January 10: Daniel 9:1-19

The Acknowledgment of God’s character (verse 4)

Daniel was praying in the will of God, basing his prayer upon the Word of God (Jeremiah 29:10).

“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” (1John 5:14-15, ESV)

It seems very clear that this is an important part of prayer, understanding the will of God. Studying and praying the prayers according to the prayers in Scripture is a wise way to learn to pray according to the will of God. There are books one may use to that focus on this subject. Of course, it only takes a little study to find these prayers in the Bible.

There are over 650 prayers in the Bible, and Scripture records 25 prayers of Jesus. Probably the most comprehensive list of prayers in the Bible has been recorded by Herbert Lockyer in his book, All the Prayers of the Bible. This list may be found here: http://www.lbdsoftware.com/All%20the%20Prayers%20of%20the%20Bible.pdf

“We know that if we ask anything according to God’s will, He hears those prayers and will answer them. Indeed we should fear to pray for anything that is not in accordance with His will. Perhaps someone will say, “But how can I know the will of God?” In a general way, the answer is that God’s will is revealed to us in the Sacred Scriptures, and so we should study the word in order that we might know better what God’s will is and how we can pray more intelligently.” – Believer’s Bible Commentary

As with other prayers, Daniel’s prayer begins by focusing on the One to Whom all prayers should be the focus, for He is the only one who can answer our prayers.

“Daniel’s petitions were based on the character of God (His greatness, awesomeness, faithfulness, righteousness, forgiveness, mercies)…”

– Believer’s Bible Commentary

NOTE: Daniel uses YHWH (LORD), the covenant name of God, seven times and only in this chapter. Since Daniel’s prayer emphasized God’s faithfulness to His people, it is only fitting that He use this name for God, the one who keeps His covenant with His people.

APPLICATION

Seek to turn Daniel’s prayer or another one of the prayers in the Bible into your own, expressing your prayer in your own words or personalizing the prayer.

January 9: Daniel 9:1-19

The Serious Nature of Daniel’s Response (verse 3)

Meditating on God’s character puts ours in perspective. The preparation for prayer is to set our face on God and cultivate an attitude of humility and contrition. Often, physical actions help prepare the heart (fasting, sack cloth, ashes). How do you prepare your heart to seek God?

But from there you will seek Yahweh your God, and you will find Him, for you will search for Him with all your heart and all your soul.

(Deuteronomy 4:29)

“The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.”

(Psalm 145:18, ESV)

“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”

(Jeremiah 29:13, ESV)

“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

(Mark 11:24, ESV)

“Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”

(James 5:16, ESV)

“and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.”

(1Jn 3:22, ESV)

God’s Word to His people in the day of Jeremiah is still His sure word for men who have sinned and lost touch with the Infinite. No perfunctory gesture of interest can procure the rich treasure that is more valuable than all gold. He is always available. His longing is that all men may look to Him and live. His arms are always open in loving invitation to any who will turn to Him. It is just as true, however, that a diligent search is necessary. One who becomes conscious of his need, senses the satisfying gift of God, and sets out to find Him can be sure of victory if he seeks with his whole heart. Cleansing, peace, joy, victory will be his at the hand of a loving God who delights to welcome His children home.

– Believer’s Bible Commentary

APPLICATION

It is always appropriate to be diligent in our relationship with God. List the ways you may show the earnestness, passion and zeal in seeking God’s face.

January 8: Daniel 9:1-19

The Circumstances (verses 1-2)

Seventy years can seem like a short time, or it can seem like an eternity. It all depends on one’s perspective. Sometimes, we look back at our lives and wonder how the years passed so quickly. Then again, there are times when a year may seem like it will never end. Usually, time passes quickly when we are engaged in activity, enjoying the moments, looking forward to the next adventure. But when things are tough, circumstances are hard, struggles seem endless, time seems to drag on.

1975 —————> Present

After the second deportation when Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BC removed the royal house, the princes, and noblemen, along with the skilled laborers to Babylon, prophets like Hananiah rose up and proclaimed that the captivity would end quickly, and the captives should not settle in Babylon because they would soon be returning. Hananiah, one of these broke the yoke that the Lord had instructed Jeremiah to wear and proclaimed that the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar would be broken within two years. However, the Lord put Hananiah to death that same year because he had encouraged the people to believe a lie. Then Jeremiah sent a letter to the captives in Babylon including this word:

“For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.”

Jeremiah 29:10, ESV

Here, we find Daniel, now either nearing or just past eighty (depending on when was taken captive), reading the messages of Jeremiah (notice that Daniel considers Jeremiah an inspired prophet and his messages a part of the inspired writings, “the books”). In the first year that Cyrus conquers Babylon (539 BC), Daniel realizes that the seventy-year captivity is nearing its completion, so he begins to pray earnestly for God to keep His promise.

I believe that we should claim the promises of God. I encourage you to seek, believe and claim the promises of God. However, we must be careful in doing so, for we must understand to whom those promises are made and how they might apply to us in our situation.

For instance, possibly one of the most misapplied promises I see spread across social media is Jeremiah 29:11:

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (ESV)

This message came in the context of the pronouncement that the captives should settle in, work, raise their families, and make themselves at home for the seventy years they would remain in Babylon. This promise is similar to the one in Romans 8:28:

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (ESV)

Please understand that I do not deny that God has a wonderful plan for my life, for the New Testament makes it clear that God has extended His love and grace to me through Jesus Christ at unbelievable cost. I certainly believe that He has given me a future and a hope. But I must be careful not to take this verse to mean that this new year will be filled with wealth, health, prosperity, and material blessings. God’s plan is a long-term plan. I must trust Him to fulfill His promises concerning His plan for my life. It might take seventy years or more to complete His plan and fulfill His promise.

“Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!” (Psalm 27:14, ESV)

APPLICATION

What promises do (can) you claim as you trust God to work in your life?

PRAYER

“Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me!

You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, LORD, do I seek.”

Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger, O you who have been my help.

Cast me not off; forsake me not, O God of my salvation! For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in.

Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.

Give me not up to the will of my adversaries; for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence.

I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living!”

(Psalm 27:7-13, ESV)

January 7, 2024: Isaiah 6:1-13

Take Time to Be Holy

William D. Longstaff, 1822-1894

Verse 1
Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord;
Abide in Him always, and feed on His Word:
Make friends of God’s children, help those who are weak;
Forgetting in nothing His blessing to seek.

Verse 2
Take time to be holy, the world rushes on;
Spend much time in secret with Jesus alone:
By looking to Jesus, like Him thou shalt be;
Thy friends in thy conduct His likeness shall see.

Verse 3
Take time to be holy, let Him be thy guide,
And run not before Him whatever betide;
In joy or in sorrow still follow thy Lord,
And looking to Jesus, still trust in His Word.

Verse 4
Take time to be holy, be calm in thy soul;
Each thought and each motive beneath His control;
Thus led by His Spirit to fountains of love,
Thou soon shalt be fitted for service above.

I would encourage you to sing this (in your head or in your seclusion if you are afraid of others hearing you). If you are alone or in a family gathering and want some musical accompaniment, see this page for an accompaniment: https://gccsatx.com/hymns/take-time-to-be-holy/

You have been pondering and meditating on God’s holiness and now you should worship Him in the beauty of holiness. Meditate on the message of this hymn, let the words sink in, and you may find that they will yield a deeply moving experience.

Self-rule is destroyed in the presence of God and His holiness. We acknowledge Him as Master and we submit to His authority and direction.

We bow before Him recognizing that He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We do this willingly now, but there will come a day when “every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11). Those who bow grudgingly then will not enjoy the benefit or blessing of those who bow willingly now.

Prayer

LORD,

I acknowledge You as the Holy, Just and Righteous Sovereign of the Universe. Because of who You are, I want to take time to dwell on Your Holiness. I want to respond to You by speaking often with You as I run the course of my daily routine. I want to feed constantly on Your Word. I want to be sensitive to the needs of others, responding as Your hands and feet. I want to spend time in fellowship with Your children, encouraging and being encouraged to pursue holiness, without which we will not see You.

As the world rushes on seeking significance, seeking security, seeking pleasure, I want to find You in the secret place and spend time getting to know You better. As I look at Jesus, my example, I want to be like Him and to know that others recognize that I have been in His presence. I want the world to see His likeness in me.

I want to be guided by my Savior and His Spirit. Lord, help me not to rush ahead of Your leading and try to do it myself and not to lag behind when it’s hard to follow. Help me to follow You in sorrow or in joy, always trusting in Your Word.

Father, calm my soul. Teach me to wait on You. Help me to bring each thought and each motive under Your control. And as Your Spirit leads me to a deeper experience of Your love and grace, fit me for Your service. I want to be used by You. AMEN.

January 6: Isaiah 6:1-13

Questions to Ponder

• What does Isaiah’s vision of the Lord teach us about the Lord’s nature and character (6:1-4)?

• When Isaiah sees the Lord, what does he learn about himself, how does he react, and what does the Lord do about it (6:5-7)?

• Describe Isaiah’s commission (6:8-10), and how it relates to Jesus’ own ministry (Mark 4:10-12; John 12:37- 43).

• When Isaiah asks how long the people will respond negatively, what is the Lord’s answer (6:11-13), and why might it be important for Isaiah to know this right at the start of his prophetic ministry?

• After prayerful consideration, write down a main “take-away” for you from Isaiah 6.

January 5: Isaiah 6:1-13

Please use this as an aid to your daily prayers. Do not use it as a substitute for prayer, and do not let it become a distraction from prayer. It is provided as a guide to help prepare you for your prayer time.

The Author

Day Five: The Extended View

No one in my world says that ministry is easy. Isaiah is told that his message will fall on blind eyes and deaf ears. Isaiah’s call was one to a ministry that would inevitably become discouraging. Discouragement is often a significant part of the ministry. That may be one of the biggest reasons that pastors are leaving it in droves and a large percentage of those who remain are questioning whether or not they should remain. We should not only pray that the Lord will send laborers into His harvest field, but we should also pray that He will strengthen and encourage those who remain to stand firm and not be swayed by discouragement.

I have searched the Scriptures and compiled the places where God’s people are challenged to “HEAR.” This is the crying need: people who will listen to what the Spirit is saying. Jesus used these words to explain why he taught in parables (Matthew 13:13-15; Mark 4:12, Luke 8:10). Jesus uses the words, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 13:9; Mark 4:9; Luke 8:8). To the churches of Revelation he cries, “He who has ears, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches” (Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). It seems clear that God wants us to open our eyes and ears and heed His call. He awaits the answer of willing hearts who need know nothing more than that God is willing to use them in His service when they answer His call. He does not call the qualified (as they say), He qualifies the called. His Spirit is ready to prepare you for His work.

APPLICATION

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

(Galatians 6:9 ESV)

Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.

(1 Corinthians 4:2 ESV)

In truth, the call of God is for faithfulness to Him, to His word and to the call itself. –New King James Study Bible note.

Understandably, Isaiah questioned “How long?” How long would the people obstinately reject his message and refuse to hear? How long would they remain insensitive to God’s call to repent and return to Him? Isaiah was told that he was to continue sharing the message for as long as it took, even though for many the message would go unheeded until they were taken away as captives to Babylon or left behind to struggle in poverty and desolation.

Are you willing to be faithful to God and His call and leave the results to Him?

Are you willing to trust that, if you sow generously, you shall reap bountifully, for God will bring the increase?

Are you willing to let the Word (through tracts, words and deeds) fall on deaf ears, praying that the Spirit will so convict that they will heed His voice and turn to God through Jesus Christ?

PRAYER

Father,

As I have gained a greater appreciation for Who You are and have realized how short I fall, I have repented for these failures and desire for you to use me as a clean vessel. I am willing to do what You say, to go where You will, and to be the light that You want to shine in this dark world. 

I know that I sometimes get discouraged about the lack of results, but I know that You are able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we can ask or think (Ephesians 3:20). I ask You to give me the grace to remain faithful during the discouraging times and to look for Your provision and operation, even when I want to give up. Remind me that You will not leave me nor forsake me (Matthew 28:20). Teach me to patiently wait on You and trust Your timing in my life.

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Eph 3:14-21, ESV)

January 4: Isaiah 6:1-13

Please use this as an aid to your daily prayers. Do not use it as a substitute for prayer, and do not let it become a distraction from prayer. It is provided as a guide to help prepare you for your prayer time.

The Author

The Outward View

One mission at home and abroad!

This is a way to express the concept that there are not two missions, home and foreign, but one Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20) that extends from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Now that Isaiah is prepared to serve God, God Himself issues the call:

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” (Isaiah 6:8 ESV)

There is still a great need for laborers to go into the harvest field (Matthew 9:37). The Lord is looking for willing laborers who will simply say: “Here I am! Send me.” What is keeping Christians from joyfully responding?

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

(Romans 10:14-15 ESV)

The Lord is calling: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Sadly, fewer are answering the call to go…anywhere…to take the Good News to someone else.

APPLICATION

Barna Research has just produced a new major study on the state of evangelism in the US. They found that:

A majority of practicing Christians does not consistently support evangelism, and 47 percent of Millennial Christians believe it is flat-out wrong to evangelize. This invites us to ask difficult questions, including what has gone so wrong with our gospel presentation that a majority of Christians hesitates to wholeheartedly support it.

Compounding this are factors that depress Christians’ ability to reach out to others skillfully—most conspicuously, that Christians are the faith group least likely to have friends who are different from them.

Christians must realize we are not doing evangelism on a clean slate. Cultural perceptions and Christianity’s poor reputation are actively de-converting people raised in church and hardening non-Christians against evangelistic efforts.

God does want to work in your life. God will work in your life if you give Him the opportunity. But God never stops there. God wants to work through your life. There is a needy world out there. It’s in darkness. You are dwelling in the midst of people of unclean lips. And they need to know that God will wash and cleanse them also. So the work of God in your life always ends up objectively. First of all subjective, what God can do for you. But then what God can do through you to touch others. And that’s what it’s all about.

-– Chuck Smith Commentary

Once God has touched your life, then God wants to use your life to touch others. God has a work that He wants to do. And the problem is always, who will go for us? Whom will we send? Jesus said, “Behold the fields are white unto harvest but the laborers are few” (Mat. 9:37). Who will go for us? Whom shall we send? The man whose life has been touched by God becomes an available instrument for God. “Here am I, Lord. Send me.” And his commission:

And so God said to him, Go, and tell this people (Isa. 6:9).

–- Chuck Smith Commentary

Is the GOOD NEWS still good news?

Why are we willing to share freely, even gleefully, about the new Italian restaurant we loved, or the station where we found the cheapest fuel, or the latest vacation we took, but do not share openly the greatest news we have ever received?

Can’t we see that the failure to share the Gospel is just as much disobedience (neglecting to do what we have been commanded) as sinning (doing what we are commanded to avoid)? Sins of omission are just as sinful as sins of commission.

PRAYER

Dear God,

You have told us that we are to love You supremely, with all our mind, heart, soul, and spirit. We are also to love our neighbors as ourselves. Lord, we know that You have reminded us that if we love You, we will obey Your commands. We confess that we have not allowed Your love to compel us to go and share your message freely and widely. We have failed to be Your ambassadors to this lost world. We have failed to fulfill the Great Commission in our lives and in our churches. Please forgive us for this coldness, this complacency, this callousness.

We want Your heart to see people as You see them. We want Your compassion to move us as You were moved, when You looked upon the people, harassed and helpless, scattered as sheep without a shepherd. We want to care about their condition the way You cared and to seek to alleviate their suffering and misery as You did. Fill us with Your Spirit so that we can truly love and serve the way You did.

Most of all, give us willing hearts to respond as You did in the garden, “Father, not My will but Yours be done.” Help us to be willing to say, “Here I am! Send me.”

January 3: Isaiah 6:1-13

Please use this as an aid to your daily prayers. Do not use it as a substitute for prayer, and do not let it become a distraction from prayer. It is provided as a guide to help prepare you for your prayer time.

The Author

The Inward View

Then I said, Woe is me! For I am undone; for 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, Jehovah of Hosts. (Isaiah 6:5 MKJV)

Those who truly see God as He is can only respond in ardent humility. An encounter with holy God immediately confronts us with our sinfulness. Hearing true worshippers praising God reminds us of the impurity of our own mouths. —Blackaby Study Bible Note on Isaiah 6:5

We come into the presence of God with tainted souls. We come with our own concept of morality, having learned it from books, from the newspaper, and from school. We come to God dirty—our whitest white is dirty, our churches are dirty, and our thoughts are dirty—and do nothing about it!

If we came to God dirty, but trembling and shocked and awestruck in His presence, if we knelt at His feet and cried with Isaiah, “I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips,” then I could understand. But we skip into His awful presence. We’re dirty, but we have a book called Seven Steps to Salvation that gives us seven verses to get us out of our problems. And each year we have more Christians, more people going to church, more church buildings, more money—and less spirituality and less holiness. We’re forgetting “holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.”

I tell you this: I want God to be what God is: the impeccably holy, unapproachable Holy Thing, the All-Holy One. I want Him to be and remain THE HOLY. I want His heaven to be holy and His throne to be holy. I don’t want Him to change or modify His requirements. Even if it shuts me out, I want something holy left in the universe.

—The Attributes of God by A.W. Tozer

APPLICATON

Having spent time dwelling on God’s character, His holiness, do you now observe areas in your life that are sinful, do you recognize areas of disobedience, do you see failures that you have not noticed before but the Holy Spirit has now brought to your attention?

PRAYER

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. 

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! 

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. 

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. 

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. 

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

(Psalms 51:1-19 ESV)

APPLICATION

Preface to Knowledge of the Holy, by A. W. Tozer

“The message of this book does not grow out of these times but it is appropriate to them. It is called forth by a condition which has existed in the Church for some years and is steadily growing worse. I refer to the loss of the concept of majesty from the popular religious mind. The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshipping men. This she has done not deliberately, but little by little and without her knowledge; and her very unawareness only makes her situation all the more tragic….”

“The low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us. A whole new philosophy of the Christian life has resulted from this one basic error in our religious thinking.”

“With our loss of the sense of majesty has come the further loss of religious awe and consciousness of the divine Presence. We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence. Modern Christianity is simply not producing the kind of Christian who can appreciate or experience the life in the Spirit. The words, ”Be still, and know that I am God,” mean next to nothing to the self-confident, bustling worshipper in this middle period of the twentieth century.”

Why We Must Think Rightly about God, Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer.

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”

“The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.”

“For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the Church. Always the most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him or leaves unsaid, for her silence is often more eloquent than her speech. She can never escape the self-disclosure of her witness concerning God.”

To meditate further on the character of God, you should consider reading Isaiah 40.

Recommended reading: Knowledge of the Holy, A.W. Tozer (may be purchased on Amazon or pdf downloaded for free at https://christlifemin.org/assets/pdf/the_knowledge_of_the_holy_tozer.pdf

PRAYER

Holy God, our Father in heaven, I want to see You in Your glory and beauty. I want to glean a vision of Your awesome majesty.

Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” (Revelation 4:8)

“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”(Revelation 4:11)

“Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”(Revelation 5:9-10)

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”(Revelation 5:12-13)

Lord, how great is our dilemma! In Thy Presence silence best becomes us, but love inflames our hearts and constrains us to speak.

Were we to hold our peace the stones would cry out; yet if we speak, what shall we say? Teach us to know that we cannot know, for the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Let faith support us where reason fails, and we shall think because we believe, not in order that we may believe.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.

—from God Incomprehensible, Knowledge of the Holy, by A.W. Tozer

An option is to pray the Psalms (111, 113, 117, 84, 8, 24, etc.)