Thursday after the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on October 13, 2022 by under
Scripture: Ezra 9:6-9 (NKJV)
9:6 And I said: “O my God, I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God; for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens. 7 Since the days of our fathers to this day we have been very guilty, and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, and to humiliation, as it is this day. 8 And now for a little while grace has been shown from the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a peg in His holy place, that our God may enlighten our eyes and give us a measure of revival in our bondage. 9 For we were slaves. Yet our God did not forsake us in our bondage; but He extended mercy to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to revive us, to repair the house of our God, to rebuild its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.
Devotion
“O my God, I am too ashamed and humiliated to lift up my face to You, my God; for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens.”
This prayer of Ezra expresses shame and humiliation over the rebelliousness and sin of God’s people, which led to God’s judgment on Judah and Jerusalem, and to their captivity in Babylon. But if we rightly examine ourselves in the light of God’s Word, who could not join in praying this prayer? We are all guilty before God. We have all come short of what He desires for us. It is in His mercy that He has left us a remnant that still holds to the truth of His Word and seeks to worship and glorify His name for the salvation He provided in the Son.
With Ezra, we weep over our sins and the sins of our people, for they “have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens.” But we rejoice in God’s mercy, that He is gracious to us and forgives our sins for the sake of Christ Jesus and His perfect sacrifice on the cross, for our sins and the sins of the entire world.
Prayer: Lord, we beseech Thee, grant Thy people grace, to withstand the temptations of the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow Thee, the only God; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
