01/12/2023
We know why we pray to God; we know the needs, the desires, fears, and suffering that we experience which brings us to our knees before Him, but why does He choose to answer us? Do we think that it is out of obligation because we are His creation? No, God’s answer to our prayer is much more than that. It is because He loves us, and is faithful to us in support of every promise He has ever made us… each being driven by, and rooted in, that love. Can we say that we love Him in like kind, and are just as faithful?
“But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness.”
Psalm 69:13 ESV
God loves us, and has shown this to us repeatedly. He tells us that he will never abandon us, that He is with us always, not to be afraid, and has made many other promises to us as well like forgiveness, and eternity. In every promise, and each action that fulfills them there is love.
I remember many times in my personal life when I found myself in a tough spot and called on my parents for help. I turned to those who loved me, and the response was always the same… “Don’t worry! We will be right there!” This is different from those times when the world makes us a promise because when someone who loves you says they are coming they will fight through hell itself to be there, but on the other hand there is no such effort on the part of the world. The wonderful truth is that God loves us even more than a parent, and in Jesus Christ He came for us, and marched through Shoel (Hell) for us.
“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
1 John 4:9-11 ESV
So love is the reason that God answers prayers, and He is faithful in doing so. The larger question we must ask ourselves today is whether God loves us, because He proved that in Jesus, and continues to do so daily, but do we love Him? Do we love Him enough that we will give our lives to Him, or for Him?
“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:13 ESV
Today when we pray let’s thank Him for His love, and express ours for Him too. Let’s embrace Him as we pour out our needs, and ask Him lovingly that His will be done in them.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your Son Jesus Christ whom you sent to redeem us with his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, and for doing so out of your boundless and unending love for us. Thank you Lord for allowing us to love you in return, and to wrap our arms about you just as you embrace us. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who loves us beyond all understanding, and for eternity. Praised be your name for hearing our prayers and lovingly answering them. Merciful are you for having heard our prayers of contrition while we were yet sinners, and led us through Jesus to you. We are saved by your grace that flourishes in your love, the love of Christ, and the love that you are fostering in us. Wash us daily Father in the blood of Jesus so that we can kneel before you pure, and clean… made worthy in Christ of the love you have sacrificed so dearly to show us. Judge us not for who we are, but who we are in Christ, and let the glory of your love shine all about us as you seat us at your table forevermore.
Rich Forbes