LIFT Daily Prayer: The One God Looks For

This summary draws from a “LIFT Daily Prayer” session focusing on Isaiah chapter 66, verses 1 and 2, identifying the specific attributes of the individual God chooses to favor. The core message emphasizes that genuine piety is found not in external actions or human achievements, but in an internal disposition of humility, brokenness, and reverence for Scripture.

The Sovereignty of God and the Futility of Human Gifts

The session begins by establishing God’s absolute sovereignty, drawing from Isaiah 66:1. The prophet Isaiah, often called “the evangelical prophet” due to his numerous prophecies regarding the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, sets the stage for God’s perspective on human efforts.

God declares:

• “Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool”.
• He asks, “Where is the house that you will build me and where is the place of my rest?”.
• He reminds humanity that His hand has already “made and all those things exist”.

This passage highlights the fact that humanity cannot provide anything God does not already possess; He is “completely perfect, completely holy, completely self-contained in every way”. Efforts to “build” God a resting place or offer material gifts are ultimately unnecessary because He already has everything covered. God already has a throne in heaven and uses the earth as His footstool.

The key takeaway is that although humans, like David or Solomon, might build earthly empires, they “cannot save our souls”.

The Three Characteristics God Honors

While God needs nothing from man, there is “one thing” He delights in and asks of us. Isaiah 66:2 reveals the specific characteristics of the person upon whom God promises to “look”. God delights in this person—a man, woman, boy, or girl—who possesses three defining traits:

1. Poor in Spirit

The term “poor” used here is not related to financial poverty. Instead, it refers to being “poor in spirit”. This means having an awareness that one lacks innate, organic strength to succeed or be righteous on one’s own. This individual recognizes their need for God and their spiritual bankruptcy apart from Him.

2. Of a Contrite Spirit

A contrite spirit is characterized by repentance. This person is “keenly aware that sin troubles our lives but we hate it”. They are grieved before God when they sin. The session emphasizes the need to nurture a heart so close to God’s light that “the brighter the light the more the impurities stand out”. Repentance and contrition are essential for living close to God.

3. Trembles at His Word

This attribute defines how a person views and interacts with the Bible. To “tremble at my word” means treating the Scriptures with reverence and holiness.

• Believers should recognize that they are reading “authority” and “eternal truth”.
• The Bible must not be treated lightly, “not like it’s a comic book or a newspaper or some email”.
• If believers truly trembled at God’s Word, “every single issue of our lives would be marginalized if not evaporated”.

A sensitive heart toward God is necessary to tremble at His Word. The source material notes that judgment described in the Psalms (such as Psalm 102 or 103) is “scary stuff” only for those who “do not believe” and “manifest their unbelief in disobedience”. Conversely, those who revere the Word possess the sensitive heart God seeks.

A Call to Prayer and Examination

The devotional moves from biblical exposition to practical prayer points based on these verses.

Key Petitions for Believers:

1. Reverence for Scripture: Prayer is offered that God would cause believers’ lives to “tremble at your word,” leading them to take the Scriptures “very seriously”.
2. A Contrite Heart: A request is made to God to make hearts “poor and contrite”. This walking is characterized by closeness to God, not by paranoia or condemnation (since those “in Christ Jesus” are not condemned).
3. Holiness and Sanctification: The prayer affirms that God has “purchased us by your blood and you rose again from the dead that we would be a sanctified that is a holy people”. Believers are urged to “act like it, be like it, walk in it”.

The Essential Need for Self-Examination:

The session stresses the importance of believers examining themselves in the light of the Word to confirm that they are truly “children of the most high God”.

Praying for Salvation of Others:

The session includes prayers for the salvation of family members—granddaughters, grandsons, great-granddaughters, great-grandsons, sons, daughters, and spouses. This prayer is especially critical in “these days of intensifying apathy, of this age of devious and deviant deception and sin”. The desire is that people would “slow down and open up your word and tremble at its truth”.