majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of
him in Psalm 6:8-9,
"Away from me, all you who do evil, for the Lord has heard my weeping.
The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer."
I'm not sure why it is, but a lot of folks these days struggle with
the notion that the Lord responds to us when we pray - when he might
not otherwise. Here David speaks of a time when the Lord responded to
his prayers during an especially difficult time in his life. David
says the Lord accepted his prayer because of his cry for mercy. The
clear implication is that if David had not cried out, the Lord would
not have responded to him.
As I say, some folks have a crazy notion that everything is all
planned out, prescripted in a fatalistic fashion. Otherwise God
wouldn't be the one behind all that happens, that somehow it endangers
our notion of his sovereignty. These folks would tell us that God
planned on David crying out and manipulated him in doing so. My Bible
couldn't be further from this kind of idea. When Jesus taught about
prayer he told us of an unjust judge. You read the story and tell me
what you think:
"Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should
always pray and not give up. He said: 'In a certain town there was a
judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a
widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, "Grant me
justice against my adversary." For some time he refused. But finally
he said to himself, "Even though I don't fear God or care about men,
yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets
justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!"
"And the Lord said, 'Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will
not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him
day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see
that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man
comes, will he find faith on the earth?"
If nothing else, Jesus taught us that it is prayer, initiated by us,
that can move God to act on our behalf. God steps into time and space
and responds to our requests! My suggestion is that when we enter into
the pages of Scripture we leave our theology at the door, otherwise
our finite minds just might miss some important things to learn about
our God.
As David found, and as our Lord taught us, God answers prayer on our behalf!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share
your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd
love to hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
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