5. Lord Jesus, remind me of your grace and mercy, and give me a worshipful heart.
I’m ashamed to admit it, but my prayer-life is often selfish and self-centered. I’ve been known to pray, Lord, fix what’s broken. Lord, give me what I want. Lord, protect me and pamper me.
Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus. “I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:16–21). Let’s pray, Lord, help us understand “the length and width, height and depth of God’s love.”
Let’s be reminded that “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8, NKJV) and that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life”(John 3:16, ESV). “The Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth” (Exodus 34:6).
Jesus told the parable of two men who went to the temple to worship. One, a pharisee was pompous and proud. The other, a tax collector, recognized the grandeur and greatness of grace lavished upon him by God and was driven to his knees in humble worship (Luke 18:9-14). This is a perfect example of what I’m suggesting. Let’s pray that as we realize the magnitude of the Savior’s compassion, we would be driven to our knees, and that we would cry out, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13).
“Give thanks to him and bless his name. For the Lord is good, and his faithful love endures forever!” (Psalm 100:4-5).
6. Gracious Savior, give me compassion for the lost, and a longing for revival and spiritual awakening.
Are you like me? Do you drive through your neighborhood, past rows of houses, giving little or no thought to the fact that there are lost and broken people living behind those closed doors? Or do you walk through a busy grocery store failing to recognize that most of the folks who walk down the aisles are stepping closer and closer to an eternity without Jesus?
When the four leprous beggars found the Syrian camp unattended, they quickly recognized that keeping all the food for themselves was selfish and sinful. “They said to each other, ‘We’re not doing what is right. Today is a day of good news. If we are silent and wait until morning light, our punishment will catch up with us. So let’s go tell the king’s household’ ”(2 Kings 7:9). We’re beggars. We’ve found something better than a storehouse of bread. We’ve found the Bread of Life! “Today is a day of good news.” We’ve been commissioned to represent Jesus in our lost world, to carry the life-giving bread to a starving populace.
If “my people, who bear my name, humble themselves, pray and seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land”
(2 Chronicles 7:14).
Oh God, fill me with Your loving and gracious Spirit.
All Scripture quotations, except as otherwise noted, are from
Holman Bible Publishers’ Christian Standard Bible.
