Daily Prayer Guide ~ May 7 – Looking for God’s answers to Prayers

Read:

Psalm 63

¹ You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you,

my whole being longs for you,

in a dry and parched land where there is no water.

² I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.

³ Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.

⁴ I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.

⁵ I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

⁶ On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night.

⁷ Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

⁸ I cling to you; your right hand upholds me.

Matt 7:7-11

⁷ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

⁹ “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹ If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

Consider:

David wrote Psalm 63 from the desert, a place of desolation and desperation.  He was not in a place where he longed to live, but he found himself in a place he hoped he would not have to experience.  Scholars believe he wrote this when he fled to the desert in Judah from his own son Absalom who was seeking to kill him.   David was a man who lived his life pressing into his relationship with God.  To him this was a very personal matter, crying out for a very real situation. 

From the beginning, he acknowledged and aligned himself with God and he was pursuing his God with great earnestness.  He was pouring his heart and emotions out to God, he was putting his whole self into praying to God, he longed for God like a long cool drink while he was physically in the heat of the desert.  He was expecting something from God that he could not find on his own in his current setting. 

For David, his relationship with God was always on his mind.  Whether he was on the run in the heat of the day, or on his bed in the middle of the night, his heart and mind were steadfast in pursuing his Lord. 

Like Jesus taught the people in Matthew 7, we must be willing to ask, seek and knock to experience God’s faithful responses.  It is one thing to ask God for what we need, and some stop there and never realize what Good has for them.   Others will take the initiative of the next step to seek God out.   Our prayers will require our involvement of looking for the answers and at times they will come in ways and places we never expected.  We must also be willing to stand at the door and knock, and knock, and knock, waiting for God’s response.  We don’t know when he will come to the door, so we keep knocking. 

For some, if they don’t get what they want in the time and ways they want it, then they look for ways to deal with their needs on their own.  Their initiative is to satisfy their needs by their own methods.  They assume God was too busy, or not interested in answering their prayer, so they will take care of it on their own. 

But God is looking at prayer as a relationship with him, like David had with him.  David was very aware of his circumstances but his heart longed for God.  Are you and I standing at the door knocking to get what we want, to or are we wanting for God to open a door to himself?

Prayer: Father, Thank you that you long for us to call to you.  We have seen you in your sanctuary and beheld your power and glory, and so we praise you for your goodness. 

·      Take a moment to recall how you have experienced God and his power in your life.

Father we long for you to the depths of our souls, to know you and experience your goodness in our lives.

·      Take a moment and express to him how you long for him in your words.

Father, we cry out to you and ask, plead, for your hand to move in this area of our life.  We cling to you like David did – in your own words cry out to God for your own needs.

We look for your good answer, in your timing and manner.  We stand knocking and waiting for you to open so we can be with you.    

Take a moment to pray for God to allow churches buildings across our city to open again so we can gather to worship him in his congregation.  May he be praised by his people in Jesus name,  Amen.