Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a video of one of my friend, Clay Crosse, singing a song about fervent prayer… When I Lift My Hands, expressing the attitude we should have when we come to our Lord in prayer.
Highlight Passage Luke 18: 7 [NKJV] …
7 And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?
… It’s the fervent, persistent prayer of His righteous which God hears the most.
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Highlight Context - Luke 18: 1-8 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus’ parable on persistent prayer.
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Reference Passage #1 - 2nd Chronicles 7: 14 [NKJV] …
14 If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
… Humbly pray and pray and pray - and keep praying …
Reference Passage #2 - Matthew 6: 5-8 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus on prayer … the right kind of prayer.
Reference Passage #3 - Philippians 4: 6-7 [NKJV] …
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
… Persistent, THANKFUL, prayer is what God recommends to squelch anxiety.
Reference Passage #4 - James 5: 16b [NKJV] …
5 … The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
… Pray! … And keep praying !!!
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread author, Lawrence Darmani, reminded me of an old adage which we used to hear often in the hospital where I worked for 33 years of my life. The phrase is depicted in the attached photo and touts, … “The squeaky wheel gets the grease!” And I don’t think I have to go into depth to explain the meaning, do I? But in our hospital, we would often see that the patients who cried out the loudest and the longest got the most attention. And we parents often see this in a family setting of several kids where the one who is the loudest gets the most attention.
Now interestingly enough Jesus taught part of that principle when he was illustrating persistent prayer in one of His parables, found in the highlight passage above (see Luke 18: 1-8). In this passage Jesus was not advocating that His chosen ones should persistently and repetitively bring out [ONLY] complaints to His throne of grace No, He was teaching that God wants to hear what we are feeling and what we desire from Him … over and over again. And if we let the other passages from God’s truth teach us more, as in the reference passages above, we see that God hears all prayers brought to Him in humility and thankfulness; but it only stands to reason that our Lord will do what Jesus’ brother, James, taught in James 5:16 … that the fervent prayer of a righteous believer has much power.
I’ll leave this to convict you, perhaps as today’s ODB has convicted me, to pray more often and with more insistence … for our Lord to hear us and answer our prayers.
My Prayer Today: Oh Lord, … I come to You again today to help me come to You again tomorrow with even more intensity of Spirit. Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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