Daily Devotional

April05

A First Book of Daily Readings

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (selected by Frank Cumbers)
Sourced from the OPC website

My Father knows

Our Lord says, "Our Father which art in heaven"; and Paul says, "The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." ... It is vital when we pray to God, and call Him our Father, that we should remind ourselves ... of His majesty and of His greatness and of His almighty power; ... remember that He knows all about you. The Scripture says, "All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." ... It is not surprising that, when he wrote Psalm 51, David said in the anguish of his heart, "Thou desirest truth in the inward parts."

If you want to be blessed of God, you have to be absolutely honest; you have to realize He knows everything and that there is nothing hidden from Him; ... as the wise man who wrote the book of Ecclesiastes put it, it is vital when we pray to God that we should remember that "He is in heaven and we are upon the earth."

Then remember His holiness and His justice, His utter, absolute righteousness; ... whenever we approach Him we must do so "with reverence and godly fear: for our God is a consuming fire" [Hebrews 12:19].  That is the way to pray, says Christ; ... never separate these two truths.
Remember that you are approaching the almighty, eternal, ever-blessed holy God. But remember also that that God, in Christ, has become your Father, who not only knows all about you in the sense that He is omniscient, He knows all about you also in the sense that a father knows all about his child....

Put these two things together. God in His almightiness is looking at you with a holy love and knows your every need.... He desires nothing so much as your blessing, your happiness, your joy, and your prosperity. Then remember this, that He "is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think." As your "Father which is in heaven," He is much more anxious to bless you than you are to be blessed. There is also no limit to His almighty power.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, ii, pp. 55-6

---

“Text reproduced from ‘A First Book of Daily Readings’ by Martyn Lloyd-Jones, published by Epworth Press 1970 & 1977 © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. Used with permission.”