April 10th, 2020 – Morning Devotional With Pastor Dan
“Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the second time, while he was still confined in the court of the guard, saying, “Thus says the LORD who made the earth, the LORD who formed it to establish it, the LORD is His name, ‘Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ (Jeremiah 33:1-3 – NASB)
“Then the nations that are left round about you will know that I, the LORD, have rebuilt the ruined places and planted that which was desolate; I, the LORD, have spoken and will do it.” ‘Thus says the LORD GOD, “This also I will let the house of Israel ask Me to do for them: I will increase their men like a flock. (Ezekiel 36:36-37 – NASB)
In answer to the prayer of Jeremiah, God had said: “I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me. “I will rejoice over them to do them good and will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul” (Jeremiah 32:40-41 – NKJV). And to Ezekiel, He had spoken: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them (Ezekiel 36:26-27 – NKJV).
To us in our unbelief, and our judging of the meaning of God’s Word according to human thought and experience, there is no expectation of these promises being truly for fulfilled. We do not believe that God means them to be literally true. We have not the faith in the mighty power of God that is waiting to make His promise true in our experience.
And God has said that without such faith our experience will be but very partial and very limited. He has graciously pointed out the way in which such faith can be found. It is in the path of much prayer. “Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” “This also I will let the house of Israel ask Me to do for them.” It is when individual men and women turn to God with their whole heart to plead these promises that he will fulfill them. It is in the exercise of intense persevering prayer that faith will be strengthened to take hold of God and surrender itself to His omnipotent working. And then as one and another can testify of what God has done and will do, believers will help each other and take there place as the Church of the living God; pleading for and firmly expecting that His promises will be fulfilled in larger measure, as a new enduement for the great work of preaching Christ in the fullness of His redemption to perishing man.
The state of the Church, the state of our ministers and members, our own state calls for unceasing prayer. We need to pray intensely and persistently, that the need of the power of the Holy Spirit may be deeply felt, and that a strong faith may be roused in the hearts of many to claim and to expect His mighty working.
“I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it.” “I believe; Lord, help my unbelief.”