Thurs., 10/24/19 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 allegedly righteous deeds, we would never properly come to God, ever. Be-sides that, we would have no basis for our prayers, because we do not *pos-sess* any necessarily-pristine and satisfactory righteous deeds.

We come to God on the basis of Christ's righteousness (His “righteous deeds”), which righteousness of Jesus is then imputed to the saints, by sove-reign grace. This is the ground on which we may rightly approach God. The Lord will hear the prayers of those who petition Him on the basis of Christ’s righteousness. God disregards all other utterances.

[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"]