Many of the psalms model supplicatory prayer to us. As I said last weekend, God is less concerned about giving you what you want than he is about strengthening your faith connection with him. Faith is our willingness to let God be God and to trust him as God. Without faith, we cannot relate to God at all because unless we trust him like a child, we are denying who he is. The stronger our faith, therefore, the stronger our connection with God. Because this connection is God’s priority, he will give us opportunities to exercise and grow our faith. If getting what you want quickly is your priority you are going to struggle with how God often works. But if your priority matches God’s priority, you will see every challenge as an opportunity to trust God and see his loving hand in your life in some way. There are many psalms in which the psalmists come to God in great need. But what characterises the psalms is that they are always God-focused rather than solution-focused. What the psalmists long for most is to find God in their situation. In many cases the psalmists connect with God in their hardships, and they rejoice before anything changes externally. If you are in a difficult situation, pray that you might find God in that situation in some way. You need God before you need anything else.
Pray that God would speak to you in your challenges.
Read Psalm 71.
