Amen

My daughter is well into her 20^th month and the words are starting to pour in. Among them is the word “amen,” which she repeats at times after prayer. I was highly amused to hear this word among her firsts. I know of course that her understanding of it is quite limited. To her, “amen” is mostly a word she’s heard enough to mimic – much like “hi dada” and “eat.” I would say however that, unlike these other words and phrases, “amen” is directly associated with our prayers to the LORD. And so for that reason alone, I am glad to hear it among my daughter’s first words. If for nothing else, it means that we are praying for her often.

As a whole, prayer is becoming an increasingly vital part of my life. I go through seasons when I pray more frequently than others. But in practice, prayer ought to be habitual for the Christian. The Bible is not without its exhortations on this point, see: Luke 11:1-13; Luke 18:1-8; Philippians 4:6; 1 Thessalonians 5:17.

I recently heard a sermon by the late James Boice on Ephesians one. Highlighting verse sixteen, he explained that while God is sovereign and orders everything according to His perfect will, He nevertheless accomplishes those purposes through the instrument of prayer. God works through means, and one of those means is the God-honoring prayers of His people. What an astounding truth! The LORD uses the prayers of His own to advance His kingdom and fulfill His will on earth (Matthew 6:9-10). What a great salvation we have!

Convinced of this then, the Christian ought to be encouraged, even compelled, to pray with persistence. In his book, Knowing God, J.I. Packer states: “People who know their God are before anything else people who pray,” and not only this, but “their zeal and energy for God’s glory come to expression…in their prayers.”[1] Daniel’s prayer in Daniel 9:1-19 serves as the example for this point. And what an incredible prayer we find there.

The context for it is the Babylonian captivity of Judah. After noting from the Scriptures that the end of their judgment was imminent, Daniel does something that has always astonished me. Rather than celebrating the coming victory, he instead goes before God in fasting and in sackcloth and ashes. His concern is for God’s name, kingdom and will in the promised deliverance of a yet sinful people. Packer explains that while “the prophet understood from the Scriptures that the foretold time of Israel’s captivity was drawing to an end… he [also] realized that the nation’s sin was still such as to provoke God to judgment rather than mercy.”¹ And so he confesses the sins of his people (9:5-6, 9-11, 14 -16); pleas for salvation based solely on God’s righteousness (9:7, 14, 16); and begs for mercy for the sake of God’s own name (9:16-19). This is a rich prayer packed with the gospel and certainly one that reflects the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous that avails much.

I say amen to it. Like Daniel, I understand that the salvation of my daughter belongs solely to God who alone is righteous. Her deliverance from innate sin will be the result of His extended mercy, ultimately for the sake of His own name. And so with great contrition, humility and a burning hope, I will call to Him daily in prayer for her redemption. I say amen to that too … and listen for a little voice to echo it back. 

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[1] Packer, J.I., Knowing God, Monergism Books, pg. 28

Why I Called my Baby a Sinner

I wrote a post on January 1 in which I called my toddler a sinner. The comment was made in passing and left unaddressed with the promise to discuss on another day. Today is that day and this is that post so let’s discuss. Why did I call my baby a sinner?

To begin, the statement doesn’t come as a result of some particularly unscrupulous behavior of my daughter. On the contrary, my little one is among of the most agreeable toddlers I’ve known. Like most her age, she has moments of unbridled insistence and will fuss and complain when she doesn’t get her way. These however succumb easily to our rebuke (and/or soothing) and she usually turns from her misbehavior with little hesitancy. On the whole, she is a delight to parent; we love her deeply and have enjoyed life with her these 18-months.

So why do I call her a sinner? The short answer is that she is. She is a sinner. Like all human beings before her and like those who will come after her, she was conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity (Psalm 51:5). Charles Spurgeon once said that: “As the salt flavors every drop in the Atlantic, so does sin affect every atom of our nature. It is so sadly there, so abundantly there, that if you cannot detect it, you are deceived.” There are few of us so deceived as to deny the reality of our sin. After all, “Who can say, ‘I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin”’ (Proverbs 20:9)? The Bible is crystal clear on this point. It states plainly that “all have sinned and have come short of God’s glory” (Romans 3:23). In fact, left to ourselves, there is no one who seeks God, no not even one (Romans 3:11-18)!

We are the descendants of Adam after all. And as physical traits are passed on from one generation to to the next, so is Adam’s sin inherited by all generations after him. We are therefore born in sin and according to his flesh. The Apostle Paul teaches that “The mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:7-8, emphasis mine). What an amazing thought! Allow yourself for a moment to consider the fact that outside of Jesus’s righteousness, you are unable to please God.

This inability makes sense, of course, when we consider Paul’s other words in Ephesians 2:1-2. He states that “you were dead in your trespasses and sin, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world.” A dead person cannot be anything but dead for s/he is void of life. We are born sinners, spiritually dead at birth with no righteousness of our own to justify us before God. For this reason, “no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again” (John 3:3). The spiritually dead person is brought to life – given new birth – by that same power that raised Christ from the dead and is made alive together with Christ Jesus (Colossians 2:13). This is our Christian hope and joy – the Good News of the Gospel.

And it is for this reason that I call my daughter a sinner. She must know that her “ability” to please God will not come from her own effort, strength or “goodness” (see The Benefit of Being Clueless). Her hope for salvation rests alone in God’s work through His Son who paid the debt of her sins and opens the door for her into new life with Him. My daughter’s “work” in all this is to believe by grace in the One God has sent (John 6:29). And so - with care - I will help her to understand that she is a sinner. As her mother, my aim will not be to condemn, embarrass or belittle her. But with great faithfulness, humility, affection for her and commitment to the gospel, my prayer is that she would not be among those so deceived as to deny the reality of their sin.