May 21 Daily Devotional

In an Early Christian prayer-meeting:
RHODA: "Peter is standing outside!"
THE OTHERS: "You're crazy!"
What had they been praying for, then?
And why were they "amazed"? (see Acts 12:5-16)

... We must look for the answer. "I will watch to see," says Habakkuk [2:1]. The military watchman's task is to keep his eye on that landscape in front for the slightest indication of movement on the part of the enemy. Habakkuk is looking for the answer.

We so often fail because we just pray to God and then forget about it. If we pray to God, we must expect answers to our prayers....

God, of course, may answer in a number of different ways. For instance, you can expect God to answer you as you read His Word, for it is the commonest way of all in which He does this. As you are reading Scripture, suddenly a strange and wonderful light is cast upon your problem....

Then God sometimes answers directly in our spirits.... God speaks to me by speaking in me.... He can impress something upon our spirits in an unmistakable manner.... So does God answer at times.

Then again He sometimes answers our prayers by so pro­videntially ordering our circumstances, and the day-to-day happenings of our lives, that it becomes quite plain what God is saying. God never calls us to do any work without opening the door. He may take a long time; but if God wants us to do some special task, He will shut other doors and open that particular one. Our whole life will be directed to that end.

This is a common experience of the Christian life.... God's will is certain. The point is that we must be looking for these answers and ready to recognize them when they come. Having committed my problem to God, I must expect God to answer. I should also compare one indication of guidance with another because if God is always consistent with Himself in His dealings with me, I can expect them all to converge.

From Fear to Faith, pp. 39-40

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“Text reproduced from ‘A First Book of Daily Readings’ by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, published by Epworth Press 1970 & 1977 © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. Used with permission.”

Comments on D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, A First Book of Daily Readings

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