I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord, the praises of the Lord according to all that the Lord has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israel that he has granted them according to his compassion, according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
– Isaiah 63:7
Oh, I wish right now that you and I and a few others could just sit down right now around a table or maybe kneel down on our knees together and just pray. And here’s how I would love to pray with you right now. I would love for us just to start praying one-sentence prayers, recounting the steadfast love of the Lord in our lives. Recounting all the great goodness he has shown to us, all the ways God has shown compassion in our lives. And for us just to pray by one, by one, by one, and just to keep going.
Isaiah 63:7 encourages us to praise God for his faithfulness.
And just specifically to say, “God, we praise you for the way you did this.” “God, I praise you for how you did this.” “God, I praise you for how you did this.” “God, I praise you for how you did this.” And just to keep going, recounting the steadfast love of the Lord in our lives. Wouldn’t that be a rich time? Let me encourage you to do that. Find a few followers of Jesus today.
Or if you’re listening to this with other followers of Jesus, either stop this podcast now and just start doing that. Or when this podcast is over, do that. Just spend at least a few minutes doing that, just one by one. Just keep it to a sentence, one by one saying, “God, I thank you for doing this, for showing your love to me in this way.” And just recount specific ways he’s shown his love to you.
Isaiah 63:7 encourages us to remember God’s faithfulness in our lives.
Do that with a group of believers, if not today, sometime soon. It’s good to recount the steadfast love of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord… To praise him for all he has done, all the ways he has granted his great goodness to us. And you know what it’ll do? One, it’ll bring glory to God and it’ll bring joy to our hearts and it’ll be good for us to recount and remember and it will strengthen our faith. Especially as we walk through whatever we’re walking through in our lives right now, we will remember God’s love for us. And we’ll remember that one day we’re going to look back on today and we’re going to thank God for his great goodness to us, even in ways we may not be able to see right now.
This verse encourages us to ground our hope in God’s love for us.
One day we will be able to see. It may be heaven, but we will be able to see. And it’s part of the beauty of heaven. We’ll have eternity just to look back and with others to tell stories of all the steadfast love of God. Won’t that be great? Just listening to each other when we’re sitting around doing this or that or enjoying this or that adventure to be like, “Oh, I’ve got a story to tell about what God did here. I never saw it coming in this way. I was going through this hardship and he did this.” For all eternity, we will recount the steadfast love of the Lord. So let’s do it today.
Oh God, we praise you for all the ways you have shown your steadfast love in our lives. All the great goodness you have granted us. All the ways you have shown compassion to us. We praise you, we thank you, we exalt you. And we pray that you would help us to remember these things… Especially as we walk through whatever this world brings us. Help us to remember that your steadfast love from the past is with us in the present and will never ever leave us in the future.
Prayer for the Mappila People
And oh God, we pray for people who’ve never experienced your steadfast love in Jesus… In all these ways that we have. God to help us to spread your steadfast love to people around us today. God, we pray for people around the world, for the Mappila people of India. For 10.5 million of them. God, we pray for people groups of millions and millions of people in India who have no knowledge of your steadfast love in Jesus.
We pray for the Mappila to be reached with your great goodness in the gospel. Please, oh God, bring it about for their salvation. Hear our prayers and answer. Send laborers to the Mappila people of India. Cause the church in India to spread the gospel to them. Cause other laborers from other places in the world to spread the gospel to them. We pray for their salvation, that they might experience, know, and praise you for the abundance of your steadfast love. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
All right, now do it. If you’re with some other believers right now, spend a few minutes just one by one. God, I thank you for how you did this in my life. God, I praise you for how you did this in my life. Or if you’re not with other believers now, find some other believers sometime today. Get on the phone with them if you need to. And just be like, “Hey, let’s just spend a few minutes just thanking God, praising God for his steadfast love in our lives.”
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.
