Reasons To Rehearse The Gospel Daily. Day 21-Chosen For Prayer

REASONS TO REHEARSE THE GOSPEL DAILY

Day 21-Chosen For Prayer

When God chose me in Christ before the foundation of the world, He did not merely choose me to be “holy and blameless”; He chose me also to be “before Him in love.”79 To be sure, I am always in God’s presence on earth, and in heaven I will be in His presence more fully than ever. But it could also be said that in this life I am especially “before Him in love” when I come “before Him” in prayer and worship.80

Therefore, I can infer that prayer is not simply something that I am allowed to do as a Christian; prayer is actually one of the great purposes for which God chose to save me. Christ Himself confirms this fact when He makes the following statement to His disciples: “I chose you…that whatever you ask of my Father in My Name He may give you.”81 As a chosen one of God, I was saved to pray; and whenever I come into God’s presence to behold Him, worship Him, or make request of Him, I am arriving at the pinnacle of God’s saving purposes for me.

God is radically committed to my life of prayer. He shed the blood of His Son so that I might be cleansed and rendered fit 82 to stand before Him in love. He also permitted the brutal rending of His Son so that I might now have a way into the Holy Place through the torn flesh of Jesus.83 “Draw near,”85 He says in Hebrews 4; “draw near.” He says in Hebrews 10;85 “pray without ceasing,”86 he urges elsewhere. How can I not feel the infinite sincerity of these invitations, especially when considering the painful lengths that God endured so that I might enter His presence in prayer?

Indeed, the gospel itself serves as the sweetest of invitations to pray; and preaching to myself each day nurtures within me a mighty impulse to come “before [God] in love” and do the praying that I was elected to do.

79-Ephesians 1:4. “…He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,” (NKJV)

80-Psalm 100:2. “Serve the LORD with gladness, Come before Him with joyful singing.” Psalm 68:4. “Sing to God, sing praises to His name…and exult before Him.” 1 John 5:14. “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything to His will, He hears us.”

81-John 15:16. “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.”

82-Ephesians 1:7. “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.” Romans 5:9. “[we have] been justified by His blood.”

83-Hebrews 10. “(19)…we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, (20) by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh…”

84-Hebrews 4:16. “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

85-Hebrews 10. “(19)…we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, (20) by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh…”(22) let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith…”

86-1 Thessalonians 5:17. “Pray without ceasing;”