May 11: Psalms 31 1-5

Key Verse: Psalms 31 5
Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, Lord, my faithful God.

Devotion:
What an awesome reminder of how prayer and faith must always go hand in hand. Here David is in distress of some description and so lifts up his prayers to God, not just to plead with God and ask for deliverance, but to depend on God to answer his prayers – that is faith; believing your prayers will be answered, not because it’s the right prayer at the right time, but because God is faithful!

Each time I hear someone say God has not answered a prayer because it was not the right prayer to pray I cringe and want to ask God to forgive them – but I know I am guilty of doing this too! It is not up to us to question whether we are asking the right thing at the right time, but simply up to us to lift up our prayers to God and wait patiently for His answer. You may well be surprised at His answers!

I know the feeling of someone wrapping their arms around you to show you they care or to help you see things are going to be OK. I love the feeling of a good honest hug and I miss not being able to hug people while this virus remains rampant in our world; but I know God continues to hug me and to comfort me because I know He is faithful and loving beyond anything we can imagine! David knew this too and pleads with God to come quickly and wrap His loving arms around him – because God is his rock and fortress, the safest of places he has ever known!

I marvel at the thickness of the walls of some of the castles I have visited here in the UK and know they have protected so many people in the past just because they are so strong. They have nothing in comparison to the love and security we can have from God – if we come to the fortress which is His love and faithfulness. But it may well test our faith because we cannot see the fortress like we can see a castle; and we cannot see the traps which are before us that the evil one has placed in our way… we simply have to trust in God!

Points to Ponder:
Do you find it hard trusting in the unseen?

Can you think of God as being the biggest and strongest fortress you can imagine?