TODAY’S DEVOTION (FRIDAY 19TH DECEMBER 2025)
“The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit.” Psalm 34:17-18 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 353RD DAY OF OUR YEAR OF VICTORY
Can you believe that we have been traveling through this year for 353 days now? We have just 12 more days to complete the journey. God has graciously helped us to successfully cover this distance in time. To Him belongs all the glory forever and ever. Amen!
I believe that whatever the LORD has done in our lives these 353 days is a shadow of what He will do in our lives in the years to come. My confidence is rooted in the scripture that says the path of the just is like a shining light, that shines brighter until a perfect day!
Now to our devotional word for the day!
Have you ever prayed earnestly, and an answer refused to come? Do you have any issue in your life right now that you are trying to tackle in prayers even engaging anointed men and women to join you and yet things seem the same?
Answer to prayers this end time will not be dependent on a few things that worked previously; namely, asking for prayers recklessly, going on lengthy fasting, engaging in all night prayers, sacrificial financial giving, and all other things we do, or are told to do by ‘prophets.’
Answer to prayer this end time, among other germane things in the kingdom of God, will be based strictly on righteousness because the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination in the sight of God (Proverbs 15:8).
It is one’s personal right standing with God that will give efficacy to his or her prayer these seasons. The reason is because, answer to prayers spiritually depends on the measure of God’s presence a person carries, and a right standing with God will attract that measure that is required for a specific prayer to be answered.
IF THERE IS NO RIGHT STANDING WITH GOD, THERE WILL BE NO MEASURE OF HIS PRESENCE REQUIRED FOR A PRAYER TO BE ANSWERED.
That is when a person will begin to run after the praying churches and preachers for help, and they themselves will use that to gain relevance or revenue for themselves instead of telling you the truth. But the Bible never encourages such spiritual dependance because it is the root of all error in Church history.
All warriors of righteousness in bible days had their prayers answered because of their personal right standing with God.
It gave each one the measure of God’s presence they needed on each occasion to make a difference through prayer. Elijah’s right standing gave efficacy to his prayers. Today and for generations to come, he and the exploits he made through prayers will remain a standard.
Esther’s right standing with God, gave efficacy to her three days dry fast. The fast brought about a resounding breakthrough for the nation of Israel in a foreign land. Sadly, many have done what they call the Esther fast, and never got any resounding breakthrough because it had insufficient divine presence for that to happen.
The absence of a right standing with God emptied their fast of the measure of divine presence it needed for a breakthrough to happen. If your fast or prayer will bring a change in your life, you must carry a sufficient presence of God that guarantees that change!!
Joshua’s right standing gave efficacy to his twelve-hour fasting and prayer that brought about a resounding victory in battle for the people of God in Joshua chapter seven through chapter ten. The Bible says the presence of God that rained in the battlefield that day had never rained at any time in Isreal’s history.
Jesus’ right standing with God as man, gave efficacy to His 40-day prayer and fasting. The Bible says at the end of it, He returned in the power of the Spirit and extraordinary miracles broke out wherever He went to preach. Moses’ right standing with God also gave efficacy to his 40-day fast and he came down with a face that was glittering.
People have thought 40 days without eating is what brings such outstanding things and have gone on 40 days without seeing them.
The Bible clearly teaches that it is not the 40 days, but the presence of the LORD that rest upon you by reason of your right standing with Him. If you do not have it, your 40-day fast will be tantamount to a 40-day hunger strike!!
ALL THESE TELLS US THAT IT’S NOT ABOUT THE LENGTH OF THE FAST BUT ABOUT HOW OUR HEARTS ARE BEFORE THE LORD.
Righteousness is the strongest key to answered prayers. It gives efficacy or strength to our prayers because it honors God and attracts His presence down. Our devotional text said the righteous cry out, and the LORD hears and delivers them out of their trouble.
The Bible did not say the wicked cry out and the LORD hears and delivers them. The Bible says, “the righteous cry out.” When it comes to all these things, there is no sentiment. The standard must be met. The Bible teaches that God does not hear the prayer of the wicked because He is angry with the wicked everyday (Psalm 7:11).
The wicked includes those whose hearts are not right before the LORD. The heart must be in order before the prayer can attract Heaven’s attention.
Even wicked Ahab got heaven’s attention when he changed his heart position towards God and His word. The tax collector in the story Jesus told about the two who went to the temple to pray, and got Heaven’s attention in prayer, because of his heart position. But the Pharisee did not.
Theologically, we can say, the life of the tax collector was full of sins from the filthiness of the flesh and all that but that of the Pharisee was full of sin from the filthiness of the spirit. Sadly, one acknowledged his own sin problem, which is an act of right standing before God, but the other was blinded by pride.
The Bible says when both entered the temple to pray, the tax collector took a proper heart position – the position of humility and repentance, but the Pharisee did not. He was full of spiritual pride and arrogance, displaying his righteousness before God. He forgot what Isaiah said about our religious righteousness; he calls it a filthy rag.
THE RIGHTEOUSNESS THAT GIVES EFFICACY TO OUR PRAYERS IS NOT A RELIGIOUS RIGHTEOUSNESS.
It is not the good work we do with un-regenerated hearts.
Unregenerated hearts might be kind, but they remain as hearts that are not right before the LORD, though He acknowledges the kindness that might rest in them. At this point, there is a simple definition of righteousness I want to bring to our attention. It defines Righteousness as “right standing with God!”
The righteous is therefore one whose heart is in right standing with God.
When a heart is in right standing with God, we will see it in deeds. Right standing with God does not begin from the outside; it begins from the inside. It begins with an internal work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. If it begins from the outside, it is called hypocrisy.
Hypocrisy has sometimes been defined as doing the right things with the wrong heart! When we pray with hearts that are not right before God, we are doing the prayer of the hypocrite. It is when we pray with hearts that are right before God that we pray prayers of the righteous!
The Pharisee’s heart was not right before God because it was full of hypocrisy, but that of the Tax collector was right because it was full of sincerity. It is what our heart is full of while we pray that matters not really what our mouths are full of. Sometimes mouths are full of the right words but the heart the wrong things, turning us into a kingdom divided against itself.
If you are therefore saying a prayer while you heart is not in right standing with God, the prayer will be an abomination in His sight. That is the reason why many of our prayers have been going unanswered.
Sometimes like the Pharisee, we think we can display our work before God and force Him to answer us. Yes, sometimes we think we can intimidate God with our titles or sacrificial giving to answer our prayers. Sadly, many of us do not know that things does not work that way with God.
We do not know that we cannot either intimidate Him with our spiritual or biological age to answer our prayers or with our Pentecostal threats that calls on Him to answer or else. The LORD is the ancient of days, so no body’s age can intimidate Him! If our requests are not coming from righteous heart of God’s will and ways, there will be no answer to our prayers.
If you did not pick anything from this devotional, just pick that!
May this day be a blessing to you even as we all use these words to align our ways for effective and result oriented prayers!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY!
“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” 1 John 5:14-15 NKJV
