Today's read is a little different, I hope you will enjoy a Word of Prayer in His Word!
A Prayer in Psalms…
Upon reading Psalm 37
one day I realized that there was a Psalm 38 after that, and a 39 after that! Amazing,
isn’t it? We so often will begin on one scripture and only read that one
particular one not realizing that the Lord wants to speak to of us of so much
more?
The following is what I derived from
what He gave me that day.
When I go through a trial or temptation or test, I tend to go through it in stages. Maybe you are the same?
In the following Psalms I found a pattern of prayer and living out the growth
process the Lord brought David through, that I see myself using as well!
Lets begin with Psalm 37-Often times
when we go to prayer for a need it is because of a situation that actually is
out of our hands. We are stressing over a job, a person who is in the way in
our life or something that happened because of something else or someone else.
Circumstances beyond our control.
Verse 1-2 tells us what we should do
at times like this; not stress over it. They share with us such truths as the
fact that it is a temporary trouble. It will only last as long as it takes for
the grass to wither. If you live in California, you know it does not take that
long to wither grass!
Then the chapter goes
on to tell us to trust God, and gives us reasons, examples etc.
When I come up
against a problem or a need I will usually cry out to God with a lack of faith
or trust in God to do what I am asking yet knowing that He can do it just the
same. I wonder often, if the lack of faith and trust is in Him, or in myself to
believe for it? Verses 18-20 remind us of how He can take on anything for us
because He already knows the days of our lives! He knows what will come of us
if we make the wrong choice, or if we wait for His answer.
Then as we remind ourselves what He
has done, and pray that to God, He reminds us to keep our heart right with Him
and that these things will come to pass, in due time. Once again, it’s that
‘time thing’, everything is on a time limit. Our temptations or our desires of
our hearts as well as our sorrows or stress; it is all a matter of time.
A lot of times it
seems that just as we begin to realize that He will bring it to pass in His
time, that He answers the prayer. Psalm 37 is great for encouraging me in times
like this.
Psalm 38 is called a prayer in time of
Chastening, to bring to remembrance, as well as a Psalm of David.
To clarify the point
of this prayer in Psalms, look at it this way.
This is the time in
our prayer time that we unload, we have been trying to be brave, to trust Him
to bring it to pass but we can’t do it on our own!
This is when we
bellow to God asking Him silly questions like ‘why He has forgotten our prayer
needs’, and ‘why we don’t get what we want all the time’ and yes I did say
silly!
Why do I dare call a
prayer need silly?
Because these types
of ‘why prayers’ are selfish and God wants to purge us of these things! We need
to stop being selfish when we pray.
Less of me and more
of Him!
When we realize our selfishness in a need, or how small it is in comparison to
someone else’s need it can be humbling. We can sometimes see that He has cut
off our tail to clean up our act!
I say this because of
a situation I had with one of my children.
When he was born, I
chose not to cut a portion of his hair. I decided it would be fun to keep it
and cute, and cool and all of that nonsense.
Until one day when he was around 4 yrs old I had the though that it was
a problem. I don’t know if it was the Lord or my own thoughts on it, but I
realized it was like a reverse of Samson.
He was getting out of
hand, we had done what we could yet he would throw temper tantrums like his almost
two year old sister, he was definitely a strong willed child at that point!
I had the thought to
cut the tail, and his attitude would change.
So, I did. I have it
in his baby book along with the one he grew after that.
And do you know what?
It changed his appearance, he looked clean cut and organized, and his behaviors
fit the mold!
He was much better
behaving, much more appropriate in his treatment of his sister and got a lot
more good attention from other people who noticed it was cut off!
Now this may have
been a coincidence, or it may have been that the Lord knew that if I followed
His prompting it would give me a better perspective as well? Who knows but God?
My delight was in doing His will, my
child delighted in doing my will. Sometimes a small thing we do makes a big
difference! It’s an obedience thing!
Often times we think
we are unstoppable because of an earthly quality we have, whether it is good looks
or athletic ability what ever it is. We think it is all us, and we are all
that!
But when our hearts
change, and we realize that it is His doing and HE is the only one who is “all
that” then we figure out that its not about us but that it is about Him.
When I reach this point,
I am humbled and ready for the next Psalm.
Psalm 40 is a Psalm
of persevering in a trial and making it through the fire or storm to the other
side!
We remember the facts, that God is going to bless us when we follow through on
trusting Him, as we prayed, we would in the beginning!
He will bless us and
cause us to delight in Him as we remember it’s not our will but His that is to
be done!
We can look back and
look ahead to see the many things He has done and will do for us as this prayer
is answered. And it will be answered! He will deliver us out of the pit we are
in, away from those who are giving us problems. He will be our salvation! He
knows our hearts, we know He knows our needs, He is in control, and We can go
on living because He is directing things how they should go!
Though we feel weak
and weary from the battle we can hold on! We can make it, because He is going
to make it with us, for us and through us!
So we begin to
rejoice, and bless the Lord! For He is doing so many things in our lives on our
behalf!
He is the Lord, He
has set us before His face, In His presence we shall remain forever!
HE will not leave us
in the wearied state we stood in but instead will bring us to fruition!
HE will continue to
grow us out of the turmoil!
He will be there with
us as we suffer through it and come out victorious because, He is Lord of our
lives!
Reading suggestions
for this week: Psalm 37:1-40, Psalm 38:1-22, Psalm 39:1-13 and Psalm 40:1-17