Week 1, Day 4: Reconciled to God: The Gospel as the true source of all forgiveness

Father, as we continue to pray together, meet us here in fellowship. Give us eyes to see ourselves in light of the reality of the Gospel. Speak today, for your servants are listening.


Also available in: Español | français

Father, as we continue to pray together, meet us here in fellowship.  Give us eyes to see ourselves in light of the reality of the Gospel.  Speak today, for your servants are listening.

Do we remember what God has done for us?  Have we forgotten that there was a time when we were enemies to God…objects of his wrath because of our unbelief?  Yet, even as His justice was bent against us, like the nation of Israel of old, his heart cried out:

“How can I give you up, O Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, O Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
My heart recoils within me;
my compassion grows warm and tender.
I will not execute my burning anger;
I will not again destroy Ephraim;
for I am God and not a man,
the Holy One in your midst,
and I will not come in wrath.”

Hosea 11:8-9 (ESV)

Instead of destroying us, he sent us his love, reconciling us to himself in the blood of his son (2 Corinthians 5:19).

What would happen to our witness to the world if Christians everywhere repented of our self-absorption and self-importance, and recalled instead that we needed God to come down to us because we could not get to him.  The Son of God was brutally put to death because that was what our treason against God demanded.  Our sinful heart and our evil deeds find their only pardon on a bloody cross.  If we think, perhaps, that God didn’t have to go that far, we don’t understand how badly we need a Savior.  And what a Savior he is!  Our sin can never outrun his forgiveness.  The evils of men can never outstrip the grace of God in Christ.  Alleluia, what a Savior!

Take a moment now and pray through God’s word of mercy from Hosea.  Though written about Israel long ago, we know that God does not change.  As his people we are in need of his mercy as much as the Israelites were then, and we are recipients of the same unlimited loving-kindness that he has always shown his people.  Let us, therefore, repent and rejoice in the greatness of God’s grace and mercy.

This blog is a part of the Lausanne Global Prayer Focus. We invite you to journey with The Lausanne Movement in prayer throughout the month of May. This journey will be a personal one, and a collective one. It will be focused on the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, his good news for all people.

In week 1, we are focusing on The Message of the Gospel. pdfDownload a prayer guide for the week, or visit lausanne.org/pray to access the new content daily. You may also enter your email on this page to be sent a weekly email reminder with the new prayer content each week of May. Be sure to select “Prayer” as a Topic Interest.