A Prayer For Every Day

Lord, we hear the questions, “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?” and “Who shall stand in His holy place?” – and we say, ‘This is too much for us.' We thank You, Lord, that there is Good News for us. There is One who has ascended the hill of the Lord. There is One who stand in Your holy place. Jesus has ascended the hill of the Lord. Jesus stands in Your holy place. He has ascended Your holy hill – for us. He stands in Your holy place – for us. He has “received blessing from You” – for us (Psalm 24:3-5). When , Lord, we come to worship You, help us to come in the Name of Jesus: Just as I am, without one plea but that Thy blood was shed for me … ”

Lord, You speak to us. Help us to speak to You. You're speaking. Are we listening? You're listening to us. Are we speaking to You? Your Word to us is the call of love. You tell us that You love us. You're calling us to love You. May our words (and our life) be our response to Your love - "loving Him who first loved me."

We thank You, Lord, that our determined enemy - Satan - is Your defeated enemy. To us, the devil seems so powerful. In Your eyes, He is defeated - defeated by Jesus, our crucified Saviour and risen Lord. Jesus has triumphed over Satan. He has won the victory for us (1 John 3:8; Hebrews 2:14-15). Lord, Your Word says, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (James 5:7). Will he really flee from us? He flees from Jesus - but, surely, not from us? Have we not forgotten something? - Jesus won the victory for us. He gives His victory to us. Help us to resist the devil - in the victorious Name of Jesus. He will flee from us. Why? Because Jesus is Lord over Satan. It's not us he's fleeing from. It's Jesus. When the devil comes 'knocking on our door', help us to send Jesus to the door - and send him packing!

We thank You, Lord, that Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, "died for our sins" and was "raised" from death for us (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). Help us to rejoice in "the Good News" (1 Corinthians 15:1) of our Saviour. Help us to hear Your great declaration concerning Jesus - "This is My beloved Son with whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). Help each of us to say of Jesus - "This is my beloved Saviour with whom I am well pleased."

Lord, help us never to think, “We are blessed because we are obedient.” Help us always to say, “We are blessed because You love us and Jesus died for us.” Your love for us, Jesus’ death for us:  This is where the blessing comes from – and it’s where our obedience comes from! We think of Your great love for us. We think of Jesus, crucified for us.  We say, “Lord, You love me. Help me to love You.” We say, “Jesus, You died for me. Help me to live for You.” This is how Your blessing comes to us – You show us how much You love us, You put Your love into our hearts, the obedience grows stronger – and so does the blessing!

"Love is as strong as death ... It burns like a blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it" (Song of Solomon 7:6-7). We thank You, Lord, that Your love is the greatest love of all: "Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39). We can never earn Your love: "If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly scorned" (Song of Solomon 8:7). Your love is always Your gift to us. May Your love burn, in our hearts, "like a blazing fire, like a mighty flame" - a fire that burns up our dross, a refining fire that purifies us, a flame that burns for Your glory.