“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways!”
– Romans 11:33
This verse just causes us to look to God today in awe. When we hear a verse from His word and we pray for a couple of minutes, I think if we’re not careful, we can get in a routine where we lose sight of whose word we’re listening to and who we’re talking to, who we’re praying to.
I don’t want to ever in my life just grow routine in prayer or Bible reading or Bible hearing. There is an awe that should mark every prayer, every time we open the Word. “The depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!” The Bible puts an exclamation point on that, and the same thing at the end of the next sentence, “How unsearchable are His judgments, how inscrutable His ways!” He’s so beyond our understanding, we can’t even search out all the wonders of His ways, His judgments, His riches, His wisdom, His knowledge. It’s unending.
We must avoid falling prey to losing sight of the glory of God and His grace that we experience right relationship with Him.
This Verse Declares the Greatness of God
I just want to encourage you in your prayer time, even as we pray in a minute, in your time reading God’s Word, in your gathering together with the church on Sundays, not to lose a sense of awe before God, to be overwhelmed by the wonder, the depth of the greatness of God.
A Prayer Based on Romans 11:33
Let’s pray. God, we bow our heads, our hearts, before you. Even on our knees right now, just saying, you are greater that we can fathom. Forgive me for oftentimes being so quick to speak, and not stopping and pausing and realizing who I’m talking to when I’m praying, not realizing, or just forgetting, the wonder of the One whose Word I’m reading. God, we praise You. We stand in awe of who You are. You are unsearchable, Your ways inscrutable, the depths of Your riches, wisdom, and knowledge unimaginable. We can’t even begin to comprehend Your greatness, Your glory, Your might, Your majesty, Your justice, Your wrath, Your mercy, Your love.
All of these attributes in You are beyond our broadest, widest imagination. God, we worship You. We bow before You in awe of who You are, and we pray to help us to live in fear of You, in reverence before You. Help us to live every facet of our lives just in awe of You. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
