Praying Through the Clouds
Psalm 119:132-135 Turn to me and be gracious to me, as is your way with those who love your name. Keep steady my steps according to your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me. Redeem me from man's oppression, that I may keep your precepts. Make your face shine upon your servant, and teach me your statutes.
Sunshine is something that we naturally equate with blessing. When the sun’s shining, it casts a different light on our circumstances.
I happen to live in the beautiful harbour city of Sydney, Australia. And when the sun’s shining, you’d have to say, Sydney Harbour with the bridge and the Opera House, is absolutely stunning, truly one of the great sights anywhere in the world. But I always feel so sorry for tourists who travel half way around the world to see it, only to arrive on a dull, wet, windy, day. It’s just not the same when it isn’t bathed in that bright sunlight.
The same holds true in our lives. We want blessing to shine on us all the time. But, just as with sunny weather, it seems to come and go, without any great rhyme or reason. One moment the blessing is shining down upon us, the next minute the clouds blow in. And on those dull, overcast, gloomy days, life simply isn’t the same.
So on those days, how do you lay hold of God’s blessing?
Turn to me and be gracious to me, as is your way with those who love your name. Keep steady my steps according to your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me. Redeem me from man’s oppression, that I may keep your precepts. Make your face shine upon your servant, and teach me your statutes. (Psalm 119:132-135)
This man knows God. He doesn’t just know about Him, he knows Him. Because he’s praying into the very nature of God, relying on who God is. Turn to me and be gracious to me as is your way with those who love your name. He’s praying through the clouds and into the sunshine; into the very nature of God. Don’t you love that?
Keep me steady God, keep me relying on your promises, don’t let sin get the better of me, redeem me, save me from human oppression – why? So that I can lie on the beach and bathe in the sun? No! So that I may keep your precepts. So that I can live according to your word. So that I can get on and be about your business, for your glory.
Here is a man who is a man of God’s Word. That much is plain the moment you start reading Psalm 119 – and it is well, worth a read in its entirety. And as he prays through the clouds, from the gloomy side to the bright side, he finishes by asking this of God: Make your face to shine upon me and teach me your statutes.
You see, the two are linked: God’s blessing and God’s Word. In fact they’re inseparable. Listen to me – God wants to bless you and that blessing is ready and waiting in His Word.
And that – that’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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