Matins Devotion: December 12, 2024
As Christians, we should rejoice that God has given us the right to speak to Him, and we should do it often. We should pray without ceasing. Prayer is a powerful tool. It’s a wonderful gift. It’s a mighty weapon. But it’s a weapon to use against the devil, not against God. In other words, when we pray, we shouldn’t view God the way we often do–as a distant deity who has to be reminded to love us, as a father who might swallow us up in his destructive fits of rage unless we remind him over and over again that he promised to be nice.
No, your God is a loving Father who has loved you since before you ever were, even if it doesn’t always look like that. You don’t have to convince Him to pave a path leading you back into His arms, even if the path He is currently paving is rugged and twisted.
And so, as the psalmist says, we pray “Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people, help me when you save them, that I may look upon the prosperity of your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that I may glory with your inheritance.” In other words, when the storms of this world swarm around you, when suffering is howling in your face, when you pray, say “Lord, I know I don’t have to convince you of anything. I know I don’t need to talk you into pouring out your mercy on the world. I know you’re going to fulfill your promises, that you’re going to pour the peace, victory, and salvation of Jesus Christ upon your people. I know you’re going to crush every sorrow of your precious ones and grant them eternal joy. All I’m asking is that I’m part of it when that happens. Or, in other other words, “the kingdom of God certainly comes by itself without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may come to us also.”
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