A CHRISTIAN’S SUNDAY MORNING PRAYER
HEAVENLY FATHER, I bow before You this Lord’s Day morning through the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit. Thank You, Father, for Your amazing grace and wondrous mercy. I thank You, Father, for electing me unto salvation in Jesus Christ from before the foundation of the world. Thank You for giving me to Him to be my Shepherd, Savior, Lord, and Friend. Thank You for sending Your Son to live and die in my place so that I would be granted everlasting life through union with Him by faith. Thank You for revealing Yourself in Your Word as holy, righteous, good, merciful, gracious, just, and infinite in all Your attributes. Thank You for loving me and demonstrating that infinite love by sending Jesus to redeem a wretch like me! Make me realize that when I am obedient to Your will, I am only an unprofitable servant who has only done that which You have commanded. Correct me when I go astray, make me humble when I obey.
LORD JESUS, I praise You for laying down Your life for me, and for all Your sheep. When You found me, I was a miserable, blind, rebellious, wretched sinner. Not only did you lay down Your life for me, but You also lived that perfect life in my place. You alone fulfilled all the righteous requirements of the Law of God. You have clothed me with Your perfect righteousness in order that I may come boldly into the throne of grace being justified by Your work which You accomplished in Your life, death, resurrection, ascension, and session. I thank You, Lord Jesus, that You imputed Your righteousness to me and to all Your people in exchange for our sins being imputed to You. Thank You that on the cross You dealt with all our sins, past, present and future, once for all time and therefore we bear our sins no more! Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! What A Savior!
HOLY SPIRIT, thank You that while I was spiritually dead in my trespasses and sins, You made me spiritually alive and created faith in my soul so that I might believe the Gospel, love You, love the Father, love the Lord Jesus Christ, and love Your Church. Thank You for creating faith in my heart so that I could believe the Gospel and fully trust in Jesus for my salvation, which He obtained for me by His sin-atoning death and law-fulfilling life. Thank You for enabling me to serve Christ by serving His Church, which Jesus purchased with His own blood. Fill me with Your presence, and power, dominate my life, control my every thought, word, and action, and cause me to be obedient to that which You command of me in Your Word. Holy Spirit, I ask that You open my understanding more and more in order that I might rightly understand Your Scriptures since You alone give understanding of Your Word. Grant me courage to live completely and comprehensively for Jesus my Lord and Savior. Open my eyes that I might see the wondrous things in Your Word. Show me Jesus in Your Word. As the hymn writer declared, "More of His saving fullness see, More of His love who died for me. More about Jesus in His Word, Holding communion with my Lord; Hearing His voice in ev'ry line, Making each faithful saying mine!"
O GOD: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, thank You for blessing me with all the blessings in the heavenly places in Christ for I know that I don’t deserve the least of Your blessings or truth. I know that all I have merited is damnation! All Your blessings come not by my obedience but by Your sovereign grace in Christ. My obedience is always less than perfect and defiled with sin and is only acceptable to You because of the merits of Jesus Christ, who always lives to make intercession for the saints. O my Father, hear my prayer for the sake of your Son, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ in whose name and authority I pray. Amen!
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SATAN HATES PASTORS
"Take heed to yourselves, because the tempter will more ply you with his temptations than other men. If you will be the leaders against the prince of darkness, he will spare you no further than God restrains him. He bears the greatest malice to those that are engaged to do him the greatest mischief. As he hates Christ more than any of us, because He is the General of the field, the Captain of our salvation, and does more than all the world besides against his kingdom; so does he hate the leaders under Him, more than the common soldiers: he knows what a rout he may make among them, if the leaders fall before their eyes."
—Richard Baxter
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THE LOVE OF MONEY
“Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.”
—1 Timothy 6:6-8
PEOPLE WHO LOVE money are always discontent in life. The more they have the more they want and the more they want the more discontent they become. “Hell and Destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied” (Proverbs 27:20). Those who love money spend their time pursuing things that cannot bring them peace or contentment, and they ignore the things that have eternal value. “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income” (Ecclesiastes 5:10). Jesus said in Matthew 6:19-21, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
AND SO, OUR TEXT says, “having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.” The Apostle Paul said to be content with the basic necessities of life because if you don’t learn to be satisfied with little, you will never be content with much. Paul is not condemning material possessions if God gives them to us, but the accumulation of these things should not be the overwhelming passion of our life. The philosophy of the world is “the one who dies with most toys wins,” but Scripture says, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?” (Mark 8:36) Jesus also said in Luke 12:15, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”
WHAT SCRIPTURE CONDEMNS is a self-indulgent desire for money that comes from a heart of discontentment. This is a person who is not satisfied with what the Lord provides. The supreme goal of every believer must be a passion to glorify God by seeking first His kingdom and righteousness and not chasing after riches. “Therefore, do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:31-33). Remember the rich man who wanted to pull down his barns and build greater barns and store all his crops and goods, the man who said to his soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry." But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God" (Luke 12:19-21).
WHAT ABOUT YOU? Do you have an overwhelming passion to possess more and more money and material goods, or are you striving to be content with what the Lord provides? Are you seeking first God’s kingdom and His righteousness, or are you seeking first material wealth? Remember that “the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18). Examine your heart in this matter by meditating on the words of Jesus from Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
Friday Devotional: January 24, 2025
In Christ,
Pastor S. Henry
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