Faithbase

Good morning, and welcome to this day's edition of Praying the Bible. We are in Psalm 18, verse 20, and I'll read a few of those verses, then we'll begin to pray together. The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanliness of my hands he has recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me. I was also blameless before him, and I kept myself from my iniquity. Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanliness of my hands in his sight. Heavenly Father, our righteousness according to Scripture is like filthy rags, and so when we read this we consider, what is it that you look at when you reward us according to our righteousness? What was the psalmist considering here as David was praying to you through this psalm and reaching out to you? And so Lord, we are reminded that although we in our own power, our own strength, have no righteousness, the good deeds that we do in our own strength do not measure up. But in Jesus Christ we are seen before you as righteous. You see Jesus when you look at us, you see that we are in him and that we are clothed with his righteousness. As we read in Isaiah just some days ago, and Lord I pray that we will always recall that when we are praying before you, that it is not because we are earning something with you. That is the beauty of this Lord God, that our righteousness is not something that we earn, it is something that we are given as a gift. And the cleanliness of our hands, Lord God, is something that is given to us as a gift. Lord, as we pray that, we recognize that the duty of each person who is clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ is to, in your strength, express that. That we are to live a life that is pleasing to you and to do so with the joy of your salvation, Lord God. We pray that we can today and throughout this new year be not only clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, but express that righteousness in our thoughts and words and deeds as we work hard to show the results of salvation in Jesus Christ. Before we do, keep your ways, Lord. Help us today and every day to be aware of your statutes, to be aware of your law, to be aware of what your word tells us we should do, and to live that life. Lord, it is never a matter of law versus no law, it is a matter of whose law. Our tendency is to look to self and say, our law, my law, my will shall prevail, but Lord God, we want to keep your ways and we do not want to wickedly depart from you, Lord God. We don't want to drift away in any way, shape, or form. We want to be walking with you and to be living with you, Lord. Forgive us for our sins. We sin daily, Lord God. We do depart from your ways, but if we confess our sins, your Bible tells us, you are faithful, you are just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Not that we would take advantage of you, Lord God. As Paul says, not that we would live in sin that grace may abound all the more. That's not our intent at all. Lord, we want to live a life that's pleasing to you and we want to do that with joy so that we are not drawn down or pulled down or torn down by guilt, but we can simply come before you. You know us. You know what we are. You know what we do, and so we can come before you openly and say, Lord, help us that we can keep your ways, that we will not wickedly depart from your ways. For all your judgments, your word is here. We have that before us. We know what you want of us. We do not put away your statutes, Lord God. Instead, we embrace those things that you call upon us to do, and Lord, I pray that this day as we conclude this portion of the prayer, that our focus will be on the blessings of salvation in Jesus Christ, the privilege of showing that we are saved by the grace of our Lord, and the opportunity to show that to others, that the privilege of showing it, but the opportunity, Lord, will be there, and we will see that as opportunity not to show off, but to show you. So Lord God, I pray your blessings on this day. Walk with us, I ask, and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.