Daily Devotional

A Ministry of the Kerwin Baptist Church

September 10, 2018

by Pastor Hawtree

I AM PERSUADED THAT HE IS ABLE:

TO TAKE NOTICE WHEN WE PRAY (part 2)

Matthew 8:8 The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.
10 When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel

As this centurion comes to Jesus on behalf of his friend, I notice the second thing that stands out about what this man said to Jesus:

“ I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof.”

Being unselfish in our prayer life gets the attention of God, and just as importantly, being “humble” gets the attention of God. We know that God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. This man’s humility was sincere. This man tells God that not only is he unworthy to have God answer his prayer, but he is unworthy for God to even step into his house. You and I need to realize that not only are we unworthy for God to give us His blessings, and answer our prayers, but we are also unworthy that God would even give us His presence. We are unworthy for God to spend time with us, walk with us, and listen to us.

When you and I get on our knees to pray, we should already be in a state of amazement that God would allow us to enter into His presence. That is why we must “come into his presence with thanksgiving and enter His courts with praise”. We should not have to wait for God to do something for us to be thankful, and we should not require that God answers some prayer that we pray in order for us to be grateful. We should be grateful that he even listens to our prayers. We should be grateful that God even hears what we have to say. We should be grateful that God honors us by allowing us to approach His holy throne. May we take a moment today to just stop and acknowledge to God how “unworthy” we are. Not only do we not deserve an answer to our prayer, we don’t even deserve the privilege to pray. When we take genuine steps to fully realize how unworthy we really are, God begins to take notice of our prayers.