LIFT Daily Prayer: Great Love, Unshakable Faithfulness

The recent “LIFT Daily Prayer” session provided a profound exploration of God’s enduring love and unwavering faithfulness toward believers, centering on the powerful declaration of Psalm 117:2. This daily devotional context, shared as believers approach the final month of the year, emphasizes the essential practice of corporate worship and holding fast to biblical hope.

The Unchanging Nature of Divine Attributes

The central scripture driving the message is Psalm 117:2: “For great is his love toward us and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord”.

This verse highlights two foundational attributes of God that should dictate the believer’s response:

1. Great Love: God’s love toward “us” is described as great.
2. Enduring Faithfulness: The faithfulness of the Lord is eternal and endures forever.

The permanence of God’s character means that the response of praise should be constant, as God is the same “yesterday, today and forever”.

Unifying Jew and Gentile Through Global Praise

To fully grasp the meaning of Psalm 117:2, the source analysis connects it directly to the preceding verse, Psalm 117:1: “Praise the Lord all nations extol him all peoples”.

This linkage reveals a critical theological truth: salvation extends universally.

• Gentile Inclusion: Psalm 117:1 is noted as a specific reference to the Lord being the salvation of the Gentiles, calling upon all nations and peoples to praise Him.
• The Common Denominator: The author of Psalm 117 (the psalmist) is identified as a Jew who is announcing that the Gentiles will also praise the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The us in Psalm 117:2 (“his love toward us“) refers to the Gentile nations, demonstrating that Jew and Gentile are joined together in worshiping the same God.

This unity is celebrated because God’s love and faithfulness encompass all who believe, regardless of their ethnic background.

The Importance of Christian Assembly (The Ekklesia)

The sources stress the significance of gathering for worship, defining the first day of the week (Sunday) as church day and worship day.

The practice of assembling on the first day of the week is noted as a continuous tradition of the Christian church for the last 2,000 years. The gathering is called the ekklesia of God, and believers are called to physically gather.

The geographical extent of this worship is highlighted, emphasizing the global nature of Christian praise. Due to 24-hour time zones, God’s saints have already come together to worship across much of the globe, including various locations stretching from the Pacific time zone (California) across to Hawaii, Guam, Moscow, Berlin, Paris, and England. This global assembly reinforces the truth that believers worldwide are unified in thanking God for His great love and enduring faithfulness. Whether confined to a hospital bed, driving a truck, or gathering in a local church, Sunday is designated as a day to celebrate the Lord.

Worshiping in All Circumstances

A critical message in the devotional time is the necessity of unconditional praise. Since God’s love and faithfulness are permanent, the believer’s response should never be altered by circumstances.

Believers are admonished to praise the Lord in the midst of:

• Glory, good health, prosperity, and blessings.
• Cursings, poverty, sickness, and slavery.

None of these external conditions—whether they represent riches or lack, liberty or slavery, sickness or health—should change the fundamental truth that God’s love is toward us and His faithfulness endures forever.

Specific Petitions for Mercy and Healing

The prayer segment focuses on interceding for individuals facing acute spiritual and physical crises. These requests center on asking God to magnify His mercy and grace in the lives of those who are hurting.

Specific prayer targets include:

1. The Critically Ill: Praying for the healing of a very ill and critical husband.
2. Spiritual Warfare and Confusion: Praying for a young teenager suffering from crippling sorrow, confusion, and overwhelming mental distress, where Satan is attempting to convince them that suicide is the answer. The prayer requests that God rebuke the works of Satan, setting the teenager free, and bringing God’s light (which brings calm) into their minds and hearts.
3. Unfulfilled Lives and Lack of Vision: Praying for men who view themselves as failures and have not been able to “get it together”. The request is that God would speak to them, giving them a career, a vision, or a passion for a great thing they might accomplish.
4. Hope and Satisfaction: Praying for women whose lives are marked by a sense of unfulfilled hope and dreams, asking that God would flood them with profound satisfaction.

Ultimately, the goal of these prayers is to ask God to show believers otherwise if they feel He has passed them by, demonstrating great things to them as they go to worship through the Word, giving, and study of the Bible.