Yesterday we saw that when facing an intimidating military force, King Jehoshaphat immediately sought the Lord in prayer. But he didn’t begin with anxious requests for deliverance. Instead, after focusing attention on God’s power over all earthly kingdoms, he recounted the Lord’s past faithfulness and mighty acts on behalf of Israel. Jehoshaphat also recalled God’s promise to hear and save the nation when they cried out for help. Only then did the king make his request.
This is a good pattern for our prayers as well. Unfortunately, we at times have a short memory when it comes to the Lord’s interventions on our behalf. If that’s the case, then later, when we’re fearful again, it’s hard to remember specific ways God has already proven Himself.
This is why I encourage every believer to keep a journal—a written record of the Lord’s faithfulness. During times of helplessness, we want encouragement, not just from how God has worked in history or in the world, but from the particular ways He has worked in our own life.
When you take time to record specific things that your heavenly Father has done, you’ll gain greater understanding of His loving purposes. He will begin to reveal how He’s been working to make your life a beautiful display of His glory.
Have you become disillusioned with prayer? Perhaps you’ve been persistently asking, seeking, and knocking, but God hasn’t answered your request. If that’s the situation, you may be wondering why so many Christians speak about the power of prayer when it seems ineffectual in your life.
Verses 9-11 of today’s passage help us understand the bigger picture. Jesus draws a comparison between earthly fathers and the heavenly Father. He notes that a human father, who is flawed and limited, can give good things to his children. So it stands to reason that the heavenly Father, who is all-powerful and all-knowing, will give what’s beneficial to His children.
Sometimes, however, we are like spiritual toddlers. In our limited understanding, we don’t realize that our requests aren’t always what God deems best for us. Prayer is powerful when our petitions are according to His will but not when they’re self-willed (1 John 5:14-15).
What’s amazing is that God uses the prayers of His people to accomplish His plans. He’s completely sufficient without us, but prayer teaches us humility, dependence, submission, and trust. Intimacy with God is built when we come to Him with our praises, thanks, confessions, and petitions. The profit of prayer is not that can we receive something but that we’re able to relate to the One who supplies all our needs.
Prayer is a truly remarkable privilege, and we must be careful to treat it as such. Have you ever paused to consider why a holy God would condescend to even listen to our petitions, let alone answer them? The Lord is so perfect that the smallest hint of sin is incompatible with His presence. Human beings, on the other hand, are inherently sinful. Yet God wants to commune with us, so He made a way for that to be possible.
Before Jesus’ death and resurrection, priests repeatedly offered sacrifices to cover the people’s transgressions. Animal blood, however, never permanently did away with sin. So God sent His Son to be the perfect “once for all time” atoning sacrifice for everyone who trusts in the Savior (Heb. 7:27). Because Jesus Christ paid our entire sin debt with His precious blood, we can now enter into God’s holy presence.
Let’s not underestimate the significance of being able to speak with the Lord. As those who have been forgiven of all sin, we are now welcome to draw close to the Father in prayer because His Son is our permanent high priest, eternally covering us in a veil of His righteousness.
Jesus said the two greatest commandments are these: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39). What an overwhelming assignment!
In our own strength, we will find success out of reach, but the Lord has provided a way for Christians to accomplish the impossible. The indwelling Holy Spirit works to produce His fruit in us (Gal. 5:22-23). The first quality listed is love, and the remaining eight are actually descriptions of how it is conveyed.
Love isn’t produced by trying harder to muster good will toward someone who is irritating or hard to get along with. Instead, think of the process more like sap running through a branch on a grapevine. In a similar way, the Spirit flows through us, producing God’s love so we can express it to Him and to others.
Whenever we demonstrate kindness, patience, or gentleness, it’s God’s doing, not ours. Even the adoration we offer Him isn’t something we produce in our own heart apart from His assistance. Though the command to love is enormous, God’s grace makes it possible.
Today’s Scripture is commonly known as the love chapter. Interestingly, Paul didn’t spell out a definition of love but instead described its importance and expression.
This type of love isn’t human in origin; it comes from our heavenly Father and is part of His very nature (1 John 4:16). What the apostle’s describing is an unselfish, sacrificial love that acts on behalf of someone else. God’s desire is to transform all believers into the image of Jesus (Romans 8:29). And we are most like Christ when we display such selfless care for one another.
The first three verses of 1 Corinthians 13 issue a warning. Without the motivation of love, all our good deeds—including service for the Lord—will profit us nothing. In God’s eyes, a loving spirit is more important than impressive words, knowledge, faith, generosity, and self-sacrifice. When we stand before Christ to be judged for our good works, any deeds done for selfish reasons will not be found worthy of reward.
We’re all blind to some degree regarding our motives, so discerning why we serve God or do good deeds can be difficult. Pray to know your heart’s hidden intentions, and ask the Lord to replace any self-centered motivations with His more excellent way of love.
