Forever Heritage, A Prayer
Forever Heritage, a Prayer
Psalm 119:111-112
“Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart. I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end.”
Here is a prayer to put on my lips and heart, and to teach my children! Father, gracious father, your testimonies are my heritage forever. Your testimonies are the very and only joy of my heart! The testimonies belong to God. I could never make them mine own, or want them by my own desire, because I was by nature a child of wrath. What does a child of wrath have to do with the testimonies of a most holy, three times holy God? Remember that even Israel, that great nation, was rejected by God from being his people due to their hardness of heart and refusal to be his children. My heritage, just like Israel’s, and David’s, and the writers of every Psalm, was death.
How then can we pray and say with confidence that God’s testimonies, his promises and commandments and purposes, are our inheritance? Through the blood and death and resurrection of Jesus, the firstborn from the dead. It is the finished work of Jesus that allows us to pray any of the Psalms with confidence as we approach the throne of heaven!
It is also the finished work of Jesus that allows me to incline my heart to perform his statutes, his commandments and his will. My sinful, rebellious and dead heart was first conquered by Jesus, and he now by his Spirit has given me the ability to incline my heart toward his will, and to walk in the good works that God has prepared for me. The inclination of my heart is active and conscious. It is not a passive response to the experience of joy described previously, but it does require a preceding and ongoing act of grace in my heart.
The preceding and ongoing act of grace is also how I can say with the Psalmist, and with many saints who have gone before me, “to the end”. It is possible for men and women, by a self-initiated and self-sustained act of will, to appear holy and upright in the inclination of their heart to those around them. They may keep and perform the Lord’s statutes for a time or a season, but faithfulness to the end requires sustaining, indwelling life and grace in the believer. We have brothers and sisters in our midst who are a beacon of this grace – to the end grace. Be encouraged – the same act that brought you to know joy in your heart, that brought you the heritage you did not deserve, is the same act that will guide you and lead you and support you to the end. It was, and is, Christ’s victory. Take this prayer on your lips, and let it dwell richly in your heart, because it is a promise of forever.
When taking these verses to the Father as a prayer for sustaining faithfulness, we can also pray this on behalf of those we love, and on behalf of our children. As our children grow, and eventually enter their own adult life, what is the heritage that we have presented to them? What have we displayed to our children as being a worthy heritage? What do they see as most precious to us? Has the pursuit of comfort, wealth, or knowledge been suggested to our children as a heritage worth pursuing and possessing in place of the heritage of God’s testimonies?
Now, we cannot presume that we can elect God’s testimonies as our children’s heritage. Scripture is clear on this. All stand dead in their trespasses. We cannot choose a changed heart for our children, no more than they can change their own heart. But this plain truth does not recuse us of the obligation to set before our children the truth of the gospel. The only heritage that gives life, and life forever. If we have experienced this joy of heart at the saving grace of Jesus, we will desire to humbly present this heritage to our children through the flesh, that by God’s grace they may be drawn to the cross, and be our very children in Christ!
Lord, please make your testimonies, the good news of Jesus, the heritage of my children, forever, and incline their hearts to follow Jesus, forever, to the end! Father, sustain your saints with your testimonies. Let your truth be the joy of their heart. As they respond with an inclination of the heart to perform your statutes, sustain them to the end. AMEN!
Sam Umlauf
Psalm 119:111-112
“Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart. I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end.”
Here is a prayer to put on my lips and heart, and to teach my children! Father, gracious father, your testimonies are my heritage forever. Your testimonies are the very and only joy of my heart! The testimonies belong to God. I could never make them mine own, or want them by my own desire, because I was by nature a child of wrath. What does a child of wrath have to do with the testimonies of a most holy, three times holy God? Remember that even Israel, that great nation, was rejected by God from being his people due to their hardness of heart and refusal to be his children. My heritage, just like Israel’s, and David’s, and the writers of every Psalm, was death.
How then can we pray and say with confidence that God’s testimonies, his promises and commandments and purposes, are our inheritance? Through the blood and death and resurrection of Jesus, the firstborn from the dead. It is the finished work of Jesus that allows us to pray any of the Psalms with confidence as we approach the throne of heaven!
It is also the finished work of Jesus that allows me to incline my heart to perform his statutes, his commandments and his will. My sinful, rebellious and dead heart was first conquered by Jesus, and he now by his Spirit has given me the ability to incline my heart toward his will, and to walk in the good works that God has prepared for me. The inclination of my heart is active and conscious. It is not a passive response to the experience of joy described previously, but it does require a preceding and ongoing act of grace in my heart.
The preceding and ongoing act of grace is also how I can say with the Psalmist, and with many saints who have gone before me, “to the end”. It is possible for men and women, by a self-initiated and self-sustained act of will, to appear holy and upright in the inclination of their heart to those around them. They may keep and perform the Lord’s statutes for a time or a season, but faithfulness to the end requires sustaining, indwelling life and grace in the believer. We have brothers and sisters in our midst who are a beacon of this grace – to the end grace. Be encouraged – the same act that brought you to know joy in your heart, that brought you the heritage you did not deserve, is the same act that will guide you and lead you and support you to the end. It was, and is, Christ’s victory. Take this prayer on your lips, and let it dwell richly in your heart, because it is a promise of forever.
When taking these verses to the Father as a prayer for sustaining faithfulness, we can also pray this on behalf of those we love, and on behalf of our children. As our children grow, and eventually enter their own adult life, what is the heritage that we have presented to them? What have we displayed to our children as being a worthy heritage? What do they see as most precious to us? Has the pursuit of comfort, wealth, or knowledge been suggested to our children as a heritage worth pursuing and possessing in place of the heritage of God’s testimonies?
Now, we cannot presume that we can elect God’s testimonies as our children’s heritage. Scripture is clear on this. All stand dead in their trespasses. We cannot choose a changed heart for our children, no more than they can change their own heart. But this plain truth does not recuse us of the obligation to set before our children the truth of the gospel. The only heritage that gives life, and life forever. If we have experienced this joy of heart at the saving grace of Jesus, we will desire to humbly present this heritage to our children through the flesh, that by God’s grace they may be drawn to the cross, and be our very children in Christ!
Lord, please make your testimonies, the good news of Jesus, the heritage of my children, forever, and incline their hearts to follow Jesus, forever, to the end! Father, sustain your saints with your testimonies. Let your truth be the joy of their heart. As they respond with an inclination of the heart to perform your statutes, sustain them to the end. AMEN!
Sam Umlauf
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