"Audacious Prayer" January 9 Readings: Genesis 19-20, Matthew 7, Psalm 6:6-10, Proverbs 1:29-31

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Reading the Bible in 2025

Each day this year we will read a selection from the Old Testament, the New Testament, a portion of the Psalms, and part of Proverbs. By the end of the year, you will have read the entire Bible. We read this way to give you a bit of variety. 

NOTE: If you get behind, do not give up. Read today's readings and try to catch up when you have a chance. The goal is not to "accomplish a task" but to meet God in his word. Read the word. Also, if you are short on time, READ GOD'S WORD and skip my devotional!

Bible Readings: Genesis 19-20, Matthew 7, Psalm 6:6-10, Proverbs 1:29-31

    Scriptures linked to Bible Gateway in ESV version 

Daily Devotional: Audacious Prayer

Matthew 7 has a couple of the more abused texts of Scripture. First is the infamous, "Do not judge so that you will not be judged." Instead of being properly interpreted as an admonition to avoid being self-righteous and condemning toward others, it is used to nullify moral standards of any kind. We cannot call anything sin, they say, because "Judge not."

Another mistreated and abused passage is Matthew 7:7-8. The “health and wealth” charlatans abuse it to promise us that God is a heavenly vending machine. Pop in a prayer, work up enough faith, and you can have anything you want. "Ask and you will receive." Your wildest dreams can be yours if only you ask and believe. 

We reject this false, self-centered vision of prayer. But too often, we throw out the baby with the bathwater. The misinterpretation of these passages and their abuse by false teachers causes us to shy away from their clear and radical teachings. 
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”  
It is a simple message. God answers prayers. If other biblical conditions on prayer are met (and there are several throughout scripture) God is inclined to answer our prayers. He is a good God, who can do abundantly more than we can ask or imagine. When we ask, he gives. When we seek, he is found. When we knock, the door is opened.

We ought never to be petulant, spoiled children, demanding our desires from God. But neither should we be reluctant to ask big things from him. Our prayers ought to be limited only by the power of God, and there is no limit there.

Do you pray audacious prayers, asking God to do that which only he can do? Do you ask him to save and transform and provide and protect?

I am put in mind of the haunting scripture in James 4. "You have not because you ask not." We serve a big and amazing God, but we pray like he is distant, weak, and unconcerned. This passage goes on to make it clear that God cares and that he desires to respond to our prayers. 

Pray in faith. Pray audaciously. Pray aggressively. Pray bold, brave, risky, daring prayers, because we have a God who cares and hears and responds. God is not the ATM in the sky who is controlled by our prayers, but when we ask him, we receive. When we seek, we find. When we knock, the door is answered. 

May our prayers this year be bigger than ever before! Our God is big enough to handle our prayers!
Lord, my faith is weak, but your power is not. I ask you for big things this year. Save souls as only you can do. Change hearts and lives. Heal marriages. Heal the sick. Battle the evil in our world. We ask you to display your amazing power and grace among us and through us!  

Consider God's Word:

Which of these four passages spoke most clearly to you today? 
Is there sin in your life that needs to be confessed and dealt with that was revealed in one of these passages? 
Is there something in your life that needs to change?
Is there a struggle in your life that one of these passages spoke to? 

Do you pray aggressively and audaciously, as if there is a big God who delights to answer prayer?
What do your prayers display about what you believe about God? 


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