(This is from my own devotion on Week 09, 2025)
- “Hear me, Lord, my plea is just; listen to my cry. Hear my prayer—it does not rise from deceitful lips. Let my vindication come from you; may your eyes see what is right.” David here gives the reasons why God should listen to his prayer. What are they? Do you think this is a good basis for prayer?
That his prayer is good and unselfish. Also he desires validation from God; he wants to experience the hand of God in affirmation. Yes.
- “Though you probe my heart, though you examine me at night and test me, you will find that I have planned no evil; my mouth has not transgressed. Though people tried to bribe me, I have kept myself from the ways of the violent through what your lips have commanded. My steps have held to your paths; my feet have not stumbled.” David tells God that he has been righteous and faithful; all the more reason to listen to his prayer. Do you think all these have any sway with God or does God just do as he pleases and the person and the prayer doesn’t really matter?
I think so. We argue strongly that God’s love is unconditional and often it sounds like our God doesn’t care whether we are good or evil and who we are has no bearing on how he responds to us. I think his desire to save us is unconditional but salvation itself is not aimed at averting his wrath against our sinful nature—though this is necessary to achieve what is the true aim of our salvation—but rather putting us on a path to redemption so that we will become the kind of people whom he loves.
It is not wrong to argue that on a God scale our righteousness is like filthy rags—any of our actions are meaningless on a God scale—but as much as we appreciate the incarnation in terms of our salvation we must appreciate the incarnation in terms of God understanding and appreciating our efforts on a human scale. Perhaps this is one way to understand Hebrews 4:15, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.”
All this to say that our efforts to honour God in our life goes a long way in pleasing God and, surely, in the way he listens and responds to our prayers.
- Do you think maintaining a consistent relationship with God, being faithful and obedient, and caring about the things that God cares about, matters, when it comes to God’s response to our prayers? Even more, do you think prayer makes a difference?
Absolutely. Yes.