December 13 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Luke 1:11–17

Devotional

Sometimes you think your prayers have never reached heaven. But the Lord still knows about them and remembers them. Their answer comes when God deems it to be the right time. When there is no answer it is not necessarily because the Lord rejects your petitions. It is not up to you, but to God, when a prayer is heard and answered, and how it is answered.

It is still the same as it was with Zachariah and Elisabeth; God answers your prayers in His time, for His honor. If your prayers are heard immediately there is this danger that you will ascribe the acceptance of your prayers to your praying, and not to God’s free mercy. Sure, not all petitions are answered as you desire. Even Moses was not allowed to enter the land of Canaan after he prayed for it. Even the thorn in the flesh did not depart from Paul, after he beseeched the Lord three times. Only the Lord knows best what is good for His child. But there is one prayer that will not be prayed in vain; that is the prayer for the Christ Child. If your prayer for Christ comes forth from a contrite heart that knows it is lost outside of Christ, then your prayer is answered as you desire. You have learned to complain with David in Psalm 51 about your own birth. You complain about being “unclean” since your fall in Adam. More and more you see your own unrighteousness and your sinful existence and cannot hold back any longer. You need a Child that is a Substitute for you from your birth on. Then the need for Advent becomes clear. The Child Jesus has to be born. Do you know this need? This drives you to God in supplications.

As with Zachariah and Elisabeth, it may seem to you as if your prayers do not reach heaven. It may appear to you that heaven does not hear. In your distress you need to pray even more, but it can seem so dark and dull, that you think “everything is in vain.” And yet God does not forget a penitent sinner. If you have come to an end with yourself and have neither strength left nor expectation, God does not forget you.

You are exhorted to seek God and the Child Jesus. O, sinner, you who cannot live out of your own birth anymore, do not despair. It became Advent, not because you asked for it, but only because of God’s grace. You may expectantly wait for Jesus. But your prayer cannot bring forth this Child. The Father, out of sheer mercy, gives this Child.

 

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.