Saturday 17 Aug 2013

Saturday Reading: Psalm 5:1-3

Key Verse: Psalm 5:3
3  My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.

Devotion:
When you lift up your prayers to God, how do you do it? Have you ever thought about exactly what you are doing when you do lift up your prayers to God? Have you ever wondered how God would see your prayers? I can normally think of all sorts of prayers that I should be saying before I get down to pray and then have difficulty remembering everything when I actually do get down to it! Yes I know I am getting older but our prayers do not have to be structured and written down, learned and repeated. God wants us to come to Him just as naturally as we ask things of our friends!

But just because we can come to Him at any time and with any prayers does not mean that we should talk to Him like a long lost relative or the bloke down the road! When we come to pray we need to remember just who it is we are lifting up our prayers to. We need to remember just what we are asking for as well. He is our Saviour and King, almighty God! If we spend our time practicing our prayers and then finally stringing the words together that we have learned, then I fear that what is coming out is just another string of words and not what is on our hearts.

God wants us to bring our prayers to Him as we need to, not once a week or when we are called to pray, but always and with reverence and fear because He is God! And then there is the issue of when we do pray. Do we leave it for once a week or do we lift up our heartfelt prayers to Him as soon as we can?

And then we have the issue of making sure we remember Him in love and fear so that our prayers do come from our hearts and not just from another book we read or someone else. God listens to each one of our prayers and He remembers them from that moment onward. It is not what we have learned that we have to string together but the words that God impresses in our hearts and minds that God really wants to listen to. He wants us to be honest and open so that we can live for Him continually. Do you lift up your prayers as soon as you wake up or do you try and construct a list of things before you speak. Be honest, open, patriotic and loving just as Christ was!

Points to Ponder:
Do you lift up your voice to Christ?

Do you wait patiently for an answer?