A Year of Prayer: Season One Weekday DevotionalsSample

The first chapter of Isaiah is a brutal read. God directly addresses Israel, the chosen people, the ones God birthed, reared, taught, and defended from the beginning of their inception. God likens their relationship to a parent and child—not only a father or a mother, but the ultimate parent and Creator, the midwife and bride, the lover and the friend, the advocate, and the priest.

And yet Israel has turned away. They have allowed calamity, religion, false idols, and fear to dominate their thoughts and direct their behaviour. Even as the walls and vineyards crumble and catch fire around them, they do not return to the one who created them and chose them.

In verse 15 of the chapter, there is a long listing of Israel’s performative acts of religious piety, festivals, and offerings. There is a litany of the immense degradation and pain God sees and feels at their wasteful selves. We read, ‘When you spread out your hands in prayer… I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood!’

Have you ever been to a potluck meal and found pet hair in your meal? Or seen someone leave the bathroom, not wash their hands, and then toss a salad to serve you? Maybe someone sneezes and coughs as they hand you your coffee, and your mind instantly says, ‘I can’t drink this now, or I’ll get sick.’

God goes a step further. We can’t contaminate God or make God ‘unwell’. But with ‘blood on our hands,’ so to speak, that uncleanness prevents us from approaching God simply because of God’s holiness - God’s perfect health.

Jesus came to provide a way to approach God by offering himself as a sacrifice to atone—to make right the scales of justice in the face of our uncleanness. So, if we follow Jesus and live with God’s direction, we can continue to approach God in prayer and live in wholeness, too. But if we persist in sin, knowingly making our hands unclean and our hearts unwell, then we have a problem.

If you don’t know Jesus today, we can simply talk to him, accepting the grace his sacrifice offered to us so that we can have a new life. Don’t be shy! It might feel silly at first, or if you’ve been a Christian for a long time, it might even feel unnecessary.

But we all are called to be pure-hearted, cleansed from sin, and constantly in contact with the ultimate parent who created us. So, let’s start today.

Prayer: In te reo Māori, God can be referred to us as Mātuanui, our Ultimate Parent. And so, God, I ask that you show and reveal your heart for me as your child today. I want to accept the peace Jesus offers through the vital sacrifice of his perfect self in place for my sin. Speak to me, God. Show me if you’re real in right here.

Action: Sit silently for two to three minutes with your eyes closed and still your mind.