Each day is a gift from the Lord—a day that should be consumed with a desire to renew our zeal for Him. When we come before the throne of mercy and grace in order to spend time with the Lord, our hearts are renewed so that we might face whatever the day holds. In fact, followers of Christ should begin and end each day in prayer with thanksgiving.
What is more, our prayer life finds its vibrant energy when we use this time to meditate on the Word of God. In prayer and through the Word, the path of holy love becomes illumined so that we might remember all that has been done on our behalf, know how deeply loved we are and believe in the power and presence of our Risen Savior. Truth is, everything gets old and worn and weak without a re-awakening so as to renew and restore. Prayer is our awakening.
The crazy truth of life is that the further we press into faith in Christ the more resistance we will face from the insolent and accursed ones who wander away from the Word of God (v21). The more we resist the ways of the world the greater the scoffing and mocking we will encounter because our life of faith does not fit into the constructs of this world . We are “a sojourner on the earth,” (v19) whose heart has been awakened and consumed by the commandments and testimonies of the Lord our God, not the false teachings of the world (See Andrew Powell's sermon on False teachers ).
We need to saturate ourselves in prayer so that the word of God might become the tidal wave of hope that floods our hearts with the truth of divine love. We cannot know Christ on our own; we need the help of the Holy Spirit. In prayer and through the Holy Spirit we can incarnate the words of Scripture even in the midst of scorning and contempt (v17). Prayer is essential to Christian living, because it is the key to unlocking the power of the Word in our lives.
In Eph 1.18 Paul prays, “that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling . . .” Paul knows that when we open the word of God so that we might know the Word of God our hearts are renewed so that the redemption and restoration of Christ becomes the truth of our lives in and through the Holy Spirit.
Let us this day seek to consume the word of God so as to be consumed by the Word of God. Let us this day meditate on His commandments so as to grow more and more like Him. Let us this day be in prayer, crying out with the Psalmist, “Lord open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” (v18).
