PRAYING TO WAIT QUIETLY BEFORE GOD

PRAYING TO WAIT QUIETLY BEFORE GOD 

We spoke yesterday about being attentive and how God pays close attention to us and invites us to do the same with Him and with others.  In order to do that, we need to come a place where we can wait quietly before God. 

I wait quietly before God, for my victory comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will never be shaken.  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 62:1-2, 5-8

Those verses contain very comforting and uplifting thoughts as we remember the power and safety that we find in God.  However, we have to ask ourselves:

Are we waiting?

Are we waiting quietly?

Are we waiting before God?

It seems to me that the writer of this Psalm has maybe a few struggles like we do because he is affirming how many things come from God and how it is only in God and God alone that we experience all these benefits. 

My victory comes from him

He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress

My victory and honor come from God alone.

He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me.

While it is a fact that there is no other real place to turn to for the help that we need, I think the challenge for each of us to consider today is how we are coming before God, asking for His help, waiting for what He will do, and doing it all without living in worry, anxiety, frustration, anger – or even resorting taking things into our own hands and trying to do what we think needs doing – even though that clearly will not get us what we need – since GOD ALONE is the answer. 

Lord, help us to stand quietly, even silently before You today, waiting in peace for You to do what is needed in those things that challenge and frustrate us today.  You alone are the strong and safe one, the one who rescues and defends us in times of trouble and attack.  You are the safe place where we can let down our defenses and just relax even though trouble is all around us.   When You are with us, we don’t have to be afraid.

Too often we do stay uptight though. We want Your help immediately and You don’t always do things in our time and in our way.  Help us to wait for You to rescue us and not take matters in our own hands. Most of all today, we are asking that You would help us to wait quietly – with peace of mind and heart that trusts You to do what is right and show us anything we need to know in the process. 

We speak to our soul – our emotions and thoughts – and we speak peace.  The peace of Christ to fill our memories, our wonderings, and our reactions to what is going on.  Where we feel tense we speak God’s care and the ability to relax and let go of the tension.  Where we have been holding on to anxiety we command it to go because while things are out of our control, they are firmly in the grasp of the Living God. 

We end our prayer today with this affirmation:

God has spoken plainly, and I have heard it many times: Power, O God, belongs to you; unfailing love, O Lord, is yours.  Psalm 62:11-12a