Christian Reflection and Prayer

Read Psalm 139. 

TEXT: Yet You are He who took me from the womb; You
made me trust You at my mother's breasts. On You was
I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb You
have been my God (Psalm 22:9-10).

Jesus has shared His pain and sufferings a second time.
Now it's time to listen to God's answer to that prayer,
and gain firm confidence in His Father's faithfulness and
love.

Earlier in the Psalm Jesus took comfort by recalling His
Fathers' faithful deliverance when the Israelites cried out
in sore distress. "In You our fathers trusted; they trusted,
and You delivered them. To You they cried and were
rescued; in You they trusted and were not put to shame"
(Psalm 22:4-5). Now Jesus looks back on His own life,
and recalls the tender care His Father provided from the
beginning.

"You are He who took me from the womb." Miraculously
conceived by the Holy Spirit, the Father granted Jesus a
safe birth that first Christmas, provided a warm, dry manger,
fed Him and met all His needs. When King Herod sought to
destroy Him, the Father sent an angel to warn Joseph in a
dream to take the Christ Child and Mary and flee to Egypt
(see Matthew 2:13). From His earliest human days Jesus'
Father had proven reliable and trustworthy. Surely, in this
time God the Father will remember and deliver Him as well.

Like Jesus we can look back on God's faithful care
throughout our lives, and be confident He will always
provide our needs and protect us, especially since Jesus
has paid the full price for our sins in His suffering and death
on the cross.

THE PRAYER:

Lord Jesus Christ, thank You for remembering Your Father's
faithful protection and care. Remind me to look back at His
faithfulness in my life that I may always live in faith,
confidence and peace. Amen.

(Lenten Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries)