MEDITATIONS FROM THE PSALMS

 

December 8, 2004

Reading: Psalm 2

“Ask of Me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance” Ps 2:8

 

Father, how you are challenging my heart recently about believing your Word. I read it, love it, and could not live without it, yet, your Spirit keeps asking, “Do you believe it?” If someone were to ask me, “Do you believe your prayers can influence the work of God in other lands?” I would answer, “Of course,” but do I really believe it? Do I pray with confidence or with the hope they will? Are my prayers like those who throw their written prayers wrapped in mud at their idol hoping they will stick? God does not say, “Ask of Me, and maybe I will give you the nations for your inheritance.” Oh, Lord, help me to fully accept Your wonderful promise “And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive” Matt 21:22.

“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” 1 John 5:14-15. There it is again, Lord, that word ‘confidence.’ For sure, believing and confidence go hand-in-hand, for unless I believe I cannot have confidence. But, Lord, what am I to believe? I believe that Your Will will be done. I believe that as I abide in You, You will make Your Will known to me so I may pray according to Your Will. Then, as Your Word tells me, I will have the petitions I ask of You.

It is so simple really, yet I make it complicated because I want to analyze everything. It is my nature to scrutinize every word You speak rather than accept them in simple faith. If only I could read Your words again for the first time. What wonderful promises You have given me—“And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it” John 14:13-14. Now then, don’t question it, accept it. Don’t analyze it, don’t ask, “What does it mean”, accept it at face value. Soul, why do you find that so difficult?

 

Master, thank You for Your wonderful promises. Help me to accept Your every word with a child-like faith. Draw me ever closer to You and help me to abide in You, to trust You to keep every promise You have made, and to pray with the confidence that You will both hear and answer to the glory of our Father.

 

“Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full” John 16:23-24.