Omer Devotional Day 18

April 17 at sundown - Day 18
Today is day 18 of counting the Omer 
Today is day 18 out of Egypt
Today is day 18 of Messiah Resurrected

Return to Sender (James 4:1-10)

Resist Pride and Evil
1 Where do quarrels and conflicts among you come from? Don’t they come from this, namely your passions that battle within your body parts?
2 You crave and have not. You murder and you envy, yet you cannot get it. You fight and you wage war. You do not have because you do not ask.
3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives so you may spend it on your passions.
4 You adulteresses! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
5 Or do you think that in vain the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit which He made to dwell in us”?
6 But He gives greater grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
7 Therefore submit to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you.
8 Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded!
9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into gloom.
10 Humble yourselves in the sight of Adonai, and He shall lift you up.

Reflect:

God will never turn His back on you, but the same isn’t true for us. Our pride and self-sufficiency lead us away from what we were created to do. Here, James explains that human nature is capable of all manner of evil in its quest to satisfy its urges, and that we must flee from those passions and lusts that are capable of convincing us that we don’t need to live God’s way.

Instead of God turning His back on us, the opposite is true. We turn our backs on Him. If you have been doing this, this time of fasting and prayer is a great opportunity to turn away from those things that bring us death and turn to the One who can give us life.

Prayer: Lord, I want to stop turning my back on You. I want to use this time of prayer and fasting to surrender myself to You, especially in the areas where I feel self-sufficient so that I can be who you birthed me to be. Let Restoration be a place where people can turn back to Yeshua so that they can know and grow in who You are. In Yeshua’s name, amen. 

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At Restoration, we have made it a priority to seek God first in prayer. During this season of counting of the Omer, we have decided to do this collectively as a congregation in the days leading up to Shavuot. Together, we want to trust in His power to impact our lives, our congregation, our city, and our world. The last 10 days we will encourage a corporate time of fasting and prayer, which starts the evening of May 9 and ends the evening of May 19. The conclusion of this season of prayer will culminate in a congregational picnic on the 50th day, the day of Shavuot - Sunday, May 20 at noon.