As the Compassion Connect team devotes the month of July to earnest prayer for the families we serve, I have been reflecting on the love of our Creator Redeemer. At its very core the invitation to pray is a reflection of the gracious nature of God. Jesus gives each of his followers a personal invitation into fellowship. Quite literally, he invites each of us to follow him. This is not the most astounding part. Not only does Jesus invite us into fellowship with the living God, he made the way for us to do so.
There is a temptation to talk about the Garden of Eden as though it is not integral to the gospel. As if the account of the fall is only a tragic story of warning, rather than the beginning of the most radical love story ever lived. When mankind fell into sin, there was a price: death entered in. Thankfully, we have a God who is determined to walk beside us.
God is holy, meaning he is completely set apart from us both in nature and moral righteousness. He quite literally can not sin, which means he can not sin against us.
“Here is the message we have heard from Christ and now announce to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.” – 1 John 1:5
Because God is wonderful, beautiful, and holy, we can not enter into his presence without the atonement for sin. We see this modeled in the old testament when a high priest undergoes an elaborate series of ritual sacrifice and cleansing in order to enter into the Holy of Holies (where the presence of God resided). And yet, today believers are given the undeserved privilege of entering into God’s presence at any time. How?
God wrapped himself in flesh and joined us in the dirt. As our Creator hung on a wretched cross and breathed his last, the veil to the Holy of Holies was torn. Because of the work Jesus did on the altar, the price for my sin is paid in full and I have been given a righteousness that is not my own. When God sees me, he no longer sees my mess but the perfect and unblemished righteousness of his Son. This undeserved gift has made a way for me to have fellowship with God.
As I reflect on the lengths Jesus went to reconcile us to God, it is hard not to marvel at the gift of prayer. Jesus asks us to bring each and every care we have to his feet. As Corrie Ten Boom says “The wonderful thing about praying is that you leave a world of not being able to do something, and enter God’s realm where everything is possible. He specializes in the impossible. Nothing is too great for His almighty power. Nothing is too small for His love.”
He is the God of possible and at work in all of our petitions. As we embark on a month of dedicated prayer, I am expectant of the Lord’s movement. However, I pray that I would not forget the mercy that he hears me, sees me, and sits with me. May we choose to find more joy in the presence of God than the answering of our petitions, for meeting with him in prayer is the true gift.
We would genuinely love for you to join us in prayer as we ask the Lord to equip, empower, and reveal himself to the families we serve. Click here to sign up for daily prayer emails throughout the month of July.
By: Raegan Duke
Communications and Admin Specialist