Wed., 10/24/18 Devotion (Dan. 9:18b)

Today's encouragement comes from Daniel 9:18b, where Daniel prays these words:

" . . . For we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies."

If we had to approach God, and present our petitions to Him based on our righteous deeds, we would never come to the Lord, ever. Besides that, we would have no basis for our prayers, because we do not *have* any righteous deeds. Do we wish to compare ourselves to Daniel, and imagine we are "bet-ter" than he was? I think not.

We come to God on the perfect merits of *Christ’s* righteousness, which is imputed to the church believers, by sovereign grace. This is the ground on which we may rightly approach God. The Lord will hear the prayers of those who come to Him on this gospel basis (alone). He disregards all other peti-tions.

[Puritan quote of the day: "Hell did not know what it did when it crucified Christ; death, with all its armies, was put to death with Him.” —Richard Al-leine, in, "Heaven Opened"]