Author: GlennDavis

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God, the Merciful: Day Eight, Forty Days of Prayer

 

Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.

Luke 17:13.

O’ Lord, Father of all mercies, whose compassions never fail and whose mercies never cease. Your mercy is gracious goodness to those of us who are miserable and distressed because of our sin. Look upon us, your servants, with Your never failing love, extend to us your compassion on our many struggles, failings, shortcomings, and sins. We are frail, yet You are strong. We are needy, yet You are compassionate. We are sinful, yet You are forgiving. Lord, your mercy is boundless and free through our Lord Jesus Christ, bestow upon us Your compassion now in our present distress; through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

~~ Fr. Glenn E. Davis

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Worshippers: Day Seven, Forty Days of Prayer

Yet a time is coming and has come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

John 4:23-24

Father, we love and adore you and we desire to worship you in Spirit and in truth. You seek worshipers who long for you as a deer seeks water. Only through your grace can we lay down our personal desires for our needs, set aside the way we want things to turn out and surrender our will to yours. As we release our demands, change our hearts so that we can be true worshipers; those who know the truth about you and your will toward us and who blissfully gaze on your holiness and are remade in your image. Let our hearts be flooded with the kind of love that leads us to seek your face, not your hand. In Your Blessed Name. Amen.

~~Nancy Beckham

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Your Presence: Day Six, Forty Days of Prayer

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4).

Lord God, you are always with us. Your Scripture teaches us that you will never leave us or forsake us. Even when we stray, rebel, and flee Your presence, You promise to pursue us and draw our hearts back to You. You are with us even when all seems dark and empty. You comfort us in life and death. We are grateful that Your presence goes with us and that You give us rest. Satan cannot take away anything you have promised. You protect us under your mighty wings. We praise you that we do not have to fear any evil because you have overcome darkness with your light. Let your light shine forever in our lives. We pray, teach us to trust Your Word and promise. Let your presence reign on Earth. In Jesus’name. Amen!

~~India B. Davis

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Spirit and Kingdom: Day Five, Forty Days of Prayer

 

Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

Matt. 11:11

Insight: George Eldon Ladd, the American Biblical scholar, wrote about this verse that so much greater is this new age God ushered in with Jesus that even the least member in the Kingdom of God is greater than the greatest in the previous age. Imagine that! John the Baptist was greater than Moses who parted the Red Sea, received the Ten Commandments and led the children of Israel to the Promise Land. He was greater than Abraham who believed God to the point of being willing to sacrifice his own son. Greater than David, the man after God’s own heart. Greater than Solomon whose unsurpassed wisdom lead Israel in its most glorious days. This is the age we live in, the age of the Kingdom that advances across the globe, the age of free access to God through the blood of Jesus, the age when the Holy Spirit resides in every believer. The age the prophets of old strove to understand and angels longed to look. (1 Peter 1:10-13)

Prayer: Father, we thank you for allowing us to live in this new age of the Kingdom when we can experience you personally and intimately. We thank you for filling us with your Holy Spirit who is our counselor, companion, power for life and ministry. Above all we thank you for Jesus who made this all possible through his sacrifice of love. Amen.

~~ Fr. Scott Howard

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Miracles: Day Four: Forty Days of Prayer

 

 

The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go” (John 11: 38-44).

Lord, Your miracles remind us of how powerful you are. You are a powerful God who leads all of us out of bondage, who delivers us from the grips of the evil one, who feeds the five thousand with one loaf and two fish, who heals the sick and raises people from the dead.

You are more powerful than oppressive governments, dictatorial authorities, extreme sickness and evil itself. Forgive us for not remembering Your miracles found in the Bible. We pray, increase our faith. Your awesome power is at work in our daily lives. You make the impossible, possible. You are worthy to be praised when the impossible happens, our lives are changed forever. Your great miracles come only from Your loving hands. We glory in your Name. Amen. 

~~ India B. Davis

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God’s Love: Day Three, Forty Days of Prayer

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8 ESV

Our Father who are in heaven, we your children are often troubled in mind, hearing within us at once the affirmations of faith and the accusations of conscience. We are sure that there is in us nothing that could attract the love of One as holy and as just as you are. Yet, you have declared your unchanging love for us in Christ Jesus.

If nothing in us can win your love, nothing in the universe can prevent you from loving us. Your love is uncaused and undeserved. You are the reason by which we are loved. Help us to believe the intensity, the eternity of the love that has found us. Then love will cast out fear; and our troubled hearts will be at peace, trusting not in what we are, but in what you have declared yourself to be. Amen.

~~A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, 104 (updated language).

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Your Love: Day Two, Forty Days of Prayer

 

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You will surely forget your trouble, recalling it only as waters gone by. Life will be brighter than noonday, and darkness will become like morning. You will be secure because there is hope; you will look about you and take your rest in safety.

Job 11:16-18

Lord God, we worship you and put our faith in you because you are powerful and loving. You are a glorious representation of a father who lovingly adores his children and protects his young from trouble. Our hearts are overwhelmed by your goodness and kindness to us. Our hearts swell with humility and our eyes with tears for your unfailing love and goodness towards us. We rest in your arms, Lord.

It is Your arms that so carefully carry us in times of tribulation. We are secure because of your love. We continue to put our hope in You, our Creator, the God of the universe, who created the earth in six days and made us in Your image. It was Your love that sent Your only Son to be born of a virgin, to walk among us, die on the Cross, bear our sins and rise from the dead. We put our hope in You because You are God and worthy to be praised! We praise you through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

~~ India B. Davis

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Does God Need Us?

Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.

Rom. 6:18 NLT

God does not need us in the sense that he is lacking something. God is sufficient and complete in himself. Sometimes it is said that God created us because he was lonely. God needed a love relationship, and therefore, God made us for companionship. Yes, our relationship with God is one of love, but that love is an overflow of the eternal love relationship found between the members of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God did not create us because he was emotionally needy for he already had a complete and fulfilling love relationship within himself (John 17:23).

The Bible does not directly answer the question, Why did God create anything at all? but it does let us know what some of the most glaringly wrong answers to that question would be. It would be wrong to say that God created because he was lonely, unfulfilled, or bored. God is free from that kind of dependence.

Fred Sanders, Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything.

God needs us in the sense that we are representatives of his kingdom called to reach out to a hurting and lost world (1 Cor. 12:12-13). God needs us to display in our lives and actions the character and nature of Christ (1 John 4:9). God wants to operate in and through us as instruments of his love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness (John 17:25-26).

“Yield your members as instruments” (Rom. 6:18)–your bodies, your bodily members, your mental faculties. God needs your eyes, through which to look out with compassion upon the world; with a compassion that will care enough, it may be, to go, to speak, or to pray. God needs your feet, to carry the message of His concern and the message of His grace. God needs your hands, to toil, and by their touch reveal His love. God needs your lips to speak for righteousness and truth. God needs your heart, to throb with concern and compassion. God needs you. Where are the instruments in the hand of God?

George E. Duncan, “Responsive Surrender to God’s Will,” Daily Thoughts from Keswick: A Year’s Daily Readings, ed., Herbert F. Stevenson (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1980), 322.

 

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What Is the Feast Day of Epiphany?

For the grace of God [i.e., Jesus] has appeared [Greek: epiphany], bringing salvation for all people.

Titus 2:11

The feast day of Epiphany is celebrated in the Western church every year on January 6th. It commemorates the appearing, or manifestation, of God in Christ as Savior to the world. Epiphany is the oldest feast in the church calendar, it is especially revered in the Orthodox East. Three events in the life of Christ are commemorated: the arrival of the Magi, the baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ, and Jesus’ first miracle at the wedding at Cana. Appropriately, these three stories, all revelatory events, are found at the beginning of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and John, respectively.

The Apostle John tells us, “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world” (John 1:9). Jesus who is God incarnate in human flesh is revealed to the Gentile wise men, manifested as the Lamb of God, and made known as Messiah in his first miracle. Now, the saving life of Christ has been fully manifested to both Jew and Gentile alike. Let us join the Magi, John the Baptist, and the wedding feast at Cana by worshipping Jesus in all his saving glory.

The conduct of the wise men is a striking example of faith (Matt. 2:1-12). They believed in Christ when they had never seen Him – but that was not all. They believed in Him when the Scribes and Pharisees were unbelieving – but that again was not all. They believed in Him when they saw Him a little infant on Mary’s knee, and worshiped Him as a king. This was the crowning point of their faith.

They saw no miracles to convince them. They heard no teaching to persuade them. They beheld no signs of divinity and greatness to overawe them. They saw nothing but a new-born infant, helpless and weak, and needing a mother’s care like any one of ourselves. And yet when they saw that infant, they believed that they saw the divine Savior of the world. ‘They fell down and worshiped Him.’

We read of no greater faith than this in the whole volume of the Bible. It is a faith that deserves to be placed side by side with that of the penitent thief. The thief saw one dying the death of a criminal, and yet prayed to Him and ‘called Him Lord.’ The wise men saw a new-born babe on the lap of a poor woman, and yet worshiped Him and confessed that He was Christ. Blessed indeed are those that can believe in this fashion!”

J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Matthew, 12-13.

HT: J.C. Ryle Quotes

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Three Christmas Miracles

And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Luke 1:38

The word, “miracle” is used in television commercials for the cleaning properties of a particular soap. “It’s a miracle!” that I got a pay raise from that miserly company. Miracle has come to mean anything unexpected that brings pleasant results. The expression, “It’s a miracle” has now become trite and meaningless in our culture.

Conversely in theology, a miracle is an extraordinary event revealing God’s intervention in the everyday affairs of men and women. Martin Luther comments on the three miracles of Christmas day: the incarnation, the virgin birth of Christ, and the Blessed Virgin Mary’s obedience. Luther marvels that the greater of the three miracles is Mary’s faith: her willingness to obey God even though it meant hardship, misunderstanding, and loss of reputation.

Saint Bernard [of Clairvaux] declared there are here three miracles: that God and man should be joined in this Child; that a mother should remain a virgin; that Mary should have such faith as to believe that this mystery would be accomplished in her. The last is not the least of these three. The virgin birth is a mere trifle for God; that God should become man is a greater miracle; but most amazing of all is that this maiden should credit the announcement that she, rather than some other virgin, had been chosen to be mother of God.

Had she not believed, she could not have conceived. She held fast to the word of the angel because she had become a new creature. Even so must we be transformed and renewed in heart from day-to-day. Otherwise, Christ is born in vain.

Martin Luther, “The Maiden Mary” in Nancy Guthrie, ed., Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus: Experiencing the Peace and Promise of Christmas (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2008), 26.