The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"A Trail of Blood"
"We do not present our supplications before Thee for our righteousnesses, but for Thy great mercies" (Daniel 9:18).
The believer's devotion to God's will matters much in our walk with Him. This includes our prayers, which must flow on the tracks of faith and faithfulness:
"This is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us" (I John 5:14).
Daniel, however, knew that our prayerful fellowship with God cannot be based primarily on our devotion and doings, but rather on the Lord's "great mercies." The New Testament rings with this blessed truth that we we approach a "throne of grace" as we seek to commune with our Heavenly Father, the only throne that could possibly beckon us (Hebrews 4:16). "We have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:1).
On our best days of faith and faithfulness, we require the grace of God's freely given favor in the Lord Jesus Christ no less than in times of sin and failure. As Daniel knew and affirmed, God's standard of righteousness makes it impossible to approach Him by our own merits. "As for God, His way is perfect" (II Samuel 22:31). Moreover, our sins do not bar our access, so long as we come through Christ with humility, trust, and repentance. The aforementioned throne of grace promises that we can "obtain mercy" as well as "grace to help in time of need." Thus, we pray always with a heart and mind cognizant and confident that we may "come boldly unto the throne of grace" because the Lord Jesus journeyed so surely to the cross of grace. "And it came to pass, when the time was come that He should be received up, He stedfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem" (Luke 9:51). At Calvary, the Lord Jesus purchased our way of access both now and forevermore by His precious blood. "Through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father" (Ephesians 2:18).
Some of the truest, purest prayers every believer offers occur after we have failed our Lord. This does not excuse sin, nor does it mean God determines that it happen (James 1:13). It does mean, however, that our Savior's person and work on our behalf maintains our approach to God at all times. We come to our Father with Christ in our hearts, His name on our lips, and His intercession for us as our hope of access. Or, we do not come at all. "I am the way… no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me" (John 14:6)
"Nothing in my hand I bring, only to Thy cross I cling" sings one of the most familiar hymns, ringing with glory to the Savior, and hope of access for the saints. "Hallelujah, what a Savior!" rightly sounds and resounds another hymn extolling the grace of the Lord Jesus. Yes, no matter how many trillions upon trillions of prayers will be prayed through Christ forevermore, every one of them will be received by our Father because on the cross of Calvary, the Son of God cried out unto into the darkness, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46). Frequent remembrance of such "great mercies" as our hope of access profoundly enhances our life of prayer, whether offered in times of faithfulness or failure.
A trail of Blood marks the path
leading to the throne,
where God receives the trusting heart
approaching by His Son.
Without the cross, there could not be
this access freely known.
Without such sorrow, pain, and loss,
we'd have nowhere to go.
Yes, every prayer flows to the Throne
on flood tides of Christ's blood.
We come with grateful, trusting hope,
in wonder of such love…
A trail of Blood marks the path
leading to the Throne.
"But now in Christ Jesus, ye who were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ."
(Ephesians 2:13)
"The law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did, by the which we draw nigh unto God."
(Hebrews 7:19)
"For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into Heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us."
(Hebrews 9:24)
Weekly Memory Verse
We do not present our supplications before Thee for our righteousnesses, but for Thy great mercies."
(Daniel 9:18)
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