August 10 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Acts 9:8–12

Devotional

“Behold, he prayeth.” For the first time in his life Saul had started to truly pray. The exalted Christ had become too strong for Paul and now the Lord says, “Behold, he prayeth.” This prayer of Saul in general terms was not a formal prayer. This was not a beautiful, well-worded prayer. It was not a prayer of many words. It was not an outward, pious prayer. It was the humble prayer of a supplicant. This was the sigh or groan of a lost soul that has to perish unless God intervenes in grace.

“Behold, he prayeth.” Saul’s prayer is not just a movement of the lips; it is the cry of a broken and contrite heart. It was broken because of the justice of God. It was contrite because of the patience of God. This is a prayer motivated by pain due to sins that cut him like knives, for he has sinned against a righteous God.

“Behold, he prayeth.” Would heaven testify this of us as well? Are you known in heaven as a poor beggar? Are you known there as a supplicant who can no longer live without God and who needs grace? Is this how you are known before the face of God? If not, then you are still living in your own strength and according to your own desires. Then your prayer is a stench in the holy nostrils of God. If you continue like this, the day will come when you will end up as the foolish virgins who prayed too late. But if you are known in heaven as a poor beggar at God’s throne of grace, then know that God will not despise the broken and contrite heart.

Therefore continue to call upon God. The Lord delights to see a sinner bowing before His throne. If your prayer life is in a state of backsliding, let it then, by renewal, be said of you, “Behold, he prayeth.” “He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Matt. 24:13).

“Behold, he prayeth.” He that calls upon the Lord cannot let go of God anymore. Even if God would slay him, he would still cling to Him in prayer, for those who pray will find life instead of death. They find life not because they pray but because there is an Intercessor who received no answer to His own prayer when He was on the cross, so that a guilty people would receive an answer when they cry to God.

 

From The Everlasting Word by Frans Bakker, compiled and translated by Gerald R. Procee. Reformation Heritage Books and Free Reformed Publications, 2007. Used by permission. For further information, click here.