December 30 - LD 52, Day 7: The Blessed Assurance and Confidence We Have in Our God Through Prayer

December 30 - LD 52, Day 7: The Blessed Assurance and Confidence We Have in Our God Through Prayer 
by Rev. Arie den Hartog

Read: John 15:7-16

In our last meditation, we emphasized that our Lord taught us to conclude our prayer with a doxology of praise. The doxology of the Lord’s Prayer is an exalted one. We confess in our prayer that the kingdom, power and glory belong to God forever and ever. This God is our God for Jesus’ sake. When we pray we must not do so in doubt and unbelief, but in the full confidence of faith, and with blessed assurance in our hearts.

Believing this doxology to be absolutely true, we have the ground for confidence and assurance in our God. The Heidelberg Catechism comments on the doxology of the Lord’s Prayer. When we pray to God as our almighty King, we are assured that He is able and willing to give us all good things. What an amazing thing this is.

God is the absolutely sovereign King of the entire universe, being over all creatures great and small, ruling over all things, so that all things finally serve His purpose and good pleasure. There is no power in all the universe that is not under the control of God. Not even the devil or the whole host of wicked powers of evil in the world are outside God’s control. God is sovereign over all the mighty forces of nature. We often feel ourselves to be powerless against the mighty forces of nature and all the powers of darkness. We cannot stand against them, and we greatly fear their destructive power in our lives. But we have confidence in our God.

We pray for the reality of this confidence in our hearts and God answers prayer. We are not to be afraid or anxious about any part of our life in the world, no matter how dark our life seems or how powerful our enemy might be. God is King over all forever and ever.

God is almighty in His power. There is nothing too hard for Him. He does whatsoever He pleases, and He is able to work all things for our good and final salvation. There is no power, no matter how great and seemingly overwhelming to us, that can resist the power of God successfully. There is no enemy, no trial, or no trouble so great that He cannot or will not deliver us from it.

Not only is God almighty to save us from enemies and the greatest forces in the universe that might otherwise threaten our destruction, we can also be sure that He is willing to save us. His love for us in Christ assures us of this.

The doxology of the Lord’s Prayer assures us also that God is eternal. Before the mountains were brought forth,… even from everlasting to everlasting, He is God (Psa 90:2). He never changes. We are constantly changing. The world in which we live is constantly changing and this can be distressing for us. Nothing in this world is certain. But our God is absolutely steadfast. He is the unchangeable and the steadfast rock of our salvation. 

God never changes in His own infinite glory, majesty and goodness. We are dependent on His goodness and faithfulness. We are born as helpless infants, entirely dependent on others to care for us and protect us. We grow, if the Lord wills, to the age of youth and strength. A few years later we grow old and weak. God remains forever the same, faithful and almighty to accomplish our final salvation and glory.