Psalm 66:16-20

16Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what he did for me.17For I cried out to him for help, praising him as I spoke. 18If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. 19But God did listen! He paid attention to my prayer. 20Praise God, who did not ignore my prayer or withdraw his unfailing love from me.

David had a big problem, and like David, sometimes we will find ourselves in serious situations which we can let dictate our response to life. David reminds us that we don’t have to respond to the problems of life by focusing on them because we have something bigger than problems, we have the person of Jesus Christ. What are you going to respond to, the problem or the person of Jesus, are you going to panic or pray? David chose to respond to God with everything he had “he cried out to God”. Many times we hold back in our response to God but one of the greatest things we can do is to cry out to Him. Are you facing a difficult situation, do you need God to deliver you? Who are you turning to, who will you cry out to?

David understood that it was God alone who could deliver. He teaches us several things about deliverance as we look backwards through these verses and depend on God through prayer.

•  David’s preparation for deliverance v. 18

Many times we just want God to fix or change our situation, what is going on around me, but is that the real problem? Often the perceived problem that shows up on the outside is really tied to the personal problem that is raging inside. David was willing to prepare to be delivered by peering into what was happening on the inside. David’s inspection of his own heart revealed the real problem – sin. David knew the power of God and he understood that only God could deliver. He also knew about the power of sin and he understood the barrier of sin. Our prayers will be ineffective if our lifestyle is in contradiction with our lips. Are your lips saying one thing and your life saying another? Our character and our conduct should match and when our lips praise while our life profanes we have a problem. When we become polluted and poisoned our prayer life becomes paralyzed and powerless. Sin has the power to dominate and dictate our lives to take control and become the captain, holding us captive as we become caught by its crippling condition. David sought God’s deliverance first from sin and then the situation. Are we more concerned with results or repentance, with the fixing or forgiveness? David reveals a heart that is right with God, a heart that is prepared for His deliverance. Is there anything that prevents you from praying effectively? Do you need to look inward and take inventory of your heart?

• David’s Position for deliverance. Vs 17

So many times we try everything we can do to fix the situation first, and then we say “I guess all I can do now is pray.” It’s almost as if we feel like we have to “give in” to prayer instead of we get to pray. The position of prayer is humility and David’s cry to God was not just a cry about the situation it was also a cry of surrender. He was surrendering his way, his life, and his power. We dislike surrender because it’s a loss of control and it makes us feel powerless and vulnerable. David wasn’t crying out because he was in control and we need to understand that we are already powerless and vulnerable. Crying out to God, surrendering our lives to Him, opens the flood gates of His power so we can experience the surge of His peace. Do you need to surrender today?

• David’s proclamation of deliverance Vs 16

David wanted to share what God had done for him, his testimony, not only of God’s power but God’s personal care “what he did for me”. Many times we focus more on the problem than the person of Jesus, but God cares about us. We get to that place where we cry out to God with the problem but do we cry out to others with the praise?  God had done great things for David and he wanted everyone to know about it. Praise should be the result of a clean heart crying out to God. God deserves our praise and the world deserves to know about His power. David is essentially telling us the score, God – 1, the difficult circumstances of his life – 0. When we cry out with praise it will encourage others to cry out to the Lord in their despair and in their need of deliverance. Do you need to cry out in praise?

1 Timothy 2:1-4

I urge, then, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

The elections are over and in spite of the reactions of many people God is still in control and we are still called to be people of prayer.  We have an amazing country founded on solid truths but the paradox of our time is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower minds. We spend more, but have less. We buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life. We’ve added years to life not life to years! We have been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We’ve conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We have built more gadgets to share more information, yet we communicate less and less. How can we be missing the mark by so far? And what is missing that is causing us to miss the mark?

Paul calls us to pray, we can either focus on the problems or the Provider. Paul also calls us to prayer with a focus on the target, because without a target we will always miss the mark. Paul clearly reminds us of that the target of prayer is:

• Others

Our last thirty day series on serving reminded us that the focus of serving should be outward focused, directed toward others. As we start our new thirty day series on prayer we also need to have an outward prayer life which is directed toward others. Paul’s first call is to urge us into action, why urge us, because action does not take place on its own. But we will never respond to this call if we don’t see prayer as action. Unfortunately many of us see prayer as a last resort not a first action? Paul’s gives us several aspects to prayer that give further emphasis to its outward focus. Supplication is humbly asking God to provide something on behalf of someone else, prayers here means to step out of the problems and into His presence, intercession is pleading on behalf of another and thanksgiving is an outward heart attitude. Prayer is an action in which we express our love for others. If we really want to see change then maybe we need to respond to Paul and be incited to pray! Who are you praying for?

•  Our Leaders

If we spent the same amount of time on our knees for the leaders of our nation that we do in complaining about them would we see a difference? Why is it easier to turn to frustration and facebook than to God? Our tendency is to criticize those in leadership; instead we are called to care by coming alongside in prayer.  Belief effects behavior and if we really believe that prayer changes the world we live in, that it is possible to live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness, then our behavior would be characterized by prayer.

• God’s Will

So many times we want to know God’s specific Will and here Paul gets pretty specific, he says it’s simply to pray for others. Paul says that this type of prayer is good in God’s eyes and the word good here is the word used to describe how God felt about His creation, it is good. Just as God was pleased with His untarnished creation so He is pleased when He looks upon those who, through prayer, are seeking the best for others. Are you willing to lift others up regardless of who they are, where they are, or what they have done? This is good and pleasing in God’s eyes because prayer looks into the future for what they could become? How’s your prayer life, are you missing the mark, or are you experiencing the power of prayer? Are you grumbling about your present problems or praying to the One who is in control of the future? Don’t miss the target of prayer.