“God’s Word must be the guide of your desires, and the ground of your expectations in prayer, nor can you expect he should give a gracious ear to what you say to him, if you turn a deaf ear to what he saith to you.”
~ Matthew Henry
Prayer Life Pause: Dear Lord, make Your Word a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path that my prayers would be carried unto Thee on the wings of Thy truth. In Jesus’ name, amen.
“Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.”
~ Psalm 1:1-3
Prayer Life Pause: Father, keep my heart from the counsel, paths and seat of the wicked. Guard me and plant me firmly in the presence of Your tender love and priceless grace that I may bear fruit to Your glory. In Jesus’ name, amen.
“The duty of singing praises to God seems to be given wholly to excite and express religious affections. There is no other reason why we should express ourselves to God in verse rather than in prose and with music, except that these things have a tendency to move our affections”.
~ Jonathan Edwards
Prayer Life Pause: Father, help my heart to always sing Your praises and may I not only know, but feel Your blessed presence in my life each and every day. In Jesus’ name, amen.
“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
~ Galatians 5:25
When we hear the phrase “down and out” it usually carries with it negative connotations of someone who’s having a hard time, down on their luck, or needing a break to begin a fresh start. But in this brief devotion today, I want to make a play on this well-known phrase. It is my hope and prayer that you, dear reader, will be blessed with a refreshing look at your own faith this day as we consider this passage from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians.
As Christians, we are called to live by and walk in, the Spirit of God. Understanding these two important aspects of our faith is vital to growing in our relationship to Christ, and in meaningfully applying our faith to all of life. It is in this sense, I want us to think about living “down and out”. Believers live by the faith that comes down to us from the Spirit, and we walk in the Spirit by living out our faith as a witness for Jesus Christ for all the world to see.
Notice how Paul unites these two characteristics of faith together in this text. True believers who receive their faith through the Holy Spirit will assuredly walk by that self-same faith. The gift of faith that comes down from God will be lived out by the believing person. Godly faith is always attended by godly living. What comes down to us, the Lord intends to by lived out by us.
Yet, applying this principle isn’t always easy. The reality is Christians struggle to put “feet on our faith”. Believers need a continual receiving of the Spirit’s loving and nurturing presence in us to help us consistently live out our faith. So let us pray for divine power. Let us petition our Lord and beneficent Father for sufficient grace and strength to always be living down and out.
~ apl
Prayer Life Pause: Heavenly Father, please continue to pour out Your Spirit in my life that the faith You sent down to me can and will be faithfully lived out in my life as well. In Jesus’ name, amen.
“We should fix ourselves firmly in the presence of God by conversing all the time with Him…we should feed our soul with a lofty conception of God and from that derive great joy in being His. We should put life in our faith. We should give ourselves utterly to God in pure abandonment, in temporal and spiritual matters alike, and find contentment in the doing of His will…”
~ Brother Lawrence
Prayer Life Pause: Father, help me to put You first and foremost in my life so that I might live every breath and every moment for You. In Jesus’ name, amen.
“What the Church needs today is not more or better machinery, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use – men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men – men of prayer.”
~ E.M. Bounds
Prayer Life Pause: Lord Jesus, grant Your church more people of prayer. May it please You to fill all of our hearts with a desperate hunger and thirst for You that can only be filled by deep, earnest and faithful prayer. In Jesus’ name, amen.
“The cross of Jesus displays the most awful exhibition of God’s hatred of sin and at the same time the most august manifestation of His readiness to pardon it. Pardon, full and free, is written out in every drop of blood that is seen, is proclaimed in every groan that is heard, and shines in the very prodigy of mercy that closes the solemn scene upon the cross. O blessed door of return, open and never shut, to the wanderer from God! How glorious, how free, how accessible! Here the sinful, the vile, the guilty, the unworthy, the poor, the penniless, may come. Here too the weary spirit may bring its burden, the broken spirit its sorrow, the guilty spirit its sin, the backsliding spirit its wandering. All are welcome here.”
~ Octavius Winslow
Prayer Life Pause: Dear Lord, thank You for welcoming me into Your presence. I bring all my burdens, sorrows and guilt and lay them at Your feet of forgiveness. How glorious You are! In Jesus’ name, amen.
For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You. Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer; And attend to the voice of my supplications.
~ Psalm 86:5-6
Here in this passage we find one of the mightiest appeals for answered prayer – God’s own goodness. David could seek no higher ground upon which to lay the basis for his petitions than the Lord’s own character. “You, Lord, are good”. What a testimony! Such a declaration! It is because of the goodness of God that His servant, can, by faith, approach the Lord for forgiveness, healing and restoration of his heart and soul.
And if we think this view of God’s good character is limited to just this one Biblical witness, listen to the testimony throughout Scripture. In 1 Chronicles 16:34 we read, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.” Elsewhere the Old Testament prophet Nahum writes, “The LORD is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble” (1:7). Mark, the Gospel writer, would also declare, “No one is good but One, that is, God” (10:18).
A.W. Pink, in his classic work on the attributes of God, describes the Lord’s goodness this way, “God is summum bonum, the highest good… The “goodness” of God refers to the perfection of His nature… There is such an absolute perfection in God’s nature and being that nothing is wanting to it or defective in it, and nothing can be added to it to make it better… The goodness of God is the life of the believer’s trust. It is this excellency in God which most appeals to our hearts. Because His goodness endureth forever, we ought never to be discouraged…”
Rather than being discouraged, David pled God’s goodness as his greatest encouragement while approaching Him in prayer and supplication. Do you find God’s innate goodness as a reason to come to Him in prayer? Do you trust that the Lord is good, just and holy and always ready to listen? May we rest upon the character of God and His goodness as the high ground while seeking His face during seasons of communion, fellowship and prayer with our Lord.
~ apl
A Prayer Life 