Asking

[i]

Thursday, June 22, 2017

Bend down, O Lord, and hear my prayer; answer me, for I need your help.  Protect me, for I am devoted to you.  Save me, for I serve you and trust you.  You are my God.  Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am calling on you constantly.  Give me happiness, O Lord, for I give myself to you.  O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive, so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help.  Listen closely to my prayer, O Lord; hear my urgent cry.  Psalm 86:1-6^(NLT)

Did you catch all the pleading verbs?  Bend, Hear, Answer,

Protect, Save, Be Merciful, Give, Listen, Hear; prayer like that is part of our life as believers. 

We ask because Jesus taught us to go to the Father; Paul took it a step farther and told us to come boldly to the throne[ii] for a large helping of grace!

But asking is only part of our prayer life. 

·       There is also adoration, when we look with loving hearts on the One who loved us enough to die for us and save us from our sinfulness. 

·       There is confession, the acknowledgement that we are sinful and humbly agree with God that there is no part of unholy thoughts and deeds that can be part of our relationship with the Heavenly Father.

·       And there is also thanksgiving, the praise of hearts that are forgiven and freed for service to our King.

Back to the pleading of our Psalm – there is nothing wrong with laying out your needs and the desires of your heart before the Lord.  But it is a good and helpful reminder of how God arranged the order answered prayer, and the kind of heart He wants to bless.  Note the Psalm once again:

Give me happiness, O Lord, for I give myself to you.

When we give ourselves unreservedly over and into the keeping of God, it is deferring our own will in favor of His.  It is like Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane:

“Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me.  Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”  Luke 22:42^(NLT)

For You Today

In your prayer of adoration, confession, thanksgiving and asking, whose will are you seeking…yours or His?  If you can say BOTH, you may be a Methodist after all!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

NOTES

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[i] Title Image: Pixabay.com

[ii] Hebrews 4:16