A Prayer When You’re Struggling to Make It Through the Day: “Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man? The steadfast love of God endures all day.” – Psalm 52:1
When You’re Struggling to Make It Through the Day. Will Praising God Help Us While We Wait? Ever Have Days When You Wonder How You’re Going To Make It Through The Next 24 Hours? Sometimes, Your Strength Runs Out, And You Still Have More Hours To Go Before Bedtime. Or Maybe Your Hope Wears Thin, And You Still Have Challenges To Face. We Are All Waiting — whether waiting for answers to our prayers, waiting for someone, waiting for changes, or perhaps waiting for our own return home.
Will Praising God Help Us While We Wait Wait? Praising God while we wait on Him can strengthen our faith, bring blessings and miracles in our lives, encourage others, and will obviously bring delight to Him. The Bible tells us that it is good to praise God and give Him thanks in all circumstances.
When David felt desperate, He cried out to God. He reminded himself of God’s faithfulness and love. David’s prayers from the book of Psalms have helped people get through hard days for almost 3 thousand years.
When we wonder how we’re going to make it through until bedtime, we can hold on to this truth: “The steadfast love of God endures all day.”
Friend, no matter what obstacles you face, God’s love will see you through. No matter how tired you feel, His love will sustain you. No matter how great your fears are, His unfailing love surrounds you. And no matter how far you wander from your faith, God’s love will be there when you get back.
David faced an actual, physical enemy when he penned this verse. You probably don’t have someone trying to hunt you down, but maybe you face challenges that threaten to undo you. Stress that wears you down. Worries that leave you frazzled. Whatever problems you’re navigating today, you can rest assured: The steadfast love of God will outlast them all.
God’s devotion to His people is written all over the pages of the Bible. Psalm 13:6 gives us words to declare in our challenges: “I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.” Romans 8:37-39 reminds us that nothing and no one “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Whether life is smooth sailing or choppy waters, we need constant reminding of God’s affection for us. Let’s ask God to pour His love into our hearts. Let’s meditate on it and intentionally accept it.
Today, if you feel tired, anxious, or irritated, how about whispering to yourself: “The steadfast love of God endures all day”? God stands at your side, ready to sustain and guide you through any challenge.
Let’s pray:
Lord Jesus, quiet my mind and heart as I draw near to you for a few minutes and meditate on your great love. Thank you for demonstrating your love for me on the cross. I thank you for dying to give me life, and I praise you for your victory over sin and death. Thank you to the Holy Spirit, who never leaves me and constantly reminds me of your caring presence.
Your love is deeper than oceans and higher than the clouds. It surrounds me and goes before me. Pour out more of your love into my heart that I might be filled to overflowing and reflect you to those around me.
Remind me of your presence, your faithfulness, and your power to strengthen and sustain me through difficult days. Help me remember my problems and trials will disappear, but your love will remain forever.
What if God Doesn't Change Our Circumstances? Many of our prayers involve asking God to change something in our lives. We ask for healing, rescue from pain, for a better life, and for stable situations. We often ask God to change our circumstances, and there is a biblical model for this happening. Throughout Scripture, we see stories of God’s redemption in impossible circumstances. This miraculous intervention occurs as Daniel walks out of the lions’ den unharmed, as Moses walks out of the Red Sea on dry land, as David walks out of battle with Goliath, and as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego walk out of the fiery furnace unburned.
“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve can deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” - Daniel 3:17-18. The miracle is that they safely walked out.
Will Praising God Help Us While We Wait? Praising God while we wait on Him can strengthen our faith, bring blessings and miracles in our lives, encourage others, and will obviously bring delight to Him. The Bible tells us that it is good to praise God and give Him thanks in all circumstances.
Praising God will surely help strengthen us while we wait on Him. It is a practical and beneficial way to express our faith in God and acknowledge Him for who He is and for what He has done.
We are all waiting — whether waiting for answers to our prayers, waiting for someone, waiting for changes, or perhaps waiting for our own return home. Sometimes the wait is longer than we expect, but sometimes we do not anticipate what we wait for happens sooner.
For some people, waiting can be boring — they feel uncertain or restless, hence they decide to take shortcuts, which unfortunately often leads to disappointments. And even worse is when people deliberately choose to commit sins because of impatience, as displayed by the Israelites impatiently waiting for Moses at Mount Sinai (Exodus 32).
In our world today, waiting can be very challenging, especially when the cultures of instant gratification and performance-based competition are exalted. People tend to dislike the idea of waiting and delay, often caused by fear of missing out, and thus self-reliance manifested in extremely hard work becomes sort of the way of life.
In contrast, Scripture teaches us to be patient, hopeful, and faithful in times of waiting. In moments like these, we have a choice — whether to draw near to God or to draw away from Him.
Giving praises to God is a practical and beneficial way that draws us closer to Him. In fact, praising God is one of the purposes He has given us as believers.
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light (1 Peter 2:9, NIV).
Therefore, as we wait, we are to praise God instead of committing sins. Praising God while we wait on Him can strengthen our faith, bring blessings and miracles in our lives, encourage others, and will obviously bring delight to Him.
Praising God Strengthens Our Faith. Abraham waited 25 years for the fulfillment of God’s promise. Notice what he did while he was waiting: Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. He was fully convinced that God can do whatever He promises (Romans 4:20-21, NLT).
The faith of Abraham is our example. He gave glory to God — in other words, he praised God — while he was waiting for God to fulfill His promise to make him the father of many nations through his son, Isaac (Genesis 17:1-21). Abraham did not wait until the manifestation of God’s miracle to praise Him, which otherwise does not require much faith.
One of the best ways to express our faith in God is by praising Him even before we receive the answers to our prayers or see the fulfillment of His promises.
As we praise God, we are reminded again of His greatness and goodness, and so as we remember all His benefits, our faith grows stronger (Psalm 103:1-2). And as we wait for Him, our strength shall be renewed (Isaiah 40:31).
Praising God Activates His Miracles in Our Lives
A popular story from the Bible that we probably heard in Sunday School is about Paul and Silas in prison (Acts 16:16-34). They were thrown into prison with careful guarding after a wrong accusation, however, what happened next is remarkable:
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly, there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose (Acts 16:25-26, NIV).
God’s power was manifested through the praise and worship, and brought, not only the miracle of deliverance to Paul and Silas, but also, even remarkably, resulted in the miracle of spiritual conversion of the jailer and all his household (Acts 16:27-34).
Praise to God has also related to healing (Jeremiah 17:14; Psalm103:3). Praising God Encourages Others. Not only is praising God beneficial to us, but it can also encourage others. Our faithfulness or endurance, regardless of the circumstances, can be a powerful testimony that edifies people around us.
This is especially true because our praises to God come from our hearts, led by the Spirit. Hence, the word of God that we proclaim through our praises will build the faith of the hearers (Colossians 3:16; Romans 10:17).
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord (Colossians 3:16, NKJV).
We can also learn from the story of a blind man (Luke 18:35-43). He was desperately waiting for divine healing when a multitude told him that Jesus was passing by. And he persistently cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” before he finally received his sight. Notice what happened afterward:
And immediately he received his sight, and followed Him, glorifying God. And all the people when they saw it, gave praise to God (Luke 18:43, NKJV).
Physical blindness might not be our problem today; however, we were spiritually blind before believing in Christ (John 3:3). Have we then experienced a moment — like the blind man — where our praises to God draw all people around us to worship Him as we are healed from spiritual blindness?
That is the moment we are born again and receive a new heart (i.e., spiritual sight) to see the Kingdom of God. Praise the Lord for our salvation! (Isaiah 12:2).
Praising God Brings Delight to Him. The Bible tells us that it is good to praise God and give Him thanks in all circumstances. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, NKJV).
In doing so, we bring delight to God as we are doing His will. Therefore, we can be confident that as we praise, He provides. Praise is the most direct avenue of demonstrating our total dependence on God and trust in Him alone.
Praising God is also the most practical way of expressing our delights in Him. As we delight in the Lord, He shall give us the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37:4).
We can learn from King David and the prophet, Habakkuk for their passionate love for God, expressed through their songs of praises to Him:
Because your loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You. Thus, I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name (Psalm 63:3-4, NKJV).
Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls — Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation (Habakkuk 3:17-18, NKJV).
Why Does This Matter?
Praising God — either through songs, poetry, prayers, or writings, — will surely help while we wait on Him. It is a practical way to express our faith in God and acknowledge Him for who He is and for what He has done.
We must believe that praising God with grace in our hearts brings many benefits in our relationship with Him. However, people might draw near to God with their mouth, and honor Him with their lips, but their heart is far from Him (Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:8).
Therefore, we must continually remember that our praises should flow from the heart that has been transformed by the Spirit. And we are to do it in the name of Jesus.
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise — the fruit of lips that openly profess His name (Hebrews 13:15, NIV).
Finally, as we praise God, we trust that He works for those who wait on Him.
For since the world began, no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like You, who works for those who wait for Him! (Isaiah 64:4, NLT).
God alone deserves all the glory, so let Him do all the works in us and through us! Praise the LORD. Amen.
Blessings
J.P. Olson
www.journeyintotheword.com
Join Journey Into The Word each Sunday morning at 5:30 AM CST & 6:30 AM EST on The Now Network http://www.theNOWnetwork.org
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