And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth.
– Judges 3:7
Oh, this is the constant refrain that we read throughout the book of Judges, and it is so sad. Over and over again, we read about God’s people doing what was evil in God’s sight because they forgot the Lord, their God, and worshiped other gods instead. And the consequences of this are disastrous. As you read through Judges, it’s just story, after story, after story of the effects of sin in devastating ways.
Judges 3:7 teaches us the danger of forgetting God.
The point is so clear in so many different stories. Don’t forget the Lord your God. Don’t turn aside to other gods. This is why we see throughout God’s Word commands to remember, remember, remember. Remember who God is. Remember what God has said. He is. His Word is the way to life and to turn from him and to run after other gods in this world, to do evil in the sight of God, to forget what is good and right and not run after God and what is good and right leads to suffering, and injustice, and all kinds of multiplied evil and ultimately death. This is where sin leads.
So let’s pray in light of this today, in each of our lives. God, help us today to not forget you, to remember you at every moment, to keep our eyes fixed on you, to worship you alone as God, to love you, God, with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and strength. God, we pray for undivided hearts toward you, and we pray that you would keep us, oh God, from evil.
We know, as we pray, that you promise to do that. Jesus, just as you taught us to pray, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. You desire to deliver us from evil today. Jesus, we praise you for dying on the cross for our sins, for our evil, for conquering sin and Satan and death, for rising from the grave, for ascending to Heaven, and for sending your Holy Spirit in us today to know that we have all power over sin. You have given us freedom from the penalty and the power of sin.
Judges 3:7 urges us to pursue God over selfish desires.
So, God, help us to live in it today. God, help us to take temptation seriously, to run from it today, to flee from it. God, in the power of your Spirit, help us to flee from sin and evil in every form today. Help us to walk with you with our hearts, minds, thoughts, desires, and words fixed on you, centered on you, not forgetting you at any moment.
God, we pray. Help us to worship you all day long and deliver us from worship of ourselves, of our selfish desires, and everything else in this world. You alone are worthy of our worship. God, we pray you would keep us from evil and sin. Help us to turn from all temptation to not justify sin or rationalize sin, but to run from it, to flee it, to pursue you, and to spread the good news of salvation from sin through Jesus to people around us, to encourage other brothers and sisters in Christ with what you’ve bought for us, Jesus, what you’ve made possible for us by your Spirit and us.
Help us to help each other turn from sin. And God help us to lead others who don’t know you around us to turn from sin. God, I pray that anybody who doesn’t know your salvation from sin would trust in you, Jesus, today, to save them from their sins.
Prayer for the Ryukyuan People
And God, we pray for the spread of this salvation all over the world. God, we pray for the Ryukyuan people of the Ryukyu Islands of Japan and then how the Ryukyuan have spread out in other places in the world. God, we pray for this people group of 1.1 million men, women, and children. Please cause your salvation from sin and evil and death to spread among the Buddhist Ryukyuan people that they might worship you, the one true God, as their Savior. We pray all this according to your Word in Judges 3:7. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
