Urgent prayers, daily prayers, scripture prayers—your prayers?
By Dean Collins
When is your prayer not urgent? I suspect all of us believe God is indeed listening to our prayers and engaged in answering them. Those of us who have walked in faith for many years are adept at explaining that God’s timeline and ours are different. His view is timeless, and ours always seems to be time sensitive. And try as we might, we will probably never grasp or understand eternity and timelessness until we personally cross the river and stand with the saints of old and in the presence of our eternal King.
While we prefer God would handle many of our prayer requests to our satisfaction today, we also understand that a loving and generous Father won’t force his will and way on those who have not surrendered to his lordship. One day every knee will bow and every tongue confess, but that day isn’t today. So in the meantime, while we might pray for a friend or family member to come to faith or reconnect with God, the timing and answer to that prayer have implications for us as well. Our willingness to reflect the love, grace, mercy, and patience of God with others is likely a part of the way God answers prayers.
Praying regularly
Like you, I pray regularly. I pray for many readers of this blog I know. I pray for family, for colleagues, for my employer, Point University. I could go on and on, as could you, about the many people and situations and experiences that prompt our prayers. We pray first for the vital communion that we have with God. Some days we pray with the urgency we see in this psalm, because like the author, we or someone we know is in a state of emergency, and the need for help is now.
But I also pray for things I tend to be more patient about. Things that can be fixed or made right over time are different than the prayer when a thief is at the door. The psalmist beckons God for a quick response, and he prays earnestly, even physically, as he lifts up his hands toward God as a gesture of worship.
Setting a guard
We might do well to imitate the psalmist's prayer by requesting that God set a guard over our mouths and watch our lips that we would not speak evil or choose to drift toward evil through the company we keep. While we pray that God would help us with our thoughts and speech, we might add, “and guard our fingers against typing gossip and spewing hatred in social media.”
The psalmist knows his frailties and imperfections and even his sinfulness, so he prays that the righteous come beside him and if necessary slap some sense or accountability into his life. A humble follower of Jesus welcomes godly correction.
The psalmist knew what Jesus would also teach us about evil: “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” The prayers of Jesus along with the prayers we find in Psalms provide instruction, correction, and comfort and incline the ear and heart of God when we need him urgently and when we need him as we continue our walk on this earth until we walk with him in eternity.
So pray. Pray often. Pray with urgency. Pray with expectation. Pray the Psalms. Pray the Lord’s Prayer. And know that no prayer will go unattended.
Your time with God’s Word
Psalm 141:1-7, Revelation 5:8 ESV
Photo by Ashford Marx at www.pexels.com
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