Prayer To Experience God As Our Rock, Our Salvation, OUr Fortress

For the past couple of days I’ve  been sharing some verses from the Bible that have carried me through several decades now. 

Today I want to simply focus on the practice of letting God’s word come alive in us.  We can read and read but unless the truth of what God is saying gets attached to where we are at, we don’t benefit so much from it.

Something I read this morning had me going word by word and reflecting on what was lovely and true about these words.  Let me read the little section and then we’ll go back and focus.

Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken. My victory and honor come from God alone. He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me. O my people, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge.  Psalm 62:5-8

“LET ALL THAT I AM – We need to make space in our hearts and minds for the peace and blessing of God.  That means we must give up everything that is crowding our minds and bringing uncertainty to our heart.  God won’t take it from us but we can hand it over to Him.  God cares.  We must give ALL of it.  It’s a great practice to just pause and reflect on what is bothering us and just name those thoughts and situations to God and say, “Here this is God.  I need you to do what’s right here.  I surrender this and myself in all of this to You.  I put this part of my life into Your care.”  The wonderful truth is that God is with us  God is for us.  God is in control.  There is no situation we’re facing that God does not have a great plan already prepare for.

Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.  1 Peter 5:7

WAIT QUIETLY – that’s so often the challenge isn’t it?  These days of being at home a lot there’s space for quiet in our circumstances but what’s going on between our ears and in that heart of ours?  Most of us are tired of waiting for what we think we want and how we want this day and this year to go.  What is God saying and doing in all of this?  What a great moment we have to stop and ask Him

Be still, and know that I am God!  Psalm 46:10

BEFORE GOD  - because that’s the key point isn’t it?  We don’t wait alone.  We wait with God.  On our own we would have lots of reasons to panic and feel burdened and wonder where everything is headed.  But, when we bring ourselves to that place of conscious awareness that we are in God’s presence and that God is with us in whatever we are in, there is a peace and confidence that seeps into some place deep inside and steadies us.

You know, I just heard from a friend of mine these days and listen to this comment about the part of the church in China that we are familiar with:  “We also are in close contact with the leaders of our churches in China and Taiwan. The churches in China are doing specially good. In times of suppression, people get fired up for the Lord.”  Oh my, what we can learn from these faithful brothers and sisters.

Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken. My victory and honor come from God alone. He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me. O my people, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge.  Psalm 62:5-8

Heavenly Father, with assurance we want to echo the words that King David prayed when he said that he was waiting quietly before You because His hope was in You.  You alone are our rock and our salvation, our fortress where we will not be shaken. 

Our victory and honor come from You God, alone.  You are our refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me.

We don’t know how and when or any of the details but we just know that You are a good God who loves us completely and is and has everything we need to take us through whatever 2021 brings.  Our hope is not in a vaccine – although we give thanks for it.  Our hope isn’t even in things getting back to some kind of normal – whatever that will look like.  Our hope is in You alone.

You ALONE are our rock and our salvation, our fortress where we will not be shaken.

Help us to focus on what is real and let all the other distractions and difficult things move to the edge.  Fill our hearts again today, we pray, with this great strength and the courage and confidence that result as we live today in that special place – hidden with Christ in God.

For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:3