The Holy Spirit has sent conviction of sin on all nations, teaching believers of every race and tongue how to forsake ungodliness. The result has been a people who live soberly and righteously and are longing for the coming of Jesus.
He sees our pain and knows that our faith is weak, so he goes before the Father on our behalf and begins to intercede. Jesus is touched by the feelings of our infirmities—and He acts in mercy.
Beloved, Jesus was praying for us when he walked this earth in the flesh but this prayer did not vanish into thin air. It has been burning on God’s altar all this time and God has accepted his Son’s prayer for each of us.
Let’s look at Abraham for a moment. He wanted a son. Yet God also knew that Abraham would not be totally fulfilled when the child came. He would still have a restless, inner hunger, an inexplicable need that no human could touch.
Beloved, you will never be worthy of God’s blessings! No one is — but he comes to us strictly in his mercy and grace to bless us with spiritual blessings beyond our comprehension.
Many Christians pray out of a sense of obligation; others pray only when tragedy strikes or a crisis befalls them. But we need to grasp the foundational truth that prayer is not just for our own welfare or relief but for the delight of the Lord.
Jesus justifies us through faith for a purpose — to embolden and empower us to resist the devil and overcome the world, in the power of God’s Spirit.
Not one of us can ever be accepted in the Father’s eyes by our own works. But the good news is that we are totally accepted by him through Christ.
Perhaps, like David, you have gone through some kind of senseless period in your life. In the midst of chaos, you have acted according to the flesh and run ahead of God. If so, don’t despair!
Abraham is known to the church as a man of faith. Indeed, the Bible holds him up to us as an example of faith: “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness” (Galatians 3:6).