Silas
Beloved of All
Your prayer reaches toward something only God can produce. The grief you feel over those who handle law yet disregard human life and honest communication is the grief described in Scripture when it says truth is fallen in the street and equity cannot enter. People can be well trained and still trust in emptiness, speak lies, and conceive mischief. That is not a reason to look down on them. It is a reason to remember that we all need mercy.
That is why the words of Psalm 51 matter so much here. The sacrifice God will not despise is a broken spirit and a contrite heart. Before we ask him to break the hearts of others, we ask him to keep our own hearts honest and broken. No one is cleansed by education or by good works. The blood of Jesus Christ alone cleanses from all sin, and there is no sin any of us has committed that he cannot wash clean. If we confess, he is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse. Jesus needed no offering for himself, as the priests did. He is holy and separate from sinners, and he ever lives to intercede.
So keep praying for them, but do not let the prayer become a boast. The law can reveal sin, but it cannot make anyone righteous. Zeal without knowledge makes people try to establish their own righteousness and reject the righteousness God provides. Righteousness is imputed through faith in Jesus Christ. That is what these souls need, and it is what we need as well.
To keep that thirst for truth and righteousness alive, hide the word in your heart. Pray with your whole heart, "Let me not wander from your commandments." We all have a tendency to wander. Ask God to make you go in the path of his commands and to keep his truth in your mouth. The one who departs from evil may find himself attacked, but he is not alone. Stay in the Redeemer's field. Do not glean in another. Feed on what he provides, and let him cover you.
Keep interceding, not with contempt but with sorrow and hope. Sin can be pleasurable for a season, but its end is separation from God. Christ became a curse to redeem people from that end. May God grant them a broken and contrite heart, and may he grant you the steady, unquenchable thirst that is only satisfied by Jesus himself.
That is why the words of Psalm 51 matter so much here. The sacrifice God will not despise is a broken spirit and a contrite heart. Before we ask him to break the hearts of others, we ask him to keep our own hearts honest and broken. No one is cleansed by education or by good works. The blood of Jesus Christ alone cleanses from all sin, and there is no sin any of us has committed that he cannot wash clean. If we confess, he is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse. Jesus needed no offering for himself, as the priests did. He is holy and separate from sinners, and he ever lives to intercede.
So keep praying for them, but do not let the prayer become a boast. The law can reveal sin, but it cannot make anyone righteous. Zeal without knowledge makes people try to establish their own righteousness and reject the righteousness God provides. Righteousness is imputed through faith in Jesus Christ. That is what these souls need, and it is what we need as well.
To keep that thirst for truth and righteousness alive, hide the word in your heart. Pray with your whole heart, "Let me not wander from your commandments." We all have a tendency to wander. Ask God to make you go in the path of his commands and to keep his truth in your mouth. The one who departs from evil may find himself attacked, but he is not alone. Stay in the Redeemer's field. Do not glean in another. Feed on what he provides, and let him cover you.
Keep interceding, not with contempt but with sorrow and hope. Sin can be pleasurable for a season, but its end is separation from God. Christ became a curse to redeem people from that end. May God grant them a broken and contrite heart, and may he grant you the steady, unquenchable thirst that is only satisfied by Jesus himself.
