Verse for Today: Thursday, July 21, 2011
Psalms 17:7 – Show the wonder of Your great love, You who save by Your right hand those who take refuge in You from their foes. The Psalmist who experienced the Lord in his past has, in his prayer, observed so many of the attributes of the Lord as the Lord exhibited these in his situations. David has seen the Lord through these attributes which were demonstrated in a mighty way in his life. So he bases his prayers on the merit of these attributes of God. He found the Lord to extend His loving kindness to His people which for them are amazing. Even when they did not deserve it, the Lord showed great loving kindness which amazed them. David also experienced the Lord’s right hand which is the hand of deliverance, salvation, protection, provision and preservation. He saw the Lord to be the unfailing bulwark in which His children could take refuge. When we confide in this great refuge, He takes away all our fear, doubt, confusion, anxiety, worry, stress, burden and unbelief. This has led the Psalmist to pray to the Lord who is keen to express His great attributes in the life situations of His children. David tasted the Lord who knew the intensity of oppression and fear that griped his life and gave him deliverance. He found the Lord who was with him during all his greatest trials and delivered him from all alarms. So David’s prayer teaches us today that there is no need for God’s children to loose hope about their situations and circumstances because their Lord is in it all with them.
Dear friend, have you had opportunities to witness the great attributes of the Lord exhibited in your life? When you pray on the basis of the great attributes of the Lord in and through your life situations, He will definitely come to exhibit it by rescuing you from your troubles. Thus your life and situations become a platform where God’s great attributes are demonstrated. So in essence, your prayers are opportunities for God to present Himself to you as the great deliverer, refuge and the reservoir of loving kindness. Your prayers are also the barometer of your dependence on the Lord as He responds to your prayers by showing His mighty power in your life and situations to reveal His strength and authority over all your situations. But this necessitates us to pray with genuine faith and leave all our cares at His feet as He has instructed us to do. When we have a difficulty, we should let Jesus know about it like Mary and Martha of Bethany. This is not because Jesus doesn’t already know our needs, for He knows all about us and our needs even before we are aware of it. But it is our prerogative to let the Lord know about our needs which is our way to express our total dependence on Him. Just as He exhibited His glory at Bethany, Cana, Sea of Galilee, Jerusalem and other places, He will exhibit His glory in and through our lives also if we submit our situations to Him. He will preserve, protect, deliver and comfort us in our all situations through the wonder of His loving kindness. He will not let us go through our difficult situations all alone. But He will go with us and hold our hands as we pass through these valleys in our lives and take us to the other side of troubles. This is how we can end each day with the Lord. So let us today go to Him with confidence, casting all our cares on Him and leave it there for Him to handle it by His right hand. He will be our refuge in whom we can find rest, peace and joy.
Psalms 18:31 & 32 – For who is God, but the Lord? And who is a rock except our God? The God who girds me with strength and makes my way perfect. Thought for TodayPrayer is our expression of dependence on our Lord who is ready to exhibit His power and glory in our situations and circumstances.