Predestination Prayer

April 2007

 

Lord God, how strange it is that the word "predestination" is almost banished from the vocabulary of the church today.  They say if we say anything about predestination, we make people into robots and automatons. 

Thus, we must spend all our time talking about what people can do, and what you, Lord, do not do.  Everyone seems bent on declaring their “free will.”  Even most religious testimonies are only “I” this and “I” that. 

Lord, sometimes modern religion seems bent on banishing you altogether from our lives.  We seem determined to talk about what I can do, and what you, Lord, do not do or cannot do.  We are so determined to establish free will that the God we wind up with is hardly worth worshipping at all. 

How different it is when we turn to the old saints of the faith.  Calvin, Luther, Augustine, and Paul loved to dwell on the sovereignty of God.  For some today, predestination is a dreadful doctrine, but rightly understood, it is a source of joy and comfort, and the mainspring of our prayer life.

In Ephesians 1, Paul cries out, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.”  Why is Paul so joyfully blessing you, O Lord?  He goes on to explain that you have chosen us “before the foundation of the world.”  He adds, “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.”

Lord, you sent Christ to us to reconcile us to you.  You did that out of love.  Predestination flows out of your love.  Furthermore, predestination is joined together with Christ who is salvation. "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son."  There is no salvation without Christ and no Christ without predestination.  Rightly seen, Lord, all the essential doctrines that make up your salvation such as calling, justification and adoption proceed from divine predestination. "Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified" Rom. 8:30.  All the spiritual blessings we have, Lord including our adoption as your children are the results of your predestination.  For this, we thank you, and glorify your name.  Amen.

 

 

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