Anne Graham Lotz - Daily Light Journal: Evening Readings

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Daily Light Journal

Evening Readings

ANNE GRAHAM LOTZ

Published by J. Countryman , a division of Thomas Nelson, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee 37214.

Copyright 2000 by Anne Graham Lotz.

All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles.

Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version (NKJV). Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers and are used by permission.

First published in the King James Version in Great Britain in 1794 by Samuel Bagster, a forerunner of Marshall Pickering.

ISBN 0-8499-5567-X (Green)
ISBN 0-8499-5568-8 (Burgundy)
ISBN 0-8499-5566-1 (Saddle Brown)
ISBN 0-8499-5569-6 (Black)

Printed and bound in Belgium
www.jcountryman.com

Dedicated
to
my beloved grandmother

Virginia Leftwich Bell

who taught my Mother to pray,
who heard my Mothers prayers in the evening, and
who tucked my Mother in bed at night.

Contents

The prayer life of Jesus is incredibly convicting and compelling. We are told that after days of intense ministry and responsibility, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there (Matt. 14:23). If He felt the need to spend time with His Father in the evening, when He was surely exhausted mentally, physically, and emotionally, then why do you and I feel that we can go without an evening prayer time?

One of the most precious memories I have from my growing-up years and one that has indelibly impressed me for lifeis that of bedtime prayers. Each evening, after my brothers and sisters and I had taken our baths and were ready for bed, we would wait in our rooms for Mother to come. Some nights we waited longer than others, some nights we waited more patiently than others, but our wait was always rewarded by a private, individual visit from our Mother. As she went from room to room, and child to child, her routine was the same. When she entered my room, she would sit on the edge of my bed for a moment, share a verse or listen to my childish concerns, then drop to her knees with me at her side. We would then pray together before I climbed into bed, and she would tuck the covers around me, turning out the light. My last waking thoughts were of her and the Lord she loved.

My husband and I also had bedtime prayers with our own three children when they were growing up, but over the years, in the busyness of life, my private prayers in the evening have become just a memory. And so my efforts on The Daily Light Journal: Evening Readings have been a personal blessing. Just as The Daily Light Journal: Morning Readings was my attempt to build consistency, concentration, and comprehension into my morning quiet times, this Journal has been the answer to my struggle with evening prayers.

As I have read the Scripture selection from the Daily Light devotional for the evening, I have pinpointed the main theme of the verses. My concentration has been sharpened by summarizing the theme in one sentence. Then, to insure that I would weave it into my life, I asked a question of myself that either has helped me focus on how the Scriptures apply to me or has helped me grasp a deeper meaning of what was said. The result is that once again, I go to bed with my last waking thoughts on the Lord, the One Whom I have come to love.

To use this Journal, I suggest that you first read the compilation of Scripture for the evening, then the summary statement at the bottom of the page. Next, read the question at the beginning of the blank lines, and then reread the Scripture verses. If the question aids your concentration and meditation on Gods Word, then journal your response. If not, ignore it and write out your own thoughts.

My heartfelt prayer is that this Journal would be used of God to draw you into an evening encounter with the Risen Lord, an encounter similar to the one the disciples experienced on the road to Emmaus: But they constrained Him, saying, Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And He went in to stay with them.... Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him.... And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures (Luke 24:29, 31, 45).

May God bless you as you spend time with Him in the evening. I pray that He will grant you to see Jesus more clearly, feel Him more nearly, and love Him more dearly than ever before.

The Daily Light Journal

Evening Readings

T he Lord, He is the One who goes before you.
He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you.

If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.

The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, and He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the LORD upholds him with His hand.

I am continually with You; You hold me by my right hand. You will guide me with Your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

DEUT. 31:8;Exod. 33:15; Jer. 10:23; Ps. 37:2324; Ps. 73:2324; Rom. 8:3839

What encouragement do you receive from these verses as you enter the uncharted territory of a New Year, a new job, a new marriage, or a new journey?

The safest path into the New Year is the one that bears His footprints.

L et my prayer be set before You as incense,
the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.

You shall make an altar to burn incense on; and you shall put it before the veil that is before the ark of the Testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the Testimony, where I will meet with you. Aaron shall burn on it sweet incense every morning; when he tends the lamps, he shall burn incense on it. And when Aaron lights the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense on it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations. Therefore [Jesus] is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. The smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angels hand.

You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Pray without ceasing.

PS. 141:2;