FROM THE SERVANT GENERAL
OUR THEME FOR 2025
(Part 4)
PERSEVERE IN PRAYER
October 3, 2024
Today’s reading:
Psalm 27:7-9,13-14
David, who had his share of serious troubles, fully trusted in God, asserting boundless hope that God would bring rescue and relief. He endured his sufferings by persevering in prayer. Not just any prayer, but intense, down-on-one’s-knees prayer, begging for God’s mercy and help. “Yahweh, hear my voice as I cry, pity me, answer me!” (v.7).
David, a man after God’s own heart, listened to the dictates of his own heart about God. “Of you my heart has said, ‘Seek his face!’” (v.8a). That is what David did. “Your face, Yahweh, I seek” (v.8b). He did not take for granted God’s love for him nor God’s promises to him. He sought God out. He pursued God. “Do not turn away from me.” (v.9a). He acknowledged his own nothingness and his helplessness apart from God. “Do not thrust aside your servant in anger, without you I am helpless.” (v.9b). He acknowledged God as his only Savior and hope. “Never leave me, never forsake me, God, my Savior.” (v.9c).
David made his profession of faith in God, that he would experience God’s goodness. “This I believe: I shall see the goodness of Yahweh, in the land of the living.” (v.13). He would experience God’s hand in his life in the here and now. His confidence is abounding, since his hope in God abounds. “Put your hope in Yahweh, be strong, let your heart be bold, put your hope in Yahweh.” (v.14).
We too must be strong and courageous as we endure in affliction. We too must boldly wait on God, persisting in prayer, knowing that in God hope abounds.
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