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A Prayer About Good Grief

A Prayer About Good Grief
It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees. Psalm 119:71
Most grace-full Father, only a deep conviction about your love for him could have moved King David to praise you for the gift of affliction and pain. The same is just as true in my own life. I well remember all the years I spent trying to spiritually finagle my way out of “harm’s way”-believing if I just confessed the right verses, prayed the right prayers, and did the right things, then I’d have an “abundant life” filled with “blessings” and marked by a scarcity of difficulties.
Oh silly selfish man… I now see how I tried to manipulate you into being more of a “sugar daddy” than the “Abba, Father,” that you really are. Holy and loving Father, here me acknowledge the truth: that was idolatry, not just “a mistake.” Instead of learning and loving your decrees, I tried to decree what kind of god I wanted and “needed” you to be.
I praise you for the gift of forgiveness and for a greater measure of gospel sanity. More than ever I’m able to affirm, Father, EVERYTHING you do is for your glory and my good, EVERYTHING, including ordering hard providences and painful circumstances.
Lord Jesus, because you took all the afflictions I deserved as a sinful rebel, I’m now only afflicted as a beloved son. Because of you Jesus I’m not afraid of God as my judge, I revere and love him as my Father. And only because of you, Jesus, I no longer despise or dread the decrees of God, I delight in them. Indeed, Father, your decrees are not rules by which I earn anything from you, they are the wisdom by which I learn about everything from you.
Holy Spirit, I gratefully and expectantly ask you, keep me in this journey and joy of gospel freedom, even this one day… so very Amen I pray, in Jesus’ name.

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