Pray with a Genuine Heart

As you pray over Scripture, don’t worry if your prayer isn’t perfect. If you intend to glorify God in His majesty, righteousness, and Divinity, you will pray like Daniel, Ezra, or Nehemiah. A prayer with praise, supplication, petition, repentance, and thanksgiving. Also, don’t get stuck in a passage of the Psalms that isn’t speaking to you now. Read the passage, then pray over one verse that stands out. What counts for God is that we worship Him above all other gods.

The Lord is my strength.

1I love you, O Lord, my strength. 2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
3 I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies.

The Lord is my strength in every trial or situation we face. You are at the helm of all our troubles and will turn whatever is evil into what is good. We will praise You above all other gods because You have strengthened our faith and heart to do Your will. O, Lord, You do not cease to amaze us how grace and will in power and sovereignty crushed any enemies or evil plot before Your people are crushed with no remnants. “He rescued me from my strong enemy and those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me” (18:17). Your promises are full of hope and comfort. Let us stand waiting for You with hope, joy, and patience.

In my Distress

 The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of destruction assailed me; 5 the cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me. 6 In my distress I called upon the Lord;  to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.

O God, Forgive us when we fear cultural trends could crush us with their hatred of indoctrination, false teachings, and war rumours. In You, we trust even when we cannot be changed or understand the overall outcome of this future. Teach us to live in the moment for You, not compromising our faith.

Most High (v7-19)

The Most High uttered His voice with power and will send His angels against those who do evil. At Your rebuke, none can’t stand and face Your wrath. Only through Your Son, Jesus, can we be spared and live. O God, avenge us from those who persecuted, mocked, and coerced Your people.

David’s Claims of Faithfulness (v20-30)

“For You save a humble people, but the haughty eyes bring down!” O God, You lightened our darkness by purifying us of our sins. By Your side, we can leap for joy. For You’ve already won this earthly battle. We must remember this and praise Your Name. Live in joy and not fear what comes tomorrow.

Victory! (31-45)

God, You’re our Lord, our sure salvation and rock. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our heart be acceptable in Your sight.

Morning, August 22nd, 2023

“I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love.”— Song of Solomon 5:8

Such is the language of the believer panting after present fellowship with Jesus, he is sick for his Lord. Gracious souls are never perfectly at ease except they are in a state of nearness to Christ; for when they are away from him they lose their peace.

The nearer to him, the nearer to the perfect calm of heaven; the nearer to him, the fuller the heart is, not only of peace, but of life, and vigour, and joy, for these all depend on constant intercourse with Jesus.

What the sun is to the day, what the moon is to the night, what the dew is to the flower, such is Jesus Christ to us.

What bread is to the hungry, clothing to the naked, the shadow of a great rock to the traveller in a weary land, such is Jesus Christ to us; and, therefore, if we are not consciously one with him, little marvel if our spirit cries in the words of the Song, “I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, tell him that I am sick of love.”

This earnest longing after Jesus has a blessing attending it: “Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness”; and therefore, supremely blessed are they who thirst after the Righteous One.

Blessed is that hunger, since it comes from God: if I may not have the full-blown blessedness of being filled, I would seek the same blessedness in its sweet bud-pining in emptiness and eagerness till I am filled with Christ.

If I may not feed on Jesus, it shall be next door to heaven to hunger and thirst after him. There is a hallowedness about that hunger, since it sparkles among the beatitudes of our Lord. But the blessing involves a promise.

Such hungry ones “shall be filled” with what they are desiring. If Christ thus causes us to long after himself, he will certainly satisfy those longings; and when he does come to us, as come he will, oh, how sweet it will be! ~ Charles Spurgeon

Resources

• BibleGateway.com