The Daily + Immanuel Wednesday Updates
The Daily + Immanuel Wednesday Updates
Good morning Immanuel. We have the privillege of praying for our kids!
“And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day” (Luke 3:36-37 ESV).
Over the next six weeks, our Immanuel iKids Director, Taylor Cheek, will be teaching our Kids Discipleship Groups the spiritual discipline of fasting. Every Wednesday during this six-week period, we will share a brief lesson on fasting adapted from her work in The Gospel Project For Kids Leader Bible Study (Lifeway). You are also invited to join her and others for Zoom prayer meetings on Thursdays at noon from March 9th to April 13th as we pray for the children of Immanuel.
You would be hard-pressed to find a passage in Scripture related to fasting that is disconnected from prayer. There is something about replacing our desire for food with the action of prayer that uniquely positions us to commune with God and find satisfaction in Him. [Here] we read about how Anna “did not leave the temple, serving God night and day with fasting and prayers” (Luke 2:37 CSB) We don’t know exactly how this physically worked, but she had already lived decades since her wedding day! No matter how young she married, here was a woman undoubtedly sustained by the Lord into old age who was positioned to enjoy God by meeting her Messiah in the flesh.
It can be easy to see the spiritual disciplines as a list of commands that we can’t sustain…But “the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:2-5).
Recognizing then that the spiritual disciplines are not another law to fulfill but an invitation to worship, we see how fasting can actually serve as a tool to help us practice the other spiritual disciplines. We need to take our minds off earthly things in order to set our minds on spiritual things. Then our joy in Christ will fulfill us and enable us to walk in godliness!
Taylor Cheek, The Gospel Project For Kids, Leader Bible Study (Lifeway, 2023). Used with permission by the author.
March 15, 2023 - Immanuel At a Glance
Sunday Resources
Things To Know
WEDNESDAY NIGHT SCHEDULE
Join us as we continue our study in the book of Acts
There will be no City Groups (Student Ministry) meeting tonight
iKids will be gathering for their regularly scheduled Wednesday night discipleship groups
MEMBER MINISTRY SPOTLIGHT
Immanuel member Mark Hodge serves on staff at Men of Valor (MOV), a Christian-based prison ministry in Antioch, TN. To learn more about what God is doing through this ministry, MOV invites you to their annual breakfast on April 4, 2023, from 7-8:30 am at Music City Center. Contact Mark Hodge for more info.
ONLINE PRAYER - Every week, Jenn Ross, one of our Discipleship Groups leaders, facilitates two online prayer meetings that everyone is welcome to join. The Zoom meeting times and links are below:
Every Thursday afternoon from 12:00-12:45 pm
Every Sunday morning from 7:30-8:00 am
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