03/11/2024
Pastor Rob shared a great message on praying with passion yesterday. It reminded me of a devotion I wrote about prayer. Here it is ...
Psalm 55:16-22
New Living Translation (NLT)
16 But I will call on God,
and the Lord will rescue me.
17 Morning, noon, and night
I cry out in my distress,
and the Lord hears my voice.
18 He ransoms me and keeps me safe
from the battle waged against me,
though many still oppose me.
19 God, who has ruled forever,
will hear me and humble them. Interlude
For my enemies refuse to change their ways;
they do not fear God.
20 As for my companion, he betrayed his friends;
he broke his promises.
21 His words are as smooth as butter,
but in his heart is war.
His words are as soothing as lotion,
but underneath are daggers!
22 Give your burdens to the Lord,
and he will take care of you.
He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.
"And the Lord hears my voice." Too often we only give prayer a token moment as we begin the day or maybe it is only to give thanks before a meal. Here in Psalm 55, David tells us how he approaches prayer knowing that it will bring a response from God. Are we as confident when we pray? Maybe we should approach prayer as prescribed by the Psalmist.
"Morning, noon, and night I cry out in my distress." This isn't half-hearted prayer. This is passionate prayer that begins the day with crying out to God for His help. By saying morning, noon, and night, David is telling us that his cry to God was a constant thread that ran through the entire day. No token prayer muttered in haste but a heart felt cry out to God that lasted throughout the day into the evening. In the book of James we read, "The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results." (James 5:16) The opposite of this passage would be something like this, "The half-hearted, indifferent, and token prayers of those who aren't right with God is just powerless praying and will not produce anything significant."
"Give your burdens to the Lord." This word, burdens, is used to describe the load a donkey carries or the cargo on a ship. In the Bible it is a reference to the troubles of life, to a difficult task, or to one's heavy responsibilities. Some burdens can be shifted to others as they come to help and there are some burdens that we must bear alone. Here the Psalmist encourages us to give our burdens to the Lord. He doesn't promise that the burden will be removed - but He declares that God will take care of us.
PRAYER: Father God, help us to find that place of passionate crying out to You in our prayers. Not pretend emotion that we can work ourselves into but heart felt desperation for You and for Your help with the many troubles in our lives. Our confidence is not in our abilities to solve whatever problem we face - our confidence is in Your faithfulness to take care of us. Please, God, help us to give our burdens to You. In Jesus Christ name we pray. AMEN!
