night in prayer to God.”

Luke 6:12

DEVOTION

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Think about the lonely places from heaven’s perspective. Father God, Jesus and The Holy Spirit had perfect union, closeness, and intimacy. But Jesus left heaven to come to earth as a man. This means for the first time we know of, heaven was without Jesus. God the Father and His only Son Jesus were not together in heaven. Things weren’t the same. There was now a new kind of distance between the two of them. Jesus, The Word, was now limited in a way he never had been before. He had to grow in His understanding. He got tired and had to sleep. He had to learn through suffering. He had to forgive others who wounded him. He had to navigate the temptation of offense, deal with frustration, temper a desire to control situations, and grieve the helplessness of injustices he saw around him.

Not only did Jesus have to struggle against the distractions of the world that steal our affections, our attentions, and threaten to make our heart grow cold and hard, but God had to struggle in a new way too. He had to permit this tension and pain to exist. He had to let Jesus war with his own heart. God had to let Jesus fight through the attentions and the affections that tried to distract him from his Father. God had to experience the loss of intimacy they had in heaven to let his Son grow in wisdom and understanding and the fear of the Lord. God had to let him be a man and grow in the knowledge of who he was as the Messiah.

To the Father and to Jesus, the lonely places represented deeper connection, fellowship, and restoration. Thankfully, Jesus sought out the lonely places to be with the Father. Jesus defended this space. And the Father met Jesus in the lonely places in a way that they couldn’t find in the busyness of daily life.

REFLECTION

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Imagine what the longing Father God must have felt. What do you think God experienced as he longingly waited for Jesus to withdraw into the lonely places so they could commune?

PRAYER

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Father God, thank you for being there in the wilderness with Jesus. Thank you for being willing to bear the pain of watching your son struggle as a man. Amen

We began our meditations focusing on Jesus as God, Man, and Servant King. We will now continue to thoughtfully consider how and why a hallmark of Jesus’ life was to seek out lonely places to be with Father God.

SCRIPTURE

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But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. - Luke 5:16

DEVOTION

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This scripture has many juxtaposing ideas. Jesus sought out lonely places to find relationship. What an odd thought. And yet, it was the bedrock of Jesus’s ministry.

First, the “Holy Spirit led him into the wilderness”. Scripture says that it was there that “his strength would be revealed against the accuser.” (Matt 4:1)

As a practice in his time on earth, Jesus continued to withdraw. He pulled away from the crowd, the busyness, and the comforts that he had with the disciples and those he loved in order to go after something else. He withdrew from the many in his daily life in in order to focus on the One. And spending time with his One was what gave him strength against the accuser.

Jesus as God, as man, and as servant king needed the lonely places to discover and cultivate strength in a way that he could not find in the busyness of his normal world. “It’s how he began his ministry. It’s how he made important decisions. It’s how he dealt with troubling emotions like grief. It’s how he dealt with the constant demands of his ministry and cared for his soul. It’s how he taught his disciples. It’s how he prepared for important ministry events. It’s how he prepared for his death on the cross.” - Bill Gaultiere

REFLECTION

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What sort of things do you think were distracting to Jesus? What things do you think were difficult for Jesus to leave behind? Why did Jesus’ strength need to be revealed?

Where can you follow the leading of the Holy Spirit into the lonely places within yourself or your story to encounter a deeper, more solid relationship with your heavenly Father?

PRAYER

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Thank you Jesus for being willing to withdraw to strengthen yourself through prayer. We have no idea of the choices you made on a daily basis and what those decisions cost you. We have no idea the prayers you prayed in those lonely places. Thank you for fighting for us by fighting for your strength, identity, and purpose in the wilderness.

We’ve taken our first 5 days to meditate on Jesus as God, Man, and Servant King. We will now thoughtfully consider how and why a hallmark of Jesus’ life was to seek out lonely places to be with Father God.

SCRIPTURE

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Afterward, the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the lonely wilderness in order to reveal his strength against the accuser by going through the ordeal of testing. - Matt 4:1

DEVOTION

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Before this event, the scriptures say that Jesus was baptized and a voice from heaven thundered, “This is my beloved son, in him I am well pleased”...then the Holy Spirit actually descended on Jesus. What a moment! Regardless of the setting or time period, this would have been a moment that created quite a stir! Adding to this moment was John the Baptist, pointing and shouting to others, “LOOK. Here is the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. This is the one…” No one had ever had a moment like this. The prophet of the day exclaiming the Messiah had come in a man among them. Father God booming down from heaven his spoken pleasure. The Holy Spirit descending like a dove in some fashion that was recognizable to some or all. In every way, this event was remarkable. Jesus was being called out. He was in the spotlight. Can you imagine the stir, the popularity, the opportunities, the crowds, the attention and the envy he must have drawn?

But what was Jesus’ next move? Matthew says that “Afterward, the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the lonely wilderness in order to reveal his strength against the accuser”.

Wait. Why? Here he was exalted by God himself in front of his family, friends and strangers. He could have stayed and revelled in the glory of it all…but instead he went to a lonely place, the wilderness.

The Holy Spirit led him away from something really good, even a circumstance that God had created! But the Holy Spirit didn’t just ask him to sacrifice something. Actually, that was a by-product. The scripture reads that the Holy Spirit led Jesus. Jesus was led towards something…which required walking away from something else. And the invitation included the sacrifice of food, water, and shelter. But let’s be clear. There was an exchange. We are never called to sacrifice something without being led to something else. Jesus’s first sacrifice was laying down his privileged place by the Father. But he laid it down to move toward something else that had greater value to him and to the Father. And that first sacrifice, created a ripple effect of sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice. But each sacrifice was an exchange, an investment towards a great return. A reward. God had something FOR Jesus in the wilderness, but Jesus could only get to it by turning from something else.

REFLECTION

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What was Jesus withdrawing from? What were some of the things he sacrificed in the 40 days of testing? How did the Devil test him? What does Matthew 4:1 say he received?

PRAYER

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God the Father, we love you. Holy Spirit, we love you. Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man, we love you. We long to understand who you are and the power of your sacrificial love. We long to see ourselves with the value you place on us. Open our hearts, our eyes, our minds and the scriptures to the greatness of your love and the power of the Resurrection story. Amen.

SCRIPTURE

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“Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” -Mark 10:42-45

DEVOTIONAL

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The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. What? The Son of Man. The King of Kings. I am. Yahweh. Emmanuel. The Messiah. Came to serve…and give his life as a ransom for many?

These words made no sense to the disciples. A king was separated and above the needs and groans and frailties of his people. He would be in a mansion. He would have guards. And a just and righteous king would set things right, through force if need be. So it’s no surprise that Jesus’ disciples were looking for a ruler that would overturn the opposition’s power by exerting his power and authority.

So what was Jesus saying?

Jesus was the Great Table Turner. Holy Otherness. Beyond man’s imagination. Even the darkness could not understand it. Jesus was the Firstborn of All Creation and yet, he came into creation as a “slave to all”. The Servant King. He came showing us that God has never detached himself from our fate. His love could not permit him to turn his back on us…disconnect from our sufferings and separation. God was not like Marie Antoinette saying “Let them eat cake” when the people were starving and desperate with no resources and no bread.

No, Jesus came as a completely other type of King. One who lived among us. He came as one of us, but not just among us … as a servant TO us. A slave to all. He took on struggle, illness, temptation (Hebrews 4:15), frustration, longing … he hungered, thirsted, grew weary, and wrestled as a man for the faith and grace and endurance to complete his purpose as our perfect ransom.

God is a Love so humble, so gentle, so patient, so gracious, so long suffering...we cannot fathom it. Jesus is the “exact imprint of the invisible God” and he came as the Servant King. Who is this God who runs towards us? Who is this Holy One? He is Jesus. God. Man. And King. Hallelujah.

REFLECTION

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How do you experience Jesus as your King? Do you experience him more as a Servant King or an Overlord? Where can you meditate on him as your Servant King today?

Where can you put your trust in the ways of The Servant King and serve others?

PRAYER

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Father, you are a good and kind ruler. You are a king who is mighty to save! Jesus, you are the fullness of glory and the humblest of servants. Thank you for your love, mercy, humility, and grace. Thank you that yours is a Kingdom in which servants flourish, and the humble are made great. Holy Spirit, would you change our hearts and our lives to be faithful servants to King Jesus. Would our deeds of love and mercy cause others to honor you. In Jesus name, Amen.

SCRIPTURE

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“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” — Philippians 2:5-8

DEVOTIONAL

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When we hear the word “king,” we usually see an image of a wealthy overlord sitting in luxury, being served by all of his underlings. He may be kind and create justice for his kingdom, he may be harsh and create great suffering, but he is always waited on hand and foot because he has the most powerful position in all the land.

In our modern society, we struggle to understand a much smaller separation between the rich and poor, the privileged and the underserved. In the Biblical days of the kings, from Queen Esther to King Solomon to King Herod to Caesar Augustus this separation was colossal. The most powerful in the land was sometimes kind and sometimes cruel but was always separated and surrounded by servants. And what’s more… all who served or interacted with the king knew that their life could be extinguished with one word, one whim of the king.

Jesus’ entrance into humanity as God and Man was Holy Otherness. He came as The Great Table Turner into a fallen world. He came not to be served, but to serve. He came defying all that the human story knows of the role of kings. And although Jesus was equal to God, he chose to humble Himself for our sake. The word used in Philippians 2:6 is that Jesus emptied himself. This doesn’t mean that he gave up his glory or stopped being God. It means that he willingly chose to take on human frailties, weaknesses, and limitations to come down to us. His first sacrifice in the redemption of mankind happened before he came to earth as a man. His first sacrifice was to lay down his royal separateness and all the benefits that came with that position to live among us within our limitations and brokenness, even discovering his identity and his purpose as we discover ours - through the word, through faith, and through relationship with God. He is God. He is Man. He is the Servant King. Hallelujah.

REFLECTION

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How do you experience Jesus as your King? Do you experience him more as a Servant King or an Overlord? Where can you meditate on him as your Servant King today? How does the Servant King challenge your views of comfort and service of others? Ask God to reveal the truth to you that He is a good and faithful King.

PRAYER

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Father, you are a good and kind ruler. You are a king who is mighty to save! Jesus, you are the fullness of glory and the humblest of servants. How you were able to sacrifice so much, we will never fully know. Thank you for your love, mercy, humility, and grace. Thank you that yours is a Kingdom in which servants flourish, and the humble are made great. Holy Spirit, would you change our hearts and our lives to be faithful servants to King Jesus. Would our deeds of love and mercy cause others to honor you. In Jesus name, Amen.

SCRIPTURE

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“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” - John 1:14

DEVOTIONAL

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Yahweh, the unspeakable, untouchable God had come as a human? Here among us?

The Jewish imagination had room for a God who came to his people. They had experienced God through centuries of history - his essence inhabiting a pillar of fire, speaking through prophets, going before them in battle, filling the temple with His glory. God’s presence had been with them and God’s holiness could kill them. But how could that God come as a man? How could he come as Jesus, a man they knew from Nazareth?

When Jesus proclaimed of himself, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” He was letting his neighbors know on a real day in history, at a real time, in a real place, that the same glory that had filled the Temple of Solomon was now present as a person in him!

I imagine he spoke this as flies were buzzing about. Perhaps people were outside the synagogue trading in the streets. Life was happening in the most uneventful ways. Into the ordinary the most extraordinary was happening among them. And it still is. The Immanuel of Isaiah 9. The great “I AM” of Exodus 3. The cloud and pillar of Exodus 13. The true promised heir of Abraham of Genesis 15, and the seed to crush the serpent’s head in Genesis 3:15! Jesus was saying to his family, his neighbors, his acquaintances, and to us today, "Prepare yourselves. I am here.”

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Hallelujah.

REFLECTION

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Jesus was a man. What sort of suffering do you think he experienced as he grew in the knowledge of who he was as God? How do you think Jesus experienced God’s presence and nearness? What role did the Holy Spirit have in Jesus’s life as a man? How can you identify with Jesus as a man?

Spend a few minutes now in quiet contemplation and focused holy imagination. As you take this time, permit your spirit to respond with a prayer, a question, or an action.

PRAYER

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Father, thank you that you always want to be near your people. Thank you for your love, provision, guidance, and protection. You are Yahweh, the Most High, who came down! You came in truth and in glory to dwell with mankind. Jesus, this was your plan and in your heart all along. Thank you for coming to us. Holy Spirit, let this truth of the nearness of God further prepare our hearts to receive Jesus. In Jesus precious name we pray, Amen.