Skip to main content

Going to Him with Confidence

This Sunday my church is going into a time of prayer and fasting. For 21 days the whole church will be using these first days of 2019 to seek God and draw closer to Him. As I think about what this means for me, how I should fast and the types of prayers I should pray, King David comes to mind.

As I read through the Psalms, I can't help but sometimes picture David as a persistent, unrelenting toddler. I can picture him just like my two year old tugging at me and insisting on my attention until I finally give in and sit down, put my coffee down, and play cars, even though it's bedtime and I'm exhausted. David was unrelenting in his insistence on God's attention and he got it!

Here are the first verses out of a block of chapters showing David's persistence.
  • Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. (Psalm 51:1)
  • Save me, O God, by Your name, and vindicate me by Your strength. (Psalm 54:1)
  • Give ear to my prayer, O God, and do not hide Yourself from my supplication. Attend to me, and hear me; I am restless in my complaint, and moan noisily...Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice. (Psalm 55:1-2, 17)
  • Be merciful to me, O God, for man would swallow me up; fighting all day he oppresses me. (Psalm 56:1)
  • Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; and in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, until these calamities have passed by. I will cry out to God Most High, to God who performs all things for me. (Psalm 57:1-2)
David knew where his help "cometh" from and boldly prayed for it.

David prayed scary prayers born out of his need for protection. His prayers showed ultimate trust in God.
  • Arise, O Lord, confront him, cast him down; deliver my life from the wicked with Your sword...(Psalm 17:13) 
  • Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved. (Psalm 55:22)
  • You number my wanderings; put my tears into Your bottle; are they not in Your book? When I cry out to You, then my enemies will turn back; this I know, because God is for me. In God (I will praise His word), in the Lord (I will praise His word), in God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? (Psalm 56:8-11) 
  • Add iniquity to their iniquity, and let them not come into Your righteousness. Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous. (Psalm 69:27) (wow...)
Lastly, David knew how to praise God. This is something I can't forget to do as I pray and fast. Here are some praises from David.
  • Sing to God, sing praises to His name; extol Him who rides on the clouds, by His name Yah, and rejoice before Him. (Psalm 68:4)
  • Blessed be the Lord, Who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation! (Psalm 68:19)
  • I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bull, which has horns and hooves. (Psalm 69:30-31)
David had confidence in our God, just like a child has confidence that his parent will provide him nourishment, protection, and sound direction. Even Jesus taught us to have a child-like faith. "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:3) Let us be as confident as a child when we pray and earnestly believe that God hears us.

I'm excited to see what God has in store for 2019.

Comments

Post a Comment

Please share your thoughts and reflections spurred on by this post. :)

Popular posts from this blog

Insignificance: Parable of the Lost Son

Hello! Women's Prayer Call Series: Parable of the Lost Son Today I want to share my thoughts on the parable of the lost son which is found in Luke 15 verses 11 through 32. When I read through this parable last week, I felt led to talk about the struggle of feeling mentally lost and insignificant because of where you are right now - whatever those circumstances may be. I want you to look at this story and see how Jesus is telling us that God cares a lot about the wellbeing of each and every one of us. I want to encourage you to see how valuable you are to God right where you are. So you know where I’m going with this. Here’s a quick summary of the parable, and I think it’s a good idea to read it in the context of all of chapter 15. Jesus starts with a story of a man losing one of his sheep; he describes how the man leaves the other 99 sheep to go after the 1 that was lost. When the man finds the lost sheep, he puts the sheep on his shoulders, brings it home, and gathers his friends ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Peter: The Zealous Teacher

While reading the Book of John, I became very curious about the ministry of Peter.  I plan to explore the other books of the Bible to learn about him and I am currently reading through Peter's letters. Similar to how I studied John, I will jot down some of my thoughts from the Books of Peter here. I'm finding these chapters interesting and full of good truths to ponder over. What strikes me is how it is plain to see how Jesus has taught Peter to be passionate about his commission and loving. This love is evident in the advice that Peter offers in his letters. Let's look at 1 Peter, chapter 1 together. 1 Peter 1 I thought about how Peter is talking to people exiled from their homeland and living in different places. It's interesting how he encourages them to behave in a new way - a way of holiness. To me, it would seem like the natural thing to tell a person living in a strange land is to either: (1) blend in to fit in with the people in their new surroundings; or (2) st...
1 comment
Read more

A Hope for Something New

It's been a while since I last posted. Though I missed blogging and felt an internal pressure to write, I decided to not give in to my inner critic and took a break. I was still reading my Bible and finished reading Proverbs, however, my joy in getting up early in the morning waned. I am going to experiment with some other times in the day to see what will work for me now. Over the past year I have learned and accepted that I'm not a creature of habit. I love to hop around and multitask and dive into different projects. With this in mind, it kind of makes sense that my attempt at keeping to a regular schedule of getting up at 5 am would not last forever. 😂 Because of my struggle with this, my practice of writing down my thoughts and doing a deep dive to understand what I was reading slowly stopped. I missed the deep dive and I hope with recreating my schedule, I can do some more writing and then some more blogging. Anyone else have this same struggle with trying to stick to a ...
Post a Comment
Read more