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APRIL: The Cross of Christ

April 26

THE CROSS AND PRAYER

God heareth not sinners.
John 9:31

The cross opens the door of heaven to me, and I can begin to pray. And we have all known, have we not, what it is to turn to God in prayer? Some of us remember during the last world war (World War II), and during the 1914-18 war (World War I), reading of the terrible experiences of men torpedoed at sea. There they might be, in their little dinghies, for days on end. The food had ended, so had the water, and they were just drifting, and it seemed that everything had finished, and there was nobody in sight to save them. They were frantic and did not know what to do. Then somebody would say, “What about prayer?” None of them had prayed for years or had ever thought about God, but in their trouble they remembered Him.

We have all known what it is to turn to God in prayer, but the vital question is this: Can we pray? Have we any right to pray? What is prayer? Prayer means entering into the presence of God. It means addressing that almighty, holy God who is in heaven while we are on earth, the God we have ignored and spurned and reviled and rejected. How can we go into His presence? The answer is that we cannot go into His presence as we are.

“God heareth not sinners” (John 9:31). There is only one way whereby a man can pray with any confidence and assurance, and it is in believing in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to the apostle: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand.” He is fond of saying this—we find it everywhere. “For through him,” says Paul to the Ephesians—by Christ—“we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (2:18).

A Thought to Ponder
There is only one way whereby a man can pray with any confidence and assurance, and it is in believing in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

From The Cross, pp. 191-192.




Today’s devo is taken from Walking with God Day by Day © 2003 by Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

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