FEBRUARY 11, 2025
Topic: “Building Intimacy in Prayer: Ezra’s Model”
Text: Ezrah 9: 1-15
Memory Verse: Ezra 9:5-6 “At the time of the sacrifice, I stood up from where I had sat in mourning with my clothes torn. I fell to my knees and lifted my hands to the Lord my God. 6 I prayed,…”
Intercession for the people of God is one of the characteristics of the true prophet. Ezra exemplified to us, the character of a true intercessor. By intercession, we mean, a person who stands to pray for the needs and deliverance of other people. Ezra in his prayer, appealed to God for the forgiveness of the sins of the nation of Israel, which also included him.
In our text for today, we see that Ezra came to God at the time of the evening sacrifice; that is to say, he approached God based on sacrifice and not on his merits or that of the people. Ezra literally sat in the devastating realization of Israel’s sin all day long and then he fell on his knees before the Lord in prayer (v. 5). In his prayer, Ezra says that he is ashamed because Israel’s sin and guilt had been piling up as high as the heavens for generations (vv. 6 – 7).
As we step out today, we must be like Ezra, we have to come to God interceding for the sins, unfaithfulness, disobedience and the lack of faith that our people in Nigeria, our families and our churches have committed. We have to be like Ezra by allowing what breaks the heart of God to also break our own hearts. We should not celebrate, overlook or trivialize the sins we see being committed around us, but rather, it should force us to go on our knees and ask for mercy. Remember that as we pray today, it will move the hands of God to release the oil of healing that will spread forgiveness over our land.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, like Ezra, may what breaks your heart, lead us to go on our knees, and may you release forgiveness and mercy over our lives in Jesus’ name.