Prayer

Meditations From Psalm 25

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To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me. Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame; they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. Psalm 25:1-3 ESV

Last week on Kathy’s Hesaidwhatks Blog she talked about her own experience of waiting with her son Aaron. What got me to thinking of today’s post was her closing thoughts from Psalm 25 on waiting. So yesterday I was excited to look back from the beginning of the Psalm. This is the first of at least two parts on what I found.

“To you O Lord I lift up my soul” Tells us of the direction of David’s prayer. Too often when we are in trouble we turn in every direction except to God. That is not to say we are necessarily praying to another god but that in place of prayer we often turn to every available source before we turn to God. We call up our friends or family. We buy whatever is the latest book on the subject or we even look up remedies on the internet. None of these things is wrong in and of itself but why is it that we exhaust every other resource before we ask Jesus for His help?

The second idea that David tells is to fill God in on all the details. David does more than just ask for God to bless his day; his food and sleep. David starts right out with his problem. While we may not know the exact setting of this Psalm we know that real combat was part of David’s experience. I can picture him peering down to where the enemy troops are camped and asking for God’s help because he is about to charge down the hill into battle.  

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Last David shares with us the answer God gives him even before he takes a single step. “Indeed none who wait for you will be ashamed. David’s waiting for the Lord is akin to William Prescott at the battle of Bunker Hill commanding “Don’t fire until you saw the whites of their eyes” He had learned that waiting on God meant deliverance from shame and that choosing not to wait is treachery.

What about you? What is God asking you to wait for and what battles do you need to begin asking Him to help you with. God is listening and waiting to listen for our cry. Why shouldn’t we learn to listen and to wait on Him?

For more from HesaidwhatKS here is the link

Jesus Take the Wheel

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Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 ESV

Worrying over our grandchildren’s relationship with Jesus has been a recurring theme for me lately. When they were small things seemed pretty simple. We took them to church, prayed with them and at every opportunity made sure they had plenty of cookies. But now they are older things have changed. Some days it feels as if I am slogging through a mud bog, when I try to communicate even the basics of what it means to be a Christian. As I tossed and turned through another middle of the night worry session recently, God’s peace seemed light years away.

Then the Holy Spirit tapped me on the shoulder and reminded me that I wasn’t doing them or myself any good. While I had been trying to overwhelm them with good arguments or coax them towards an interest in Jesus, I was forgetting that ultimately that job is His and that He loves them way more than I do. It is hard to trust God with people who are the closest to us. Yielding control over our spouse, a child a grandchild or a friend means letting God take over. What we really need to do is like what Carrie Underwood sings, “Jesus take the wheel!” We need to release our grip so that God can steer. Jesus won’t rip the steering wheel away from us. He will allow us as many nights as we wish to toss and turn. But if we are worn out with worry and fed up with fear God is waiting and even longing for us to trust that He knows how to fix the situation better than we do. Only He has the strength to carry us our worries and has promised a peace that stretches from our anxious hour all the way to heaven!

Don’t Forget to Pray!

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And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint. Luke 18:1

Did you ever feel like just giving up on something you have been praying for? There are times I can’t even think of a single reason why God would want to listen to me when there are people with far greater needs and who have much more faith than me. And so Jesus knowing how easy wat is for us to give up praying told a story about a widow and a judge. This widow had a lot in common with most of us. She wasn’t well connected, rich or powerful and besides everything else, the only person she could turn to for help was a corrupt politician!

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In face of that most of us would have thrown in the towel, moved away or started complaining to our neighbors. But she wouldn’t quit. Instead, every morning she went down to the judge’s house and knocked on his door. She knew that he was not a good guy and that he didn’t want to help her out. But despite the odds she kept asking him, “I need a protection from abuse order from my enemies.!” Now some would not have wanted to keep bothering the judge. Maybe we would have tried to make friends with him first. But she decided that driving him crazy was the quickest way to get his attention just long enough so he would just do his job! And guess what? Despite all the odds the judge finally threw up his hands one morning shouting; “Oi vey! Alright already! I’ll give you what you want!”

Then Jesus reminds us that when we pray God is not like that judge at all. Instead God who is our judge is good! He wants to listen! God loves to answer our prayers. So why should we ever give up? Why should we should ever think He doesn’t care? God is listening and if we are faithful to knock on His door every morning He will answer us one day in ways far greater than we can ever imagine!

Don’t Forget to Pray by Peter Caligiuri © 2020 All rights reserved