Looking Back for the Sake of the Future

Chapter 7 –Looking back for the Sake of the Future

In this chapter John Piper really showed the importance of the past but he did so in such a way that you clearly saw how the past was pointing forward to more faith in the future grace of God. Jesus Christ is one thing we look back into the past at. "In a sense we could say that God's grace has come in person [Jesus Christ] and done such a decisive work of grace that all other experiences of grace depend on it." All future grace hangs on the fact that Christ came and died on the cross for our sins. Without Christ, there would be no future grace.

Piper covered many things noteworthy in this chapter but I just want to share one thing. Based off of 2 Corinthians 1:20 which says, "For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory", Piper points out that there are "four crucial things for our faith in future grace that we express in prayer."

1. All our prayer goes to God through Jesus.
   
2. Prayer is for God's glory, it affirms God as the bountiful give and me as the needy receiver.
   
3. Prayer is a response to promises, that is, to the assurances of future grace.
   
4. Amen primarily means, that we place our Yes in Christ because we are fully confident He is all powerful and all merciful and we are expectantly waiting more of His future grace.