Day 1: Overview

When I think about renewing the spirit, I think of renewing my interior life or personal relationship with Christ. We can do certain things in our walk with him that serve to renew our spirit. Spending time with God in the place of prayer is one spiritual discipline that postures our hearts in a position of surrender and acknowledgment that we desperately need him.

Any relationship worth having that is valuable to you happens through time and intentionality. Sometimes, we fear being religious when it comes to our relationship with God. But it is intentionality that prioritizes and develops intimacy with God, and that begins in the place of prayer. We should consider prayer an appointment with God in a definable time and place because it won’t happen accidentally.

No one can choose to follow Jesus for you. As much as we might wish we could acquire a secret history with God in some other way, the only way to build this is by sitting at his feet. In Luke 10, Jesus tells Martha that she is anxious about many things, but only one thing is necessary, and Mary has chosen the good part. Mary did not just happen upon the good part. She chose it. We will never casually drift into devotion. Mute the noise, unplug the phone, close the to-do list, and enjoy the king who adores you.

Prayer helps us recenter our hearts around the truth and beauty of who he is. When we pray, we go from people who talk about God to those who talk to God. Prayer isn’t just a strategy. It’s an invitation to intimacy and to experience who he is.

In the book, The Deeply Formed Life, Rich Villodas says, “We need regular times of silent, contemplative prayer because it helps us to move beyond relating to God in transactional or utilitarian ways. We are always invited to offer our requests and to articulate the needs we have to God. Always. But prayer that ONLY sees God as the dispenser of our needs misses out on a critical aspect of prayer: COMMUNION. Contemplative prayer is about friendship with Jesus, intimacy with the Spirit and it is allowing myself to simply be embraced by the Father. It’s COMMUNION without the need for words.”

We are renewed in spirit as we participate in an interactive relationship with God through prayer.

—Luke Wood, Prayer Division

Day 2: Scripture Meditations

Take time throughout the day to prayerfully meditate on these Scriptures.

John 15:4-5

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

Revelation 3:18-20

I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore, be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

Ephesians 3:14-21

For this reason, I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 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.

Luke 10:38-42

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Day 3: A Message from Tanner and Beth Peake

Day 4: Personal Reflection Prompts

Take some time today to journal and reflect on these questions.

1. What practical steps can I take to renew my spirit through prayer?
2. Am I being honest in my dialogue with Jesus?
3. What is my favorite place and time to talk to him?

Day 5: A Message from Tom Rios, MENACA Continental Director

“A Different Spirit”

The people of Israel who camped in Gilgal after crossing the Jordan River were reaching the end of one stage and the beginning of a new one. A new generation born in the desert set foot on the Promised Land and prepared to conquer it. God had given them the right over the land, The Title of Ownership over every place where their feet walked.

But the conquest was not going to be a cakewalk. Walled cities with brave and well-armed defenders were an obstacle they had to overcome. But the main obstacle was their fear and disbelief. How could they achieve what was expected of them? They needed to be renewed with a different spirit, a spirit like that which Caleb and Joshua showed in the report they gave after exploring the promised land, in clear contrast to that emitted by the remaining ten spies (Numbers 14:24). Without that different spirit, without the mental attitude of Caleb and Joshua, the conquest would not be.

In that decisive hour, the Lord said to Joshua: “Make yourself sharp knives and circumcise the children of Israel a second time” (Joshua 5:2). The generation that had been born in the desert had not been circumcised. The conquest of the earth required a different spirit from each person, a spirit renewed by the Word of God that lives and abides forever. In Gilgal, God renewed with them the covenant that he had made with Abraham, and there they celebrated the Passover. God thus reminded them of their corporate identity as a chosen people and the behavior he expected of them. In the run-up to the military campaign, Joshua wants to see a different spirit in the people, a people who genuinely believe the Word of God.

A renewed spirit is only possible by growing in the knowledge of the Word of God and believing in all his promises. There is no renewal of spirit outside of the Word of God. Only the Word of God is spirit and life.

“It is the spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life,” Jesus said to his disciples (John 6:63).

“By the word of the Lord heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth” (Psalm 33:6).

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him, nothing was made that was made… And that Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1: 1-3,14).

Only the Lord has words of eternal life! Meditate on the Word of God daily, know the God who reveals himself in it, and obey him with all our heart. This is the path to true interior renewal.

Therefore, we will do well if we imitate the example of Joshua, who, “When he was by Jericho, he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, ‘Are you for us or for our enemies?’ And He said, ‘No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.’ Then Joshua, falling on his face to the ground, worshiped him, and he said to Him, ‘What does my Lord say to his servant?’ And the Commander of the army of the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Take off your shoes from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy.’ And Joshua did so” (Joshua 5:13-15).

Day 6: Prayer Suggestions

Take time throughout the day to offer these prayers to the Lord.

1. Ask the Lord to increase your desire and commitment to commune with him.
2. Ask the Lord to reveal to you what is standing in the way of spending time with him.
3. Ask the Lord to renew your spirit and help you to grow in prayer, the knowledge of his Word, and believing all his promises.

Day 7: Meditative Prayer

Take time throughout the day to slow down and quietly pray this prayer.

Jesus, help me to slow down and sit at your feet today.