Devotional for 2/12/13

Just Ask

One of the things I often request for prayer is wisdom. When I am facing a challenge, I am very aware that every step and every word matters, and from an abundance of experience with misteps and mispoken words, I know my own neediness because I know my own past!

In my worry about doing things right this time, I notice that I am easily distracted by 'what happened last time' and then I keep turning the event over and over in my mind looking for the way I could have or should have handled it. Although I believe I should study the past so that I won't repeat it, I also know that only God knows the future and knows me and everyone in it. No matter how many times I watch a replay tape in my mind, I can only get so much out of it.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV

 

When I ask for my friends to pray for wisdom for me, I actually am asking them to pray I will remember to ask Him for wisdom as I walk through my day, situation, and relationships.  Then having asked Him to lead me in the way I should go, that I will be brave and do what I then know I should do.

"If you need wisdom, ask our generous God,

and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.

But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone.

Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled

as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind."

James 1:5-6 NLT

 

Dear Lord, thank You for hearing our prayers and watching over us. Please help us to remember that we can always depend upon, believe in, and rely on You. In Your Son's precious name, amen.

 

Written by Mary M. Wilkins