WEDNESDAY September 20th
1 Peter 3:10-12
‘For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”’
Continuing in these verses we have the sentence I have underlined today in the first part of verse 12 which are a real assurance to us when we have become determined to live in way that is pleasing before God, firstly we are assured that his eyes are on us and secondly his ears are open to our prayers. Peter has again drawn from Psalm 34 and verses 15-16 ‘The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.’ The previous Psalm, 33 and verse 18 says ‘Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love. . .’
There are the words of a song that go like this
Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heaven and home,
When Jesus is my portion? My constant friend is He:
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.
It should be a great comfort to us and reassuring that the eyes of the Lord are upon us, he is watching over us.
The second part reminds us that his ears are open to our prayers.
I jokingly commentated this the other day in conversation with regards to God hearing our prayers, what if he was to say ‘I will give the same time each week to hearing your prayers as you give to me in commitment and fellowship.’ In other words ‘you make time for me and I will make time for you’, but thankfully God’s attitude toward us is not dependent upon how fickle we may be but based upon his faithfulness to us as his children. His ears are always open to our prayers 24 hours a day and seven days a week.
Going back to the Psalm that Peter has quoted from, the psalmist continues with this ‘When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.’ Our God is an awesome God who has firstly clothed us in robes of righteousness and then, he bids us to enter into his presence, he allows us to call upon him and he promises us that he will hear us and answer ‘Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known’ (Jeremiah 33:3). ‘Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart’ (Jeremiah 29:12-13).