January 8
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer,” Psalm 19:14.
Psalm 19 closes with a note on the subject of prayer. Prayer is an act of worship. Prayer is a heart-to-heart talk with God. Prayer might be expressed with the words of the mouth, spoken out loud, and others can join with us in praying. Prayer might be expressed with the meditation of the heart, a silent prayer. Then God alone knows that we are praying. With the psalmist we ask that our prayers be acceptable in God’s sight.
When are our prayers acceptable to God? First of all, our prayers should be directed to the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God alone is able and willing to hear and answer our prayers. In another psalm, the psalmist wrote, “O You who hear prayer, to You all flesh will come,” Psalm 65:2. As Christians, we should not pray to the Virgin Mary or to any of the other saints – that is, Christians who have died and whose souls are in heaven. They cannot hear or answer our prayers. In fact, they do not even know that we exist.
The prophet Isaiah wrote, “Doubtless You are our Father, though Abraham was ignorant of us, and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from everlasting is Your name,” Isaiah 63:16.
Some who pray to saints insist that they do not pray to them. They say that they pray to God through them. This is only playing with words. In order to pray through them, you would have to pray to them.
Our prayers are acceptable to God when we pray in the name of Jesus. Jesus says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you,” John 16:23. We pray with faith in Jesus as our Savior.
We also should pray confidently, believing that for Jesus’ sake our prayers will be heard and answered. Jesus says, “Whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive,” Matthew 21:22. God has not promised to answer prayers which doubt that He will answer. The apostle James wrote, “Let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord,” James 1:6-7. Doubting that God can and will hear and answer our prayers is insulting God.
To assist us in the meditation of our hearts, we should meditate in God’s Word. Let us heed the word that the Lord spoke to Joshua: “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success,” Joshua 1:8. The Book of Psalms begins with the words, “Blessed is the man (whose) delight is in the Law of the Lord, and in His Law he meditates day and night,” Psalm 1:1-2.
In our prayers and our meditation we address the Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer. We are addressing the almighty gracious God, who so loved us that He sent His Son to be our Savior. Jesus opened for us the gate to heaven with His suffering, death, and resurrection. He ascended into heaven to prepare a place for us. With faith and trust in Him, we rejoice in His promise of forgiveness of sins.
Prayer is the burden of a sigh, The falling of a tear,
The upward glancing of an eye, When none but God is near. Amen.