We are in the midst of a series for Exodus Church called Prayers for the Journey. Our goal is for our church to knowingly, willingly and actively depend more on God through prayer. We want to repent of our rugged independence and our illusion of self sufficiency that keep us from prayer. Our hope is that we would emerge from this series a more prayerful people.
Last week, in our series called Prayers for the Journey, we looked at the first prayer we have for Exodus Church: That we would Trust God’s Heart. This has been a timely (and timeless) word for our body in recent days.
If there was any truth that I could permanently embed on our hearts it would be simply this, “God can be trusted.” For us to know and embrace that God is trustworthy, faithful, dependable affects everything from what we believe about the Bible to our hope for eternal salvation. And, the testimony of God’s Word is that He can be trusted.
One of my favorite old hymns captures this reality well. Perhaps my favorite verse says…
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.
What a glorious idea! That behind even the harshest of providence in our lives lies God’s good grace toward those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. That suffering for the follower of Jesus is not an expression of wrath toward us, but rather is used by God to make us more like Jesus. Even in hard times, we can trust Him. Exodus, My hope for us is that we would learn to trust God’s heart. And in learning to do this, that we would pray with passion and persistence.
