Acts

Greetings brothers and sisters… Pastor Rob here

We are looking forward to two special days on the church calendar, namely Good Friday and Easter Sunday. On Good Friday we focus on Jesus Christ and Him crucified…the cross! And on Easter we celebrate Christ’s glorious resurrection from the grave. This season of preparing for those great events is known as Lent. Lent is traditionally a time when believers draw near to the Lord in repentance, confessing their sins. I’d like to share a very simple but very powerful spiritual principle to help us as we prepare our hearts to seek the Lord. And I will use a very well-known passage to illustrate this principle:

We are all familiar with the powerful encounter that the prophet Isaiah had with the Lord. In Isaiah chapter six, the prophet, “saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.” Isaiah had a vision of the glory of the Lord and he saw angels flying around crying out, “Holy holy holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” It is an awe inspiring scene as the door posts shake and smoke fills the temple. Isaiah is overwhelmed by this awesome vision and he cries out, “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” (You can read the whole account in Isaiah 6:1-13)  

What did Isaiah discover? He found that when he saw the Lord in His glory, confession of sin just naturally sprang from his lips! In light of God’s awesome holiness, Isaiah saw his own unholiness. And that is the lesson for us this season of Lent. If we are truly seeking repentence, we must have a fresh vision of our holy, holy, holy Lord.

There is a simple pattern for prayer that is found in the word, “ACTS.” A—Adoration; C—Confession; T—Thanksgiving; S—Supplication. Notice that adoration comes before confession. In other words, praising and worshiping and adoring the Lord leads naturally to confession of sin. In our adoration, we are seeking to cultivate a vision of our glorious Lord. And when in our hearts we see Him as the high and lifted up King of the universe, He will reveal to us our hidden sins. And when we confess those sins, we find that our gracious Lord forgives us and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. (1John 1:9) Then, what follows confession? Thanksgiving! Oh, how easy it is to thank the Lord when He has forgiven us so much! Finally, with a cleansed and thankful heart we come to the Lord with our supplications…our requests. And we can have confidence that our loving Father hears each and every one of our heartfelt requests. 

May the Lord grant to us this season a deep cleansing of our sin and a new joy for His marvelous forgiveness and grace.

—Pastor Rob