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Leviticus |
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| Chapter 1 | Prayer | Devotional | Chapter 15 | Prayer | Devotional | |
| Chapter 2 | Prayer | Devotional | Chapter 16 | Prayer | Devotional | |
| Chapter 3 | Prayer | Devotional | Chapter 17 | Prayer | Devotional | |
| Chapter 4 | Prayer | Devotional | Chapter 18 | Prayer | Devotional | |
| Chapter 5 | Prayer | Devotional | Chapter 19 | Prayer | Devotional | |
| Chapter 6 | Prayer | Devotional | Chapter 20 | Prayer | Devotional | |
| Chapter 7 | Prayer | Devotional | Chapter 21 | Prayer | Devotional | |
| Chapter 8 | Prayer | Devotional | Chapter 22 | Prayer | Devotional | |
| Chapter 9 | Prayer | Devotional | Chapter 23 | Prayer | Devotional | |
| Chapter 10 | Prayer | Devotional | Chapter 24 | Prayer | Devotional | |
| Chapter 11 | Prayer | Devotional | Chapter 25 | Prayer | Devotional | |
| Chapter 12 | Prayer | Devotional | Chapter 26 | Prayer | Devotional | |
| Chapter 13 | Prayer | Devotional | Chapter 27 | Prayer | Devotional | |
| Chapter 14 | Prayer | Devotional |
Great God, Your Son came as a whole burnt offering for us. What He gave to You was in every way full and complete. Our sins have been placed upon His sacred head. We mourn for our awful transgressions, but we thank You for the peace that we enjoy in Christ Jesus our Lord. There was nothing wrong in His offering to You. He had no thought, word, or deed of sin. In Him we have been credited with this perfect offering, and we are grateful for this abundant mercy.
O Lord our God, the fruitfulness of every field belongs to You. Day by day we labor in this world according to Your provision. Your Son came and labored for us in the days of His earthly ministry. His work lasts forever. He offered all of His efforts up to You, for Your glory. What a lovely gift! His every word, His every touch, His every prayer was perfect. All that He had, He gave to You, from beginning to end. His offering was well seasoned with the salt of covenant grace and was made rich with the oil of perfect holiness from on high. What He has done for us will last forever, and is wonderfully full of the presence and power of Your Holy Spirit.
Almighty Father, throughout our sorry lives of sin, we have made war against You. We are so ashamed of our foolish rebellion. Even before we were born, we were justly credited with Adam’s wicked violation of Your commandments. Now a second Adam has come into this world of strife. He has made peace with You on our behalf. Your wrath against us has been turned away, and we enjoy the perfect tranquility of the satisfaction of Your just demands. Help us to be at peace with one another through Him who is our peace.
Lord God, our sin has brought guilt upon us and trouble upon many. Please forgive us. In former days, the priests and rulers of the people had special temptations. When they sinned, there was a duty according to Your Law to shed blood for the sins of those in positions of authority and service. We now have a perfectly pure High Priest. He needs no offering for His own sin, for He has none. He is also the King of Your church. What a great joy it is to have a Ruler over us who is spotless and without blemish. Though our Head is sinless, the body of Your worshipers is still marred by impurity, both in each member individually, and in the congregation as a whole. What an amazing mercy it is, that our King and Priest has willingly offered up Himself to You as our Substitute, and has become the spotless offering for our sin through His death on the cross. Through Him we are regarded as holy in Your sight. We praise You and thank You, O Lord!
Father God, what offering could we give to You for our unintentional sins? What could we give for our open rebellion? There is no remaining system of daily atonement. We thank You that we have a better solution to the problem of sin than the blood of bulls and goats. Christ shed His blood for us. Now we are called to enjoy a sacramental meal that reminds us that Jesus gave Himself for us. Our glorious Lord had no guilt. He was tempted in every way as we are, but He never violated Your holy commandments. His blood has purified Your sanctuary for us, and a new and sure way into Your presence has been won for us through His love. Sovereign Lord, You will never abandon Your demand for justice. Your holy Law must be satisfied. We admit our guilt before You. We cannot afford the penalty that is justly demanded from us. Even if we were to give our lives completely to You with the hope that our death might satisfy Your demands, this would not be enough for our offense against You. There is Another who has paid our debt in full. He has added yet more to His sacrifice, so that the stain of our transgression has been more than covered. Our guilt has been erased, and His goodness has become ours by Your great plan of grace. Blessed be Your Name, O God.
Almighty God, we have sinned in so many ways. We have taken what is not ours. We must restore it in full, but this cannot make up for our offense against You and others. Only the blood of Christ can take away our sin. Our transgressions bring trouble upon Your church. Our lives should be given entirely to You, yet we have reserved so much for ourselves. What offering can be given for our peace? What can we do to meet the demands of Your justice? Only the work of Christ, our High Priest can remove our ugliness, for we are unclean. He has consumed the abomination of our rebellion, and we have been healed. We thank You for His great righteousness and mercy.
Lord God, why were Your people of old not allowed to eat of the fat of the sacrifice? What is in the fat of the animal? Is every impurity stored there? It is not suitable for our consumption. We cannot live on that kind of diet. It must be burned before You. The death of Christ has truly removed the guilt and power of sin from among Your people. All that is impure in us and all our iniquity has been taken far away from Your church. Your Son was cut off from Your people, that Your people could be brought near to Him. The blood of His sacrifice was precious to You. You set the requirements of complete atonement. You told us what we could eat from the sacrificial meal, and what could not be eaten. We receive the sign and seal of communion with You in Your holy supper. Here we remember the death of Your Son for us, and we are partakers of wonderful blessings by faith.
Our Father, Your holy Son was set apart for the work that He came to do. Just as the Old Testament priests were washed with water and were clothed with special garments, and just as they were anointed with holy oil, Your Son has received the substance of these shadows. In His baptism, He identified with sinners and acknowledged our need for great cleansing. He was clothed with our sins so that we might be granted His robes of holy righteousness. He was filled with Your Spirit beyond measure. He was installed to all of His offices forever through His resurrection from the dead. Now He lives at Your right hand in the eternal sanctuary. He is our Prophet, Priest, and King. In Him, we are near You in Your holy presence forever. Even now we have been consecrated for Your service. We give ourselves to the work of Your Kingdom. All things necessary for Your Son’s reign over us have been fully accomplished, and we stand ready to serve You in accord with Your holy will.
Lord God, any offering that we could have invented to satisfy the demands of Your righteousness would surely have been an offense against You. We could never have made atonement for ourselves or for Your church. Where would we be without the work of Your Son? Surely ceremonial animals cannot satisfy You. Our great High Priest has made full atonement for us. This was planned from before the foundation of the world. In the earthly days of Your Son, these eternal plans were accomplished. When He ascended in clouds of glory, He raised His hands in blessing over us. In Him we are truly blessed.
Almighty Father, what will we do in the day of grief? There is no health within us because of our sin. Our loved ones have behaved beyond the limits of propriety. Our children, who should be priests in the priesthood of all believers, have wandered into ways of unbelief. Where is our hope? We mourn with bitter tears. Help us, O God! Where else can we turn? If You will not help us, we will only bring trouble upon everything that we touch. We must do the things that You have commanded us, despite the grief of sin and misery that weighs so heavily upon us. We cannot eat, but we must commune with You. We cannot serve, but we must obey. Help us to keep on going when it feels like life is already over. Such things as these have happened to us. Have mercy on us, O Lord!
Great God and King, You set apart Your people Israel from all of the other nations of the earth. You governed even the things that they consumed. They were not allowed to eat according to their own private judgment. You told them what was to be detestable among them. You gave them a powerful experience of being different from the world. This ceremonial law had its purpose for the time of preparation, reminding your people that we are to be distinct from the world, not because of what goes into our bodies, but because of what comes out of us. When the time of the Old Covenant was near fulfillment, Your Son announced to us a new freedom to eat according to conscience. We ask that You would aid us in turning away from the way of death, which is truly unclean. The things of sin that come out of us still defile us. Out of our hearts and our mouths come filthy desires and words that are an attack on the way of life that we have been given. Your Son was perfectly holy for us. May we walk in holiness with joy, observing all things that He has commanded.
Our Father, You have given us the gift of children in Your church. We thank You for bringing the mothers among us through the challenge of pregnancy and childbirth. We thank You for the life that is a gift from You. We know that we have all been cleansed by the blood of Christ. His true and perfect sacrifice has made both us and our young ones clean.
O God, the horror of leprous diseases of various kinds was a powerful sign of the trouble that we have all around us. We are not awake to sensations of true spiritual danger as we should be. The damage upon our lives has been substantial, and we bear the marks of death on our bodies and in our minds. Thanks be to You, O God, for sending Your Son. He has touched the leper and has made him clean. The deep insensitivity within us that seemed incurable has been healed by the touch of Jesus Christ. Our consciences have been awakened again. Much of the damage in our lives from times of ugly darkness has already been powerfully addressed by Your Son. What remains as memorials of rebellion against You will surely be completely healed in the resurrection to come. Thank You for the pronouncement of our High Priest that assures us that we are clean in Him. He has taken away our shame. As we follow Your Son, it is safe now for us to be connected to Your people in the covenant community. May we move forward in devotion to You day by day with strong confidence in the perfect holiness of Jesus Christ. Grant to us powerful mercy and practical help for those who live in isolation because of disease or shame. May they know the joy of the love of Christ in the sadness and misery of their brokenness. May many others know relief from guilt and hopelessness through the word and mercy of Christ working through His church.
Lord God, we thank You for the great work of cleansing that we have received through the blood of Your Son. Our hearts have been sprinkled and we have been declared clean by Your grace. Our great High Priest has done everything necessary that we might have access to You. We have in Him the perfect offering for our salvation. Your Son Jesus has made full atonement for us. Look on us in our poverty, and help us to be grateful for Your mercy. All that we have is Yours, O God. We have been marked with the blood of Christ. The oil of Your Holy Spirit has been poured out on our heads. Please bless our families, and protect us from the disease of unrepentant sin. Help us to call upon Your name regularly, that we might know the fullest assurance of the most perfect cleansing. Make our homes and churches clean by Your grace, that we might know Your presence and Your power in our times of prayer and fellowship.
O God of Our Fathers, we have sin sickness in body and spirit, and our disease seems to be communicable. We spread our illnesses to others we love. Help us, O God. Our condition is desperate. Take away our despair and grant to us a fresh awareness of the atonement. We are restored to fellowship with You and with Your church through the death of Jesus Christ. Grant healing to Your people. Bless our mortal bodies. Heal our broken spirits. Take away those things that cause vexation in our minds and make us vulnerable to attacks of the evil one. Lord, we ask for Your full blessing upon the marriages within Your church and throughout the world. There is so much potential for good within this close union of husband and wife. There is also much danger of evil and sorrow. Heal us, O Lord, and make us clean from all of our iniquities.
Father God, a way into the holy place has been made for us through Jesus Christ. We have been clothed with His righteousness as a most holy garment. We have a perfect atonement for ourselves and for our houses because of the blood of Jesus Christ, our sin offering. The guilt of our sin has been sent away far from us so that we may live. We offer up to You our prayers now with boldness. We shall not die. Our bodies may rest in the grave, but we will live. In Christ we have gone beyond the veil. He has made atonement for the holy place. Our sin made this necessary. Now we have a great Friend who is in Your presence, and we have a wonderful union with Him. All of our sins were put on Him. All of our iniquities were carried by Him. We have been fully cleansed in the most wonderful baptism. You have granted us Your Spirit, and our guilt has been washed away. We have a new life now, and a great expectation of resurrection in Your holy city. We are clean before You. Your Son now lives forever to intercede for us. There is no need for Him to repeat His work of atonement year by year, for He died the death that we deserved once for all time.
Lord God, we want to give our lives to You in worship every day. Help us when we gather together as a church to recognize our unity in Your Son. From the strength of that weekly assembly help us to offer up our bodies as living sacrifices every day. The blood of Christ has made atonement for us. We do not want to treat the blood of the covenant as a common thing by walking away from Your holy assembly. We cannot bear the guilt of our iniquity. Your Son has done this for us. We live for Him.
Lord God, You are holy. We must not walk in the ways of this world. We live by faith in Christ. Help us to follow Him. Father, we are surrounded by manifold temptations and snares. Keep us away from those who would lead us in paths of immorality. Protect Your children. Restrain the evil man who would abuse the weak and hurt their lives. Bring healing and hope to those who have been attacked ruthlessly by those who are perverse. Thank You for the hope that we have in Christ. We know that there will be forgiveness for all manner of sins. Purify our hearts and our lives through Your Word and Spirit.
Father God, we must be holy, for You are holy. Help us to turn away from all idolatry, and to love and serve You as a matter of first importance. Grant to us such an overflowing love for You that we will love our neighbors with generous hearts. Help us to love the weak and even our adversaries. Guard our hearts and our tongues. We should be honest in our communications and kind to others. Grant that we would be pure in all of our dealings with others. Help us to look to Christ moment by moment for the strength that we need to live disciplined and godly lives. Protect our families from a world full of depravity. We will turn away from all false religion and oppression. We will also pursue justice and truth in all our commerce with one another. Forgive our many sins through the mercy and love of Christ.
Almighty Father, the consequences for our sin against You are so very serious. Through our murderous affections and actions the land is full of blood and misery. Turn us away from our strange and dangerous fascination with spiritual evil. Free us from all unlawful inquiry into demonic pathways. Keep us from the sea of immorality that many would think of as normal. We have done depraved things that have brought great trouble upon Your people. Father, we thank You for the atoning blood of our Savior. Through Him the gross uncleanness of our sin has been fully dealt with. Our future is secure. Though we will not be perfected in holiness until this life is over, we have already been washed by the blood of Christ and cleansed through the renewing grace of the Holy Spirit. Grant that we would understand our current privileges in Christ our Lord, and at just the right time, bless us with a fuller experience of the glory of Your presence, and the victory over sin that Your Son has secured for us.
Great God, we thank You for the provision of the greatest Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, our High Priest. He is holy to You forever. We are His bride. Through Him we have been made holy, despite the obvious fact of our defiling sin. We were permanently stained by immorality and corruption. Yet Your Son has touched us and we are completely clean. If our skin were to show our record of disobedience, we would be full of every kind of defiling blemish. How would we be able to come into Your presence? Yet now we have been cleansed by the blood of Christ.
Merciful Lord, we are amazed that You have provided a way out of our defiling sin. Because of our uncleanness we deserved to be cut off from Your people forever. Not only have we been defiled because of our own sin, but we dwell among an unclean people, and have been made impure through our imitation of the sin of others. Yet we have been brought into Your family now through our great High Priest Jesus Christ. We are forgiven, and Your Son has added an abundant righteousness to our account, a holiness that is far beyond any demand of Your Law. He was the one perfect Lamb, and was offered up to You in the fullness of His righteousness. We now move forward with confidence because of Him. We know that the blood of bulls and goats could never have made eternal atonement for us. Christ has done this perfectly for us. You have brought us out of a world of darkness, that we might serve You in the land of light forever.
O Lord of Creation, You ordered the lives of Your people of Old according to the feasts that You appointed for them. We too have our lives ordered by the rest that we have in Christ together on the first day of every week. He is our Passover. Because of Him we shall live. He is our Unleavened Bread. There was no sin in Him at all. He is our Firstfruits, for He has risen to resurrection life. He is our Pentecost. We have been gathered into the harvest by His Word and Spirit. He looked out upon the fields and saw that they were white unto harvest. He sent workers in order to speak the Word to us. We have heard, and been gathered into Your church. He is our Festival of Trumpets. One day the trumpet shall sound, the dead in Christ shall rise, and we will be together with our Lord. He is our Day of Atonement. On that great Day of Judgment when Your Son separates the sheep from the goats, we shall be kept with Him, for He was cast out of the covenant community for a time, that we might be kept in Your assembly forever. He is our everlasting Feast of Tabernacles. In Him we shall live with perfect joy forever. He is our All in All. On that great day of His return, we shall see the perfect fulfillment of His Kingdom. We believe in this great Sabbath fulfillment that is yet to come. In hope, we even now continue to enter into that eternal Sabbath rest through Christ, who makes all things new.
O God, there is such misery among us as we wait for the return of Your Son. We are privileged to participate in Your church. It is a lampstand for the light of the world. We even eat the bread from heaven as we feast upon Christ in Word, sacrament, and prayer. Nonetheless, we sin, and our children sin, and we cannot be satisfied with our disobedience and blasphemy. We need to have sin removed far away from us forever. We need mercy, for we disobey You every day. Help us, O Lord. Grant us secret joys and peace, for there is much all around us that weighs us down in this world of sin and death. We need hope again this day.
Merciful Lord, You have granted Your people rest in Your Son Jesus Christ. We are so often running in one direction, and then running in another. Please forgive us. One day a week is not enough for us to understand the fullness of rest that You have granted to us. We long for the age to come, the time of eternal Sabbath. Help us to enter into that rest even now. Grant us the material blessings necessary for us to live as we celebrate the little day of rest that You have commanded us to observe. We rejoice in You. Lord God, we pray that You would grant to our hearts the joy of the fullest Jubilee in Your Son. We are priests who attend to You through Him. We also care for our brothers, for we have been redeemed from bondage. We are Your servants, and now we are Your sons. What shall we be in the age to come? We know that we shall be like Jesus, for we shall see Him as He is. Grant us great joy in our families even now. Especially grant to us a fuller sense of our family joy in Your church. Why should the redeemed mourn or celebrate alone? We are Your people. We are Your servants. We are Your family.
God of Glory, You who made the heavens and the earth, why would we make idols? Why would we hate the rest that You so kindly bestowed upon us? Why would we turn away from Your Law? You have granted to us great promises for all who will believe and obey. Your Son has won for us the fullness of every blessing. We thank You, O God. By our own hypocrisy and disobedience we deserved the fullness of discipline from Your hand. You have disciplined us in love, but not as much as we have deserved. We turn to You now. We will not walk contrary to You. Please do not send the curse of the covenant of works upon us. Please do not send Your fury against us. Your Son has fully atoned for our sins. Grant us a full mercy forever, Bring us rest in Jesus Christ. Take away our tears and our anxiety. We shall not perish forever. Please bring us resurrection lives. Do not leave our bodies in the grave forever. Come soon, Lord Jesus. We know that we have spurned Your rules, but we hate our sin. You know that we cannot take much trouble or we will be ruined. We have had high spiritual pretensions, but low spiritual attainments. We have been given so much, and much is rightly required of us. Please forgive us.
Lord God, Your Son has made a precious vow upon the cross. We are the payment of that vow. His vow was a vow of persons. We have been promised to You by our gracious Savior. We will be perfectly holy one day, and we shall be Yours forever. We are Your servants, but we are also Your sons, and the bride of Your only-begotten Son. You have made such great promises to us, and we have been redeemed. You certainly will not abandon us. We are not ashamed to ask You for those things that You have promised us in Your Word. You have said to us, “Never will I leave You. Never will I forsake You.” Please keep us in Your love forever.