This resolution of Daily United Prayer is based on An Humble Attempt, originally put forward by Jonathan Edwards in 1748. Its design is to encourage God's people in the duty of united extraordinary prayer; setting aside some time every day to pray for the revival of His church and the advancement of Christ's kingdom in our homes, in our churches, in our nation, and in the world.
"Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?" Psalm 77:7.
The Psalmist is in such distress in Psalm 77 that he asks a series of rhetorical questions that are quite extreme. So extreme that they are preposterous. Here they are from verses 7-9:
+ "Will the Lord cast off for ever?"
+ "Will he be favourable no more?"
+ "Is his mercy clean gone for ever?"
+ "Doth his promise fail for evermore?"
+ "Hath God forgotten to be gracious?"
+ "Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies?"
That about covers all the bases. Have you been there? Have the trials of life been so unbearable that you begin to ask similar irrational questions? And they are irrational, are they not? You are asking if God's promises fail for evermore? He is the God of truth and He cannot lie. And all the promises of God are yea and Amen (2 Cor 1:20). You are asking if God has forgotten to be gracious? He is the God that cannot forget. A woman may forget her sucking child, "they may forget, yet will I not forget thee" (Isa 49:15). You are asking if God's mercy is clean gone forever? This is the God of Whom it is written 26 times in 26 verses that "his mercy endureth for ever" (Psalm 136). And yet, when we are sustaining heavy enemy fire, reason and logic go out the window.
What is the remedy to such a sad state? The Psalmist instructs us in the following verses. I will list them here:
+ "I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High."
+ "I will remember the works of the Lord."
+ "I will remember thy wonders of old."
+ "I will meditate also of all thy work."
+ "I will talk of thy doings."
Are you seeing a pattern here? I will remember... I will remember... I will remember... We are asking if God has forgotten to be gracious, but we are the ones who are forgetting. We need to remember and rehearse the wonderful works of the Lord in times past and let the past instruct our faith for the present. This is why it is important for us to read the great works of the Lord throughout Scripture and throughout church history. By doing so, we will grow in our insatiable desire for the Lord to do it again!
Friends, learn to remember.
Remember what the Lord did for the godly kings in Israel's history—how He delivered them, one by one. He delivered King Asa from a million-man army of the Ethiopians. He delivered King Jehoshaphat from that great multitude of the Ammonites and Moabites from beyond the sea. He delivered King Hezekiah from the Assyrian army laying siege outside the walls of Jerusalem so that the next morning 185,000 soldiers were found dead. Remember what the Lord did during the Great Awakenings, on the Isle of Lewis, in South Africa, in Wales. Remember what God did through George Muller. Remember what God did through Eric Liddell. Remember what God did through C. T. Studd and the Cambridge Seven. Meditate of all His works, and talk of all His doings. Lord, do it again!
DAILY UNITED PRAYER unitedprayer.net
Mon-Fri @ 12pm EDT // Sat @ 10am EDT
We invite you to join our dedicated and earnest group of praying participants of all ages from around the world that meet every day over Zoom to pray. At the start of each prayer call, a different individual will bring a brief Scriptural meditation. Here's the most recent:
