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Today's Passage: Psalm 86 v 5-10
Lord, you are kind and forgiving and have great love for those who call to you.
Lord, hear my prayer, and listen when I ask for mercy.
I call to you in times of trouble, because you will answer me.
Lord, there is no god like you and no works like yours.
Lord, all the nations you have made will come and worship you. They will honour you.
You are great and you do miracles. Only you are God.
Notes
After a bit of a dodgy start at the beginning of this Psalm, David's approach here is a bit better, focusing more on God's love, forgiveness, his mercy and his greatness and less on his own merits!
The challenge for me came in verse 7 "I call to you in times of trouble, because you will answer me." On one level this is just as it should be, after all, if we can't turn to God, where can we turn? Sounds easy doesn't it! Many people very fortunate and rarely encounter real times of trouble, so if they do occur they come as a bit of a shock. "Hang on God, what's going on, I'm a Christian? Took your eye off the ball for a minute there, didn't you? This isn't supposed to happen to me, you're supposed to be looking out for me ...". It's not far from there to being angry, angry with the situation, angry with those around, and angry with God and then we tend to nurse our pain and don't call on him at all. We don't feel in a right place to even think about praying, and we can certainly start to doubt that he would answer us even if we did!
Other Psalms show us some very honest anger and I have found that telling him honestly how I am feeling brings a very real healing and peace, he is big enough and gracious enough to deal with all my emotions. And yours too.
Prayer
Father, thank you for your great love for me, and that I can come to you with my hurt, my anger, my pain, my fear, with whatever I am feeling and you will meet me there and answer me. Forgive me for the times when I have not trusted you with my emotions and have bottled things up, and help me to remember that you are great, and you do miracles. Amen
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Written by Rosemary Thomson
Lord, you are kind and forgiving and have great love for those who call to you.
Lord, hear my prayer, and listen when I ask for mercy.
I call to you in times of trouble, because you will answer me.
Lord, there is no god like you and no works like yours.
Lord, all the nations you have made will come and worship you. They will honour you.
You are great and you do miracles. Only you are God.
Notes
After a bit of a dodgy start at the beginning of this Psalm, David's approach here is a bit better, focusing more on God's love, forgiveness, his mercy and his greatness and less on his own merits!
The challenge for me came in verse 7 "I call to you in times of trouble, because you will answer me." On one level this is just as it should be, after all, if we can't turn to God, where can we turn? Sounds easy doesn't it! Many people very fortunate and rarely encounter real times of trouble, so if they do occur they come as a bit of a shock. "Hang on God, what's going on, I'm a Christian? Took your eye off the ball for a minute there, didn't you? This isn't supposed to happen to me, you're supposed to be looking out for me ...". It's not far from there to being angry, angry with the situation, angry with those around, and angry with God and then we tend to nurse our pain and don't call on him at all. We don't feel in a right place to even think about praying, and we can certainly start to doubt that he would answer us even if we did!
Other Psalms show us some very honest anger and I have found that telling him honestly how I am feeling brings a very real healing and peace, he is big enough and gracious enough to deal with all my emotions. And yours too.
Prayer
Father, thank you for your great love for me, and that I can come to you with my hurt, my anger, my pain, my fear, with whatever I am feeling and you will meet me there and answer me. Forgive me for the times when I have not trusted you with my emotions and have bottled things up, and help me to remember that you are great, and you do miracles. Amen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Written by Rosemary Thomson
