Scripture For Today: Psalm 61
“1 Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. 2 From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”
“My Lord knows the way through the wilderness, all I have to do is follow” are the words to a chorus that has been sung by believers for as long as I can remember. “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey”. Have you ever found yourself telling God what He needs to do to fix or improve things in your life. It as if you believe that “you know the way through the wilderness”, and that God really needs to “trust and obey”…you. Let’s learn an attitude and approach to prayer today that will change our walk with God.
“Choose this perspective on prayer: tell God your need not your solution, and ask God to do what He knows is best for you instead of what you have decided you need.”
It is not the activity of prayer that accomplishes the impossible in and through the lives of believers, it is the one to whom prayer is made that lifts the eyes of the struggling saint to the horizon expecting the necessary aid to be provided by grace from the throne of God. Certainly prayer is a privilege, but it is so only because it is an audience with the God who can where we can’t, who knows where we are ignorant, and who see’s where we are blind. The act of praying itself does not change things, God changes things as He works in response to the prayers of His people and in accordance with His will. David in this Psalm asks God to hear purposefully when he cries unto Him and to consider carefully, “attend to”, his prayer. An audience with God is what David seeks. While he certainly would welcome the changing of his circumstances it is a hearing in the courtroom of eternity before the righteous judge concerning his immediate needs that David asks for when he prays for God to “attend unto my prayer”. David believed that if he could get his need before God that God would meet that need in the best possible way for him. He had seen God become his shelter and fortress before in response to his cry. Now David simply asks God for an audience where he could present his case before God, have God consider it, and then David would leave the decision about his life in the hands of God. David does not tell God what he wants Him to do, he just tells God his problem, “my heart is overwhelmed:”, and then leaves the decision about what is best for him in the hands of God. “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I”. You know what I need, what is best, and how to get there God, I ask you to lead me to that place only you know. It is the example of David that the best place to be in times when the waves of life threaten to overwhelm you is in the tabernacle of God sheltered under His wings. Davids prayer is one of complete trust in God to act in David’s best interest upon seeing his desperate condition and hearing his cry for help.
Choose this perspective on prayer: tell God your need not your solution, and ask God to do what He knows is best for you instead of what you have decided you need. Let me challenge you Christian to desire to simply tell God your need and trust Him to lead you to the place of refuge that is best for you, even if it is resting in Him through the eye of the storms of life.