Maybe one of the most important reasons God wants us to pour out our hearts to Him is that at the end of our pleadings we come to one thing: Only He can do what we ask. Surrender. After looking inward at ourselves we must look upward to Him, acknowledging His omnipotence, wisdom and grace. David ends his prayer with this:
But I have trusted in your steadfast love. My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because He has dealt bountifully with me. (vs. 5-6)
I have seen my God do amazing things in the past, things I did not necessarily deserve. He gave because His love is never changing. It is immutable. Can you remember the first thing you ever really trusted God for? A time when if He did not come through you would sink? I am thinking about that myself. Of course, as a kid, I prayed all kinds of things. But as an adult, I think it might have been on a trip with my husband coming home from a three month stay in California. We were driving our little hot red Mustang Mach I through the hills of western Arizona and having a deep conversation about the book of Revelation from Living Letters. Bill and I were reading it together and were caught up in the excitement of the end times. We should have been more cognizant of how much gas was in our gas tank, however. Our heads were full but our tank was empty. So as our conversation sped up the car slowed down and we realized we were out in the desert with a very thirsty coup. At the top of a pretty steep hill, the Mustang spurt-spurted and that was it. Nothing happening when Bill hit the accelerator. Ooh, boy. What to do.
Pray. Please get us to a gas station. NO GAS FOR THE NEXT 20 MILES. We had seen the sign a few miles back, but.....
Pray. We were stupid. But we trusted that if Bill just kept his foot off the brakes we would watch God take care of His young kids. Down the hill. A little too fast. Up the hill. A little too slow. Down the next hill. We were feeling the exhilaration of faith as our little car with its 351 engine moved along the highway without gas. Thrilling. What would God do? We honestly did not doubt that we would be okay. So ready were we to see our God be God.
Creeping up the last hill.....almost did not make it. The little engine that could. We are breathless. We have to make the downhill. We were sitting forward in our seats helping the car up and up. An inch at a time it seemed. We can do it.....we can do it....
At the crest of the hill, as our car started downward we spotted a little gas station out in the middle of nowhere. "Look, Kay!" Bill cried. "Gas!" But could we get there? It was still quite far away.
Pray. Car careening down the last hill. Reaching the bottom, it was still a good mile to our redemption. Each roll of the tire was for us a test of faith. Revolution after painfully slow revolution, the four little tires stopped right at the edge of the one gas station for miles and miles of Arizona highway. Whew!
That I call Situation A. Unprepared to drive through the desert. Not thinking ahead to get enough gas. God is watching His newly wed kids blithely rolling across America. Faithful to keep us, He is also faithful to teach us. He took care of us in A.
The lessons for B,C,D,E were exponentially tougher. We were hopefully getting smarter. But with each opportunity to trust, God gave us another reason to believe that He is faithful. We were not always as successful as you might hope, but He never failed.
So, that is why David can say, "I have trusted your steadfast love." Past tense. You have been there for me in the past. So, in this trying situation he knows that he "will rejoice in God's salvation." The way in which God delivers David this time will be a future song because the Lord has always, in the past, "dealt bountifully" with the psalmist.
In today's situation I want to remember how my God has saved and sustained me. From the first leap of faith to the reasons He gives me this day to trust in His love - to believe that He sees me. That He knows what I have need of before I even ask. The trip might be a bit longer than the twenty minutes or so we in anticipation to see what He would do with an empty gas tank. There might be a few hills that we think we cannot get up and over....even a few we roll back down a couple of times. But our God is faithful, past, present and future, to be the energy that fills our hearts with faith and moves us into victory. Hold your breath, because He is taking you on quite a ride!
But I have trusted in your steadfast love. My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because He has dealt bountifully with me. (vs. 5-6)
I have seen my God do amazing things in the past, things I did not necessarily deserve. He gave because His love is never changing. It is immutable. Can you remember the first thing you ever really trusted God for? A time when if He did not come through you would sink? I am thinking about that myself. Of course, as a kid, I prayed all kinds of things. But as an adult, I think it might have been on a trip with my husband coming home from a three month stay in California. We were driving our little hot red Mustang Mach I through the hills of western Arizona and having a deep conversation about the book of Revelation from Living Letters. Bill and I were reading it together and were caught up in the excitement of the end times. We should have been more cognizant of how much gas was in our gas tank, however. Our heads were full but our tank was empty. So as our conversation sped up the car slowed down and we realized we were out in the desert with a very thirsty coup. At the top of a pretty steep hill, the Mustang spurt-spurted and that was it. Nothing happening when Bill hit the accelerator. Ooh, boy. What to do.
Pray. Please get us to a gas station. NO GAS FOR THE NEXT 20 MILES. We had seen the sign a few miles back, but.....
Pray. We were stupid. But we trusted that if Bill just kept his foot off the brakes we would watch God take care of His young kids. Down the hill. A little too fast. Up the hill. A little too slow. Down the next hill. We were feeling the exhilaration of faith as our little car with its 351 engine moved along the highway without gas. Thrilling. What would God do? We honestly did not doubt that we would be okay. So ready were we to see our God be God.
Creeping up the last hill.....almost did not make it. The little engine that could. We are breathless. We have to make the downhill. We were sitting forward in our seats helping the car up and up. An inch at a time it seemed. We can do it.....we can do it....
At the crest of the hill, as our car started downward we spotted a little gas station out in the middle of nowhere. "Look, Kay!" Bill cried. "Gas!" But could we get there? It was still quite far away.
Pray. Car careening down the last hill. Reaching the bottom, it was still a good mile to our redemption. Each roll of the tire was for us a test of faith. Revolution after painfully slow revolution, the four little tires stopped right at the edge of the one gas station for miles and miles of Arizona highway. Whew!
That I call Situation A. Unprepared to drive through the desert. Not thinking ahead to get enough gas. God is watching His newly wed kids blithely rolling across America. Faithful to keep us, He is also faithful to teach us. He took care of us in A.
The lessons for B,C,D,E were exponentially tougher. We were hopefully getting smarter. But with each opportunity to trust, God gave us another reason to believe that He is faithful. We were not always as successful as you might hope, but He never failed.
So, that is why David can say, "I have trusted your steadfast love." Past tense. You have been there for me in the past. So, in this trying situation he knows that he "will rejoice in God's salvation." The way in which God delivers David this time will be a future song because the Lord has always, in the past, "dealt bountifully" with the psalmist.
In today's situation I want to remember how my God has saved and sustained me. From the first leap of faith to the reasons He gives me this day to trust in His love - to believe that He sees me. That He knows what I have need of before I even ask. The trip might be a bit longer than the twenty minutes or so we in anticipation to see what He would do with an empty gas tank. There might be a few hills that we think we cannot get up and over....even a few we roll back down a couple of times. But our God is faithful, past, present and future, to be the energy that fills our hearts with faith and moves us into victory. Hold your breath, because He is taking you on quite a ride!
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