The Prayer of Contrition

Today's devotional and the next 3 will be about prayer.  I will also take this time to be praying about our next book to walk through during our devotional times.  We have looked at prayer in regards to the harvest, to the practice of tarrying, its importance to maintain unity, and being driven by our love for God and one another.  Today we will look at prayer in light of contrition.  How does prayer help us to have proper sorrow and submission?  Let's look at some relevant scriptures.  The first is Psalm 34:15-18, which reads,

"The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry for help.  The face of the LORD is set against those who do what is evil, to remove all memory of them from the earth.  The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears, and rescues them from all their troubles.  The LORD is near the brokenhearted; He saves those crushed in spirit."

We have a contrast between the treatment of the righteous and the evil from the Lord.  On the righteous His eyes are upon them and His ears are open to their cry.  On the evil, His face is set against and His actions will cause the memory of them to be erased from our minds.  The focus then shifts back to the Lord and the righteous.  The Psalmist gives us again what the Lord does for the righteous who call out to Him.  These are the praying people.  He hears and He rescues.  He also comes near to those who are brokenhearted and crushed in spirit.  How important is it that the God of the universe comes near to those of His family who are in need of a touch?  When you are at the lowest of the lows, what a comfort and start of healing to have another brother or sister in Christ, representing Christ by being one of His ambassadors, coming shoulder to shoulder with you or holding your hand while they pray and share the sorrow you are walking through.  In our sorrow we submit to continue to follow God and we do that through our conversation with Him, our prayers.  Praying helps keep us in that place.  Let's look at another, Joel 2:12 and 13 says,

"Even now--this is the LORD's declaration--turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.  Tear your hearts, not just your clothes, and return to the LORD your God.  For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in faithful love, and He relents from sending disaster."

This is a certain type of prayer or a certain time in your life when you are before God.  You are fasting, weeping, and mourning.  You are in a time of sorrow.  You are kneeling and weeping before God not even able to get words out of our mouth.  They would tear their clothes to show the sorrow of their souls but God is saying for us to tear our hearts before Him to show our brokenness.  In that place we start to see and experience our gracious and compassionate God.  We start to see and experience that He is slow to anger and abounding in faithful love.  He wants to help us get back up and He is offering His hand to do it.  Will you take His hand?  Will you go the direction He leads you?  Will you accept His way to escape the disaster that will come when His wrath is unleashed?  Here are some more scriptures that put us in this posture and state of being before the Lord.  We are in deep sorrow about something and we are to rise in submission to His help and direction.  Let's move onto 2 Corinthians 7:9 and 10, which read,

"I now rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance.  For you were grieved as God willed, so that you didn't experience any loss from us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, but worldly grief produces death."

There are two types of grief mentioned here, godly grief and worldly grief.  Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret and worldly grief produces death.  When we come face to face with God we will grieve.  The question is, "What grief will come out, the godly one or the worldly one?"  Which of these griefs will we follow?  The worldly grief does not accept the way of repentance which means a submission the God who gave His one and only Son for our salvation.  The godly grief has heard the gospel from God through others and submits to repent and turn to God rather than keep walking away from Him.  This grief is willed by God as something that all believers experience at some point because we come to realize the grace of God upon us who are headed toward death and damnation without Him.  Let's end this morning with 1 John 1:5 through 10, which read,

"This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you:  God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in Him.  If we say, 'We have fellowship with Him,' and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth.  If we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.  If we say, 'We have no sin,' we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say, 'We have not sinned,' we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us."

How do we have fellowship with God?  We walk in the light instead of walking in the darkness.  Walking in the light provides us true fellowship with His family and also salvation for our souls through the blood of Jesus.  The salvation is not from us but from Him.  If we say we don't need that; if we say we are good enough on our own; or if we say we have found another way then we are deceiving ourselves.  We are going against the facts that are set up by God.  There is only one way to be cleansed from all unrighteousness and that is through the blood of Jesus Christ.  If we say that there is another way then we are calling God a liar and we are not living by His words and the power of His gospel has not transformed us.  We are lost.  Again, there is a submission that needs to happen when someone is born again into the family of God.  God is right and I am wrong but God is opening my eyes to His right and I rise in submission to follow after Him.  There is a godly sorrow expressed because we realize that we have been going against God's loving plan of salvation through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Mourning not just our woundedness but our rebellion prepares us for renewal.  Submitting to the conviction of the Holy Spirit leads to repentance and God responds with forgiveness, healing and restoration.  Let us pray.

"Lord, we see that in You there is no darkness at all.  We have offended You through our pride and disobedience.  Break our hearts with Your tender mercy.  Teach us to submit to You in humility.  Father, have mercy on us, according to Your unfailing love.  Blot out our sins according to Your compassion.  Cause us to rejoice in You, then we shall praise Your name and tell of Your goodness.  In Jesus' name, Amen!"

Pastor Adam