The intimacy that God desires with His children can’t be emphasized enough. He wants us close to Him, and He’s proven this by giving us the gift of eternal life. This means that He wants us around a really, really long time. Not only is it important that we comprehend the depth of God’s desire for relationship with us, but we must guard against the world’s attempt to devalue our love, worship, and praise of our Heavenly Father. Social media has shown just about every facet of worship and praise in Christendom. For some, a more subdued posture is preferred. For others, an intense joy and gratitude through dance and praise is expressed. Our jubilance and adoration to the Lord has many dimensions, but wherever we are, God has given every believer the privilege and responsibility to swell to new levels of spiritual richness. We can witness increasing demonstrations of God’s love and power and fresh anointings. This is all spearheaded and achieved as we increase focus, faith, and the amount of time dedicated to the Father in prayer.
Romans 1:17(NKJV) tells us, “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”” This verse perfectly describes what God intends the journey in Christ to be. As we grow in Christ and increase in spiritual maturity, everything about our relationship with God gets richer and deeper. The power of God’s Gospel continually expands us as we learn more, but it is the revealed knowledge of the righteousness of God that transports us to the stratosphere of His unyielding glory in our prayer lives.
We must trust in the righteousness of God with our whole hearts, and to understand it with greater clarity, we must examine God’s relationship with the descendants of Abraham in the Old Testament. Although we often refer to them as the children of Israel, God did not consider them His children, but His servants. He said in Leviticus 25:55(NLT), “For the people of Israel belong to me. They are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.” At first glance, we might look at this and think they were slighted in some way. This was definitely not the case. The distinction of a servant is not of lower rank. One of the greatest gifts that God has given humanity is the wonderful honor and privilege of serving one another.
The law was a curse to God’s people living in Old Testament times not because the Ten Commandments were imperfect. The Ten Commandments paint a beautiful portrait of God’s righteousness. It is a wonderful lesson about His nature, but it was a curse to the children of Israel because they continued to sin and reap the consequences of that sin. They continued to reject the laws of God and abandon His righteousness. Going against the grain of God’s love was how they chose to demonstrate their free-will choice. Delving a bit more under the hood, we can see the uncompromising righteous quality of truth and justice that God holds Himself to. Our God could not forgive our sins unrightfully. That would not be justice. Justice demands that there is a righteous basis for the forgiveness of sin.
In general, a law-abiding judge within our justice system does not dismiss charges against a guilty person. If judges behaved that way, and let criminals get away with crimes, most of us would say that the justice system is broken. It is common knowledge that there is a price to be paid for a crime committed. Why is this? It is because the righteousness of law demands a charge against unrighteousness; a penalty must be imposed. This is fundamentally justice.
Our Heavenly Father is supremely just and righteous, and He tells us in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin, the cost that must be paid for sin, is death. By God’s law, our disobedience to His Word and Will should cost us our lives. We should have been crucified for our sins, but because of God’s mercy and grace, Jesus Christ became our substitute. He took our place.
Because of Christ, the road we travel is not death to death, fear to fear, disappointment to disappointment. It’s faith to faith as the glory of God is etched more deeply in our hearts and minds. God has always wanted to be close to us and to show us more sides of His unconditional and unlimited love. At the appointed time, when we were mentally and emotionally able to digest the fullness of the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ and appreciate it at the deepest level, God sent Christ to fulfill the mission of our redemption. Understanding and appreciating this awesome revelation allows us to do as Hebrews 4:16 admonishes, which is to approach God’s throne of grace with boldness and confidence in our prayers, so that we can find grace in our time of need. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
“Deeper in Prayer”, written for Springfield Fellowship © 2023. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.