Fri.’s Devo - Remember and Pray

Read: Deut. 26:1-27:26, Luke 10:38-11:13, God was always wanting them to remember where they came from and how He had delivered them and made them to be His peculiar people. When they came into the promised land, God didn’t want them to forget His commandments. When they passed over the Jordan into their land they were to set up stones as an altar and sacrifice on them to remind them of what God had done for them. Then he divided the tribes and put half of them on Mt. Gerizim to proclaim the curses and the other half on Mr. Ebal to pronounce the blessings. Today we read the curses. The first curse and the first of the ten commandments is that they were to make no graven image. This was so important to God that they have no preconceived ideas about what God looked like because when He did send the image of himself in Jesus. He wanted them to be able to accept it. Anything else would have been so less than the perfect Christ. In Luke we start with the story of Martha and Mary. I’ve heard sermons praising Mary and others that defend Martha, but Jesus was trying to point out that worrying and serving paled in comparison to sitting at Jesus’ feet. That is beneficial and eternal. Then we find the disciples asking Jesus how to pray. The NIV is my least favorite translation and today is a great example why. In Jesus prayer he prayed for God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven. The NIV leaves out that part which is so vital to the picture Jesus was giving. We are to pray heaven down to earth. In Jesus simple prayer he dealt with seven things: admiration to God, the kingdom, God’s will, our needs, forgiveness, temptation, and our power over evil. Then He gives us a parable of how prayer plays out on earth. We have to ask in order to see God move. We have to seek to find the hidden treasures of God and we have to knock on doors before they will be opened. When we do, God promises that He will never disappoint us. Lord, thank you for the wonderful privilege we have in prayer. Remind us to seek You minute by minute.