Good morning,
Each morning I try to bring you devotionals that will make you think. Think about God, our relationship with Jesus, our service, our actions, our obedience.
Today we are challenged to look at how we pray. Ultimately, prayer is talking with God. Today we are challenged how we speak to God. Is it from the depths of our heart or flippant, meaningless prayers? Are we praying from a heart of conviction or rote memorized prayers?
As we will see, it does matter.
Eloquent prayers
(Charles Spurgeon)
If the eloquence of our prayers mattered to God, then eloquence would be more valuable than grace–but it is not so.
Some of us may be able to express ourselves very fluently from the force of natural abilities–but it should always be an anxious question to us, whether our prayer is a prayer which God will receive.
We often pray best when we stammer and stutter–and we often pray worst when words flow articulately one after another! God is not moved by eloquent prayers–they are but empty noise to Him. He is only moved by sincere emotions which dwell in the innermost heart.
For a man to bend his knees and utter the hypocritical language of affection to God which he never feels in his heart–is little short of blaspheming God! We must have very light thoughts of God, when we try to deceive Him with such prayers as these!
I often say my prayers
But do I ever pray?
And do the wishes of my heart
Go with the words I say?
I may as well kneel down
And worship gods of stone,
As offer to the living God
A prayer of words alone.
For words without the heart
The Lord will never hear;
Nor will He to those lips attend
Whose prayers are not sincere.
John Burton, 1803-1877
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Meditate on this devotional. Focus in on who God is, who we are, and what right do we have to come before the throne of Grace. Then thank God for the blood Jesus shed on the cross for man’s sin. His death, burial, and resurrection allow us to come before His throne. Jesus paid our sin debt.
Tom Stearns, WASI Chaplain, 907 715-4001
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