Friday, August 05, 2016

Pause, Give Up The Floor To The Lord

Sometimes my prayer life might sound a bit like an automatic chicken. Bak, bak, bak, bak, bak, I need this, I want that, this really hurts, that is a real problem. The only chance the Lord has to respond is when I have to reload a new magazine of needs, wants, pains and problems. Life is certainly full of those things and each of them can demand the floor to speak out its desire for relief. However, I might want to consider giving up the floor of the court to allow the Lord a chance to respond. Yes, there may be some politicians who can learn from this as well, but that's a story for another day. Today, we're talking the Christian prayer life and trying to keep it from becoming a one-way and never-ending rant.

Hear my prayer, O LORD,
Give ear to my supplications!
In Your faithfulness answer me,
And in Your righteousness. (Psalm 143:1)

David wrote some great psalms. In the above first verse of psalm 143, I notice that he expects an answer from the Lord. Of course, in order for that to happen, the king must then expect a pause from himself to hear the Lord's answer. Indeed a few verses later we get a 'Selah' which, though we don't know for sure, may be a pause in the psalm, maybe even to give the Lord a time to respond to the earnest prayer. In just this one verse though, David also states why he expects an answer, and it has nothing to do with how good or right or needy he is. The Lord's faithfulness and righteousness is how David, the man after God's own heart, came to expect an answer to his supplications.

Amen! And may we pause in our busy days to give the Lord a chance to respond.

Bucky

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