PSALM 63:1–3 – O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.”
THEME OF THE DAY: WHAT OR WHO? When we pray, are we driven more by what God may do for us or by getting to know more of who God is? The answer to this question reveals the direction our walks with the Lord is headed – a maturing relationship of intimacy with Him or a stagnant condition of an impersonal relationship.
There is nothing wrong with asking the Lord to do things or for things. Jesus Himself taught us, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). Our Lord also taught us to ask even for our daily bread – Give us this day our daily bread (Matthew 6:11). God has promised to be a providing Father to us (Matthew 6:25-34). He welcomes our petitions or our “what” in our praying. However, we must strive to ensure our prayer lives are more shifted toward what we read in today’s scripture. David provides the higher priority in prayer. It is not the what in our relationship with God we are to pursue, but the who – God Himself.
In the opening of David’s prayer, he acknowledges the personal relationship he has with God – O God, you are my God. This was a relationship of possession. David took God as his God and God welcomed this possession. It did not mean that David saw God as his servant, ready at his beck and call in prayer. No, it meant David knew the privilege of knowing God, of being close to Him, and it created a hunger for more of God, not things from God – earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for You.
What does David truly long for from his God? It was to behold His power and glory. He knew this was the true satisfaction for his soul, contentment in his life, and that would lead to the most rewarding experience anyone will ever know – the steadfast love of God. David would go as far as to say that God’s steadfast love was better than life! Only those experiencing who God is, not merely what He gives and does, may proclaim such astounding words and experience.
Okay. What about us? What about our prayer lives? Are we more about getting God to do something for us or give something to us? No deep relationship with God will be developed with just asking Him for things. We must follow David and hunger more for Him, to know Him, to love Him, to adore Him, to conform to Him, and that by asking for more of Himself, not just things from Him.
PRAYER: Father, help me to desire You more than what You do for me
QUOTE: “To know more of God than to have more of what He does is far greater.”
In the affection of Christ Jesus,
Pastor Jim