Devotional - May 22, 2004

"How the mighty have fallen!" David lamented the death of Saul and Jonathan even while he was still in the camp of the ones guilty of killing them. David hadn't lost his way however; he found the only place he could prevent Saul from chasing him was among the Philistines. He knew a face to face battle with Saul would result in him taking his life. All he could do was take refuge and wait for God to work it out.

We have no way of knowing how long David waited to inquire of the Lord after Saul's demise. We can speculate, but I can imagine it wasn't long. Why? David mourned more than once in his life for a loved one who lost their life. In every case he got on with his life when he knew his relationship with God was in tact.

In the course of time... When is it the "right" time to do what you've got a mind to do? If you're a child of God, you dare not precede God's blessing, or at least you shouldn't or you'll certainly face failure, disappointment and frustration. But when do we take it to the Lord? And when we approach God, for what exactly are we looking to convince us the time is "right?"

As someone who has learned a lot about prayer in the last few years, I regret to tell you that the vast majority of my life has been void of any meaningful prayer. In fact, most of the major decisions in my life were not bathed in prayer. The only time I remember praying was when I asked God's blessing on what I was going to do anyway.

There were several contributing factors to my learned neglect, but a couple of things stand out. I had no spiritual leader who taught me how to do it, expected me to do it and spent time doing it with me. In fact, most churches I've known put prayer on the Sunday Order of Worship and that's the extent of it. No doubt, we as church leaders, have failed. But I refuse to assign my personal failure(s) on anyone else. I know now my failure was spending time in God's word for that would have surely led to spending more time in prayer.

Want to pray more? Then, spend more time in God's word. You'll find that the more time you spend there, the more time you'll spend praying. In fact, meditation on God's word is prayer. If you haven't spent substantive time in God's word this week, it's because you don't love God and plan to only call him when you think you need him.

If we learned anything from Jesus, it should be this: When you love someone, you'll find a way to spend time with them, and a lot of it!

1 Developed from Read the Bible Thru ( 2Sa. 1:1-2:11 Jn. 12:20-50 Ps. 118:19-29 Pr. 15:27-28 )
2. Scripture comes from the Holy Bible, New International Version; (c)1978 by New York International Bible Society