Step Five in Crisis: Thank God for His Love and Promises
By Rick Warren
“O Lord, you are a great and awesome God! You always fulfill your covenant and keep your promises of unfailing love to those who love you and obey your commands.” Daniel 9:4 (NLT)
There is nothing more important you can do during a crisis than pray. As we’ve been learning, Daniel 9 gives us a great pattern for prayer as we walk through life’s toughest times.
We’ve already learned to let God speak to us before we speak to him, focus our attention on God and seek him, express our desires with passion, and demonstrate our seriousness through fasting.
We must also thank God for his love and promises.
Daniel describes this in Daniel 9:4: “O Lord, you are a great and awesome God! You always fulfill your covenant and keep your promises of unfailing love to those who love you and obey your commands” (NLT).
This may be the last thing you want to do during a crisis. You may be angry with God and frustrated with him. But that’s why you need to do this. You need a change in your perspective.
You can thank God for the love and care he has shown you throughout your life. Be specific! Show him that you recognize that you’ve made it this far because of his grace. You can thank him for his faithfulness and how he has delivered you in the past. Remembering past grace always helps us anticipate future grace.
You should also look to the Bible for reminders about who God is and what he has promised you. The Bible is full of promises—thousands of them, in fact—that show us how much God has in store for us when we obey and follow him.
A few verses later, we read this: “The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him” (Daniel 9:9 NLT).
We should be grateful that God is faithful even when we’re not. God keeps his promises every time.
And God will continue keeping them during your crisis. He won’t abandon you. Show God you realize he always keeps his promises. Let him know you trust him.
That’s an important part of any prayer during a crisis.
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This devotional © 2018 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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