Thurs., 10/23/14 Devotion (Ps. 116:1)

Today's encouragement comes from Psalm 116:1, where we read these words:

"I love the LORD, because He has heard my voice and my supplications."

Among many others, here is a good reason for us to love God: He hears our prayers. Precisely *what* prayers does God "hear," in the covenantal sense? (After all, He knows the things religious people all over the world are babbling out all the time.) God hears prayers that are made through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

But even these petitions should be sincere and earnest. The Lord hears pray-ers that come from the heart. He answers those people who *really* want to be heard. God does not hear prayers offered from self-, law-, or works-right-eousness; but He does hear those that are "soaked," as it were, in the blood righteousness of Jesus.

[Puritan quote of the day: "Although to true religion there must indeed be something else besides affection, yet true religion consists so much in the af-fections that there can be no true religion without them." --Jonathan Edwards, in "A Treatise Concerning the Religious Affections"]