SCRIPTURE:
“Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what He did for me.
For I cried out to Him for help, praising Him as I spoke.
If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But God did listen! He paid attention to my prayer.
Praise God, who did not ignore my prayer or withdraw His unfailing love from me.”
Psalms 66:16-20
OBSERVATION:
This psalm is a psalm of praise and proclamation of God’s goodness, no matter what! The writer writes;
“Shout joyful praises to God, all the earth!
Sing about the glory of His name! Tell the world how glorious He is.”
(Psalms 66:1-2)
The psalm continues with a summary of God doing His miracles for His people; through fire and flood, from slavery to freedom. These were refining moments that brought wayward hearts back on track with God.
As the psalm concludes, the writer simply says; “If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
But God did listen! He paid attention to my prayer.”
That little detail—confessing the sin in my heart—is the key to Him hearing our prayers. The NIV says “if I had cherished sin…”. The NASB says “if I regard wickedness…”
Bottom line; unless we come before the LORD and totally relinquish our sins—and we all have em—our prayers may just be noise.
APPLICATION:
As we come off of an exhilarating Easter season, it’s easy to fall back into the grind of life. How do we let the momentum of a grand celebration of Jesus, continue as time goes on and we resume our life routines?
Simple! Tell others what Jesus did for us! And continue to praise Him, even in our rough moments that are sure to return along with the grind!
Call out to Him for help! (One of my most used prayers is simply, “Help, Jesus!” Not kidding.)
And always confess our sins and repent of them, not cherishing nor holding on to wickedness or offense.
And finally, thanking God every day for hearing my prayers. Not necessarily giving me what I may have asked for in my prayers, but knowing that His way is the best way for me.
That keeps the momentum of the Easter celebration going all life long.
PRAYER:
Lord Jesus, You died for our sins. You rose again as proof of eternity when we believe in You. And we tell the world how glorious You are, and what You have done for me and are still doing in me.
Thank you for that. May the momentum of Easter carry us all through life. Amen.
