Tuesday | Dependence & Petition
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Matthew 7:7-11
The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
James 5:16b-17
In you, O Lord, do I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame!
In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
incline your ear to me, and save me!
Be to me a rock of refuge,
to which I may continually come;
you have given the command to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.
Psalm 71:1-13
Tuesday | Dependence & Petition: Journal / pray / share your needs and desires, along with those of others. These lists can get long once we get going (and that’s ok!) but we don’t always know where to begin. We can always pray for community requests posted on the Facebook page, for the people in your life who don’t yet know Jesus, and for those suffering hunger, sickness, and unemployment as a result of the pandemic.
Jesus, the perfect human being, modeled a life of complete dependence on his Father. Because of His work on the cross, we too are now called children of God. Like Jesus, we can boldly approach our Father with every need and good desire. We didn’t become God’s children for our own sake alone, but have been made into a kingdom of priests and given a sacred charge to intercede for the world. Christians pray with confidence, creativity, and expectation because God has promised to hear and respond to our prayers. This is not merely a nice gesture or a way to get things off our chest, but rather a real place of refuge for us and a powerful move in the spiritual realm. It matters that we pray because God takes us seriously. He has given redeemed humanity a profound dignity: the prayers of his children move his hand to act in the world and bring his kingdom. Part of our work and calling is to become in this way like Jesus, who even now is seated at the right hand of the Father interceding for us!
As we come to God in a posture of dependence and humility, we might also spend time today in lament as we encounter sorrow in our hearts, or confession as we become aware of our sin. In the writings of the prophet Isaiah, Jesus is described as a man of sorrows, familiar with grief; we can entrust our tears to the God who has suffered the full depth of sorrow. We can tell the truth about our sin without fear, because our sin has already been paid for on the cross. We don’t need to wallow in guilt and must be wary of falling into the enemy’s temptation to live in shame, which often keeps us from intimacy with God and others because of feelings of unworthiness. We can simply repent and then by faith receive and claim God's forgiveness. The Holy Spirit never accuses or condemns. If we feel guilt, we can be thankful that the Spirit convicts us of sin so that we can return to unhindered friendship with God.
We can and must bring all these things to God—needs and desires, failures and sorrows—as his dependent and beloved children.