Welcome to The Turnaround’s 52 Days of Prayer!
Introduction
Day 31 is here and we stand courageous in God’s Protection! But in addition to that knowledge, Ecclesiastes reminds us that we have a duty to worship our God with awe-filled reverence. We have a duty to keep his commandments, for every action we do will be judged.
Insight
Do we understand why God created us? My Grandmother used to say, “Read your Bible, the answers to every question are in there.” How right she is. How far we have strayed from that simple wisdom that easily understood the key to every success. When asked what was the greatest commandment, Jesus responded, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and the second is like unto it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
We have certainly strayed from Him as a nation, even here in Oklahoma, the buckle of the “Bible Belt.” We have relied on our own wisdom instead of God’s wisdom, which is a form of folly. We have forgotten God, therefore we do not fear Him, nor do we keep His commandments. What a tragedy, since the passage from Ecclesiastes clearly states that this is the reason our Heavenly Father created us—so that we would love Him and have fellowship with Him for eternity. We can, but there is only one Way, and His name is Jesus. He is the key to everything worth having.
Now, we bow before God in humility and repentance. We have willfully broken his commandments. We freely admit that we do not deserve His blessing, but we follow the example set for us in 2 Chronicles 7:14. We have humbled ourselves and have committed to pray seeking His face, as we should have been doing all along. We turn from our wickedness, which we acknowledge is anything that goes against His Word. We commit to obedience and acknowledge that His ways are perfect; we cannot outsmart Him. Let this be the cry of our hearts.
Turnaround Questions
Have you lost your healthy fear of our awesome God? Are you awe struck in God’s presence?
Prayer
Father, we thank You for Your infinite mercy, for being love, which we do not comprehend, and that You are not willing that we should perish, but that each of us should come to repentance. We pray this expecting that You will hear, since we are of more value than many sparrows. We pray in thanksgiving that in CHRIST we have forgiveness of sins, and we pray for You to heal our land. We echo Moses and say, “If You are not with us, we don’t want to go.” Father, this world that You’ve created and the blessings that You’ve entrusted to our stewardship are good, and we thank you for them, but we need YOU. We know that we can do nothing without You, and we can do all things through You. We also admit that we will fail in obedience to you if we rely on our own strength. Only by Your Grace will we be good servants. Father, give what we need to stay focused on You and to be obedient. We ask this humbly in the Almighty Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
