Prayer’s Exclamation Point

All the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. (2 Corinthians 1:20)

Prayer is a response to promises, that is, to the assurances of God’s future grace.

Prayer is drawing on the account where God has deposited all his stores of future grace.

Prayer is not hoping in the dark that there might be a God of good intentions out there. Prayer banks on the promise of God, and goes to the bank every day and draws on stores of future grace needed for that day.

Don’t miss the connection between the two halves of this great verse. Notice the “that is why”: “All the promises of God are Yes in Christ. That is why (therefore) we pray Amen through him, to God’s glory.”

To make sure we see it, let’s turn the two halves around: When we pray, we say Amen to God through Christ, because God has said a decisive Amen to all his promises in Christ. Prayer is the confident plea for God to make good on his promises of future grace — for Christ’s sake. Prayer links our faith in future grace with the foundation of it all, Jesus Christ.

Which leads to the final point: “Amen” is a full and precious word in times of prayer. It doesn’t mean primarily, “Yes, I have now said this prayer.” It means primarily, “Yes, God has made all these promises.”

Amen means, “Yes, Lord, you can do it.” It means, “Yes, Lord, you are powerful. Yes, Lord, you are wise. Yes, Lord, you are merciful. Yes, Lord, all future grace comes from you and has been confirmed in Christ.”

“Amen” is an exclamation point of hope and warranted confidence after a prayer for help.

John Piper 

What’s Written All Over Your Face?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. Acts 4:20

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

Somewhere in California during the gold rush of 1849, the story is told of two gold miners who struck a particularly rich vein of gold one day. They decided not to tell anyone else, so they could keep it for themselves. They went into town to get better equipment to mine the gold, but when they left, scores of people followed. Their jubilation was written all over their faces.

ACTION POINT:

Is what’s in your heart written all over your face? Oh, how I pray that each person reading this today will not hide what they have found in Jesus Christ. I want people who see you today to say, “I don’t know what’s going on, but I want what she has. I want what he has.” The gift of salvation is for you, but it is also for others to behold in you and desire to have the same for themselves.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Jesus Will Finish the Mission

“This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14)

I don’t know any more inspiring missionary promise than this word from Jesus.

Not: This gospel should be preached.

Not: This gospel might be preached.

But: This gospel will be preached.

This is not a great commission, nor a great commandment. It is a great certainty, a great confidence.

Who can dare talk like that? How does he know it will? How can he be sure the church will not fail in its missionary task?

Answer: The grace of missionary service is as irresistible as the grace of regeneration. Christ can promise universal proclamation because he is sovereign. He knows the future success of missions because he makes the future. All the nations will hear!

A “nation” is not a modern “country.” When the Old Testament spoke of nations, it referred to groups like Jebusites and Perizites and Hivites and Amorites and Moabites and Canaanites and Philistines. “Nations” are ethnic groups with their own peculiar language and culture. Psalm 117:1: “Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples!” Nations are peoples — people groups, as we call them.

As the sovereign Son of God and Lord of the church, Jesus simply took up this divine purpose and stated as an absolute certainty, “This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations” (Matthew 24:14).

The cause of world missions is absolutely assured of success. It cannot fail. Is it not reasonable, then, that we pray with great faith, that we invest with great confidence, and that we go with a sense of sure triumph?

John Piper 

Will you say “Jesus is Lord” no matter what?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Then Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. John 6:68-69

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

The Romans were a polytheistic nation—they worshiped many gods. They had a god for this and a god for that. They even built the Pantheon, which was a temple for all the gods that were worshiped in ancient Rome.

So why, then, were Christians so persecuted in the days of the liberal Roman government? They just worshiped “another god”—right? The Romans didn’t persecute other religious people, only Christians. Why did they pick on the Christians? When the Romans subjugated and conquered a people, they let them keep their gods—on one condition: that they remember that Caesar was Lord. Christians proclaimed Jesus as Lord, not Caesar.

ACTION POINT:

As the world becomes more and more synchronized, headed toward a “one world” order, men and women who say that Jesus is the only true Lord are going to be persecuted. Will you stand and proclaim Jesus as Lord no matter what?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Subversive for the Savior

When Jesus met the man filled with demons at Gadara, the demons cried out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” (Matthew 8:29)

Demons learned a mystery here. They knew they were doomed. They knew the Son of God would be the victor. But they didn’t know until it happened that Christ was coming before the time of final defeat.

Christ is not going to wait for the end of the war to lead his troops into combat. He has begun to lead a subversive force into the territory of Satan. He has trained a “life-squad” to perform daring rescue operations. Christ has plotted many tactical victories before the time of the final strategic victory.

The resulting wartime mentality is this: Since Satan’s doom is sure, and he knows it, we can always remind him of it when he tempts us to follow him. We can laugh and say, “You’re out of your mind. Who wants to join forces with a loser?!”

The church is the liberated enemy of “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4). We are the guerrillas and the gadflies. We are the insurgency against the rebel kingdom of “the prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2).

It is not safe. But it is thrilling. Many lives are lost. Satan’s forces are ever on the lookout for our subversive activity. Christ has guaranteed resurrection for all who fight to the death. But he has not guaranteed comfort, or acceptance from the world, or prosperity in enemy territory.

Many have gladly given their lives behind the lines running errands for the Commander. I can think of no better way to live — or die!

John Piper 

Who do your hands represent today?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath He recompensed me. Psalm 18:20

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

During WWII, a beautiful cathedral in Europe was destroyed by the Nazis. When the people came together to rebuild the cathedral, they found the remains of a statue of Christ with His hands outstretched. They repaired the statue as best they could, but they could not recover the hands. Because they loved the statue as it was, they put a plaque underneath that reads: “He has no hands but our hands.”

Remember this—Jesus Christ is the invisible part of you, the Christian. The Christian is the visible part of Christ. He is seen in us and through us. We are the visible part of the invisible Christ.

ACTION POINT:

What we do in His name represents Him to the world. What are you doing with your hands today that is a testimony of Jesus Christ to a watching and lost world?

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Triumph Is Sure

Therefore strong peoples will glorify you; cities of ruthless nations will fear you. (Isaiah 25:3)

Isaiah sees the day coming when all the nations — representatives from all the people groups — will no longer be at odds with Yahweh, the God of Israel and his Messiah, whom we know to be Jesus.

They will no longer worship Bel or Nebo or Molech or Allah or Buddha or utopian social programs or capitalistic growth possibilities or ancestors or animistic spirits. Instead they will come in faith to the banquet on God’s mountain.

And they will have the veil of sorrow removed and death shall be swallowed up and the reproach of God’s people will be removed and tears shall be gone forever.

That’s the setting for understanding the vision of Isaiah 25:3: “Therefore strong peoples will glorify you; cities of ruthless nations will fear you.” In other words, God is stronger than the “strong peoples” and he is so powerful and so gracious that in the end he will turn ruthless nations to revere him.

So the picture Isaiah gives us is one of all nations turned to God in worship, a great banquet for all the peoples, the removal of all suffering and grief and reproach from the nations, who have become his people, and the final putting away of death forever.

This triumph is sure because God is doing it. Therefore we can be certain of it.

Not one life spent in the cause of world evangelization is spent in vain. Not one prayer or one dollar or one sermon or one letter of encouragement or one little light shining in some dark place — nothing in the cause of this advancing kingdom is in vain.

The triumph is sure.

John Piper