Verse of the Day - Psalm 5:3

In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. ~ Psalm 5:3 (NIV)

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I know many people have their quiet time with God in the morning. It does help that, in the morning, we're somewhat refreshed from a nights' sleep, and can rally our thoughts into prayers to the Lord. Nighttime is not my best discussion time with God -- I'm usually so tired by then, God probably feels like the Verizon commercial..."Can you hear me now?" All He hears from me are "zzz's". I read once that one of the stalwarts of the Christian faith used to allot a full two hours to prayer in the morning before starting his day, feeling out of sorts if he didn't. Wow! And mornings are great for morning people, like me. But mornings aren't for everyone (I can hear the "amens"!), so don't worry if you just can't clear the brain fog in the morning to talk coherently with God. There is no law that says God hears better in the morning, or only answers prayers before noon. :-) Talking to Him is what's important, not so much when...

And if prayer is simply your communication with God, two hours might not seem too far out...it's like chatting on the phone with a good friend! But if prayer seems like drudgery to you, an obligation you perform because it seems the thing to do as a Christian, I'm sure even five minutes will seem like an eternity.

Relationship, not religion. That's the essence of prayer. Talking to our Father and pouring out all of our hurts, joys, needs, wants, praises, pleas. He is a great listener and hears every word. Not only that, but He has the whole world in His hands -- He's big enough to manage everything we face, to give us what we need to be His children in this world, to help us sort out His will versus our will.

David made an important point in this verse. He waited in expectation for God to answer. That says two things to me:

~ He was listening for God's answers
~ He believed God would answer

Are we good listeners when it comes to our prayers? Are we confident that God will answer?

Sometimes, we're like Chatty Cathy's --- talk, talk, talk! But the listening part gets short-changed. We say "amen" and go on about our business, and God says, Hey, I was talkin' here! Being quiet before God is a discipline, I think, that takes practice.

And as far as being confident in God's answering goes? Well, frankly, I think it's not so much that we question whether God will answer, but we just aren't confident in how God will answer, and rightly so! We don't know the big picture of God's plan, and we're fallen creatures and often pray selfishly. We want what we want, and we're afraid God will say 'no'. And He often does. Praise God for that! We need to be rescued from ourselves...we need the shaping that occurs when He answers against our grain. But this shaping is done to help us have more of the mind of Christ, to want what God wants, to submit to His plan and give Him room to do what is best.

Prayer isn't a lucky coin you wish on and plunk into a fountain. It's open conversation with your deepest and dearest Friend --that is, if you want it to be...

Love,
Joelene