July 28: Psalms 119 145-148

Key Verse: Psalms 119 148
My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises.

Devotion:
When things get desperate, we start to get desperate – but how desperate do you have to be before you call out to God and ask Him to help, no matter what! Many times we lift up prayers with pre-conditions. We ask God to help us in a way we can deal with it, but not put ourselves out! What are we thinking!

When we ask God to help us, we should be willing to accept whatever God gives us with the full knowledge He knows what is best for us and will continue to help us in ways we cannot understand. When this Psalms was written down, the author calls out to God in desperation but tries to bolster his chances of the prayers being answered by promising things to God… if you help me I will obey your scriptures! If you help me I will keep to your rules and regulations!

Things start to change when he says he continues to think about what God is doing in his life and continues to wonder why… If we accept God is doing things in our lives and accept He does know what is best for us, then when we sit down and really understand what He does and try to figure out why He does, then we will begin to understand true grace and forgiveness.

God wants us to know Him and His ways, not just to follow them blindly, but to really think about why God is helping us out. The more we understand why God is helping us, the more we will realise how much more God wants to do. What we also need to accept is God is also going to help out those people around us, some of whom we may not feel like they deserve help – but God knows best!

Points to Ponder:
Do you put conditions on your prayers?

Will you do what God asks even if your prayers are not answered your way?