Reverence and Awe

» Today's reading at Blue Letter Bible

Morning

The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan is a book that has had a huge impact in my life and if you ever get a chance to read through Spurgeon’s sermons he often mentions it as well. In this book we see the main character, Christian go through life in this dream he had and is constantly confronted with life’s trials and tribulations. Through his walk of faith he meets Obstinate, Slough of Despond, Worldly Wiseman, Sloth and Presumption, Appolyon, Giant Despair and many more. Through this journey he also passes through difficult times such as City of Destruction, Hill Difficult and Valley of the Shadow. But as Christian is faced with each one of these and then overcomes them by the power of Christ we see his character become stronger and his faith strengthened. This is precisely what Peter is saying to us, that through our trials our faith will become more solid. Tried faith brings us closer to our Lord and makes us realize that much more, how weak and feeble we can be and how much we need to rest on the promises of God. Without any trials to test our faith there would be no growth, but it is through the difficult times that we are lifted up by the hand of Christ and grow in our love for Him.

And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. – Rom 5:3-4.

Evening

I really loved this devotion because Spurgeon broke it down into the simplest format. We should pray because our Lord did it and we constantly need to be walking more and more into His footstep. A friend of mine who has fallen away from the faith in the past couple of years just said recently “Why should I even pray if God is in control of all things? If He is in control of all things then my prayers do not matter at all.”

What a dim view of prayer I thought. Yes it is absolutely true that we serve a perfect and Omnipotent God but we are also called as Christians to constantly be in prayer. It is the means that God had ordained to accomplish his will.

Such was His love to His Father, that He loved much to be in communion with Him.

Even Christ the Son of the living God, almighty and all-powerful creator of the universe prayed because of the love for His Father. We should pray because it brings us into close communion with Him, it allows us to praise Him for our blessing, to bring our desires and trials to Him and to refresh ourselves in Him. Believers do not have a dim perspective on prayer and do not let the enemy get in the way. May we all ask “Lord Jesus, teach us to pray.”