READING: Isaiah 63:15-66:24, 2 Kings 20:20-21, 2 Chronicles 32:32-33
Isaiah speaks of a day when God creates a new heaven and earth, and His blessings on His people abound. I’m particularly struck by the prophet’s words about prayer in that day: “Even before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking, I will hear” (Isa 65:24). That blessing for God’s people will be immense, as one commentator notes, “The greatest of all the blessings they will know, however, will be a relationship with God in which there is complete harmony between their prayer and his will, between his desire to provide and their dependence on him to give.”*
That day is yet to come, but we know that God knows our prayers before we pray them even today. He knows our needs before we do. He recognizes our areas of needed transformation even when we don’t. He knows what we’ll ask for (or not ask for, in some cases) even before we put words to the prayer. The great excitement for me is that not only does He already know our pleadings, but He is already answering them when we pray according to His will. A real relationship with Him produces powerful praying.
That truth ought to drive us even more quickly to Him in prayer today.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Do you so walk with God that your prayers are in accordance with His will?
DAILY PRAYER: “God, I am amazed that You know this prayer even before I pray it.”
TOMORROW’S READING: 2 Kings 21:1-9, 2 Chronicles 33:1-9, 2 Kings 21:10-17, 2 Chronicles 33:10-19, 2 Kings 21:18, 2 Chronicles 33:20, 2 Kings 21:19-26, 2 Chronicles 33:21-25, 2 Kings 22:1-2, 2 Chronicles 34:1-7, Jeremiah 1:1-2:22
*Grogan, G. W. (1986). Isaiah. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel (Vol. 6, p. 351). Zondervan Publishing House.
