Time in the Word ~ Psalm 5:3

There is nothing more important to the victorious life in Christ than believing, persevering prayer to God. David was a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22) and his practice of it is beautifully expressed for us in our devotional text.

The context of Psalm 5 is the slander of men against David, and his appeal for God to deal with their evil ways and protect David. But in Psalm 5 there is a prayer practice that all of us who are walking with Jesus Christ should adopt. David’s prayer practice was to awake in the morning hours and place his request before his Lord, and then wait in expectation as to how and by what manner the Lord would answer his request for help that day!

Prayer is not a sometimes thing, where there is no persevering commitment because there is no expectation that God will do anything with our prayers. Do you really believe that prayer to our God has the power to change circumstances, people, and our own capabilities in this life to allow us to victoriously deal with whatever life puts in front of us? If you do, then you will pray and expect God to answer, and when he does, you will rejoice in thanksgiving and respond to your Lord in more trust and obedience.

Prayer is faith spoken, and it is also the communication of intimacy and love by a child of God who perseveres in prayer, expecting an answer, and never gives up on God’s faithfulness to answer prayers (Luke 18:1-8). This is important, friend, to the victorious life, because it is not simply the requesting but also the expecting that is important to the balance of faith in the Christian. Write your requests down so that you might recall the desires of your heart as you enter your private place alone with your God, to bow before him and seek his tender-hearted mercies for your life.

As David later says, it is good to proclaim God’s love in the morning and God’s faithfulness at night (Psalm 92:2). God’s faithfulness of course refers to God’s answer to spoken prayer as we affirm God’s love for us each morning. My concern for many us is that our prayer life is weak because we have no daily purpose or rhythm in our prayer life. The sacred sequence to victorious prayer is to request, and then to receive, and then to rejoice with thankful praise to the Father of all lights and gifts. Believing prayer is expecting prayer, and victorious prayer is persevering prayer.

TODAY, FATHER, I WILL MAKE IT MY PRACTICE TO RAISE MY PRAYER TO YOU IN THE MORNING AND WAIT EXPECTANTLY DURING THE DAY FOR YOUR ANSWER IN MY LIFE. AMEN!

Article source: Mike White @ Summit church of Christ