Day Ten: Do your prayers bring you closer to God?
Scripture: Psalm 73:28, ESV
Principle: It is good for us to be near to God.
One of the things my wife and I like to do is travel. But after a week or two of being away, it always feels good to be home. The old saying, “there is no place like home,” is true. But as good as it feels to be home, there is a far better place to be—near God. The best way to be near to God is through prayer.
What, after all, is the purpose for prayer? Is it to get what we want? Is it part of our religious duty? As long as we say a prayer before meals and before bed, we are completing our duty. No. The purpose is to draw near to God. Charles Spurgeon says,
“Remember, you have not prayed successfully or acceptably unless you have in prayer endeavored to draw near to God.”20
The question you might ask is, how do I know if I’ve drawn near to God? Drawing near to God is an experience you will near forget. The salvation experience is a drawing near to God. The Holy Spirit brings us into His presence, making us immediately aware of our sinfulness and unworthiness to be there. The fear of his holiness, power and judgment leading to our begging for mercy. But as we grow in Christ, drawing near to God takes on a different experience. After receiving forgiveness, we can rejoice in the presence of God and approach him with confidence. Fear is replaced with reverence. We see not just His majesty and wrath but His love and goodness.
As we continue to grow in our relationship, drawing near to God takes on yet another dimension. We not only see his mercy, love and goodness but we begin to understand that we are more than subjects of His Kingdom. We are sons and daughters of the King. And there is no better place to be.
“…it is the happiest moment in one’s life when we can go up to our Father and our God in Christ Jesus, and can know and feel of a surety that his infinite love is set on us” 21
Application: Take this day and evaluate your prayers. Do they bring you nearer to God? Make this your prayer today:
“Put forth your blessed Spirit. Come, Lord, and dwell in me, abide in me, and rule and reign over me. Be my God, my Jesus, my Holy One, and make me yours forever.”22
20 C. H. Spurgeon, “‘Let Us Pray,’” in The New Park Street Pulpit Sermons, vol. 6 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1860), 17.
21 Spurgeon, 19.
22 Robert Hawker, “To the God Who Bends down to Reach Us,” in Piercing Heaven: Prayers of the Puritans, ed. Robert Elmer (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2019), 95.