Arrogant foes are
attacking me, O God;
ruthless people are trying to kill me—
they have no regard for you.
But you, Lord, are
a compassionate and gracious God,
slow to anger, abounding in love and
faithfulness.
Turn to me and have
mercy on me;
show your strength in behalf of your
servant;
save me, because I
serve you
just as my mother did.
Give me a sign of
your goodness,
that my enemies may see it and be put to
shame,
for you, Lord, have helped me and comforted
me. – Psalm 86:14-17
Have you
ever felt like the whole world was attacking you? It seems everywhere on every side there was
something not going right, or worse, it was purposely directed towards
you. I don’t know a single person who
hasn’t felt that way at some time. I
have found myself praying at times for relief and only relief. I am embarrassed to say I found I didn’t
really care how things went away, but I just had to have some relief. Sometimes we feel that life is too much and
overwhelming and we plead to God to save us from it all. It is like the old Calgon commercial where
the person would say in the midst of a terrible day, “Calgon take me away”, and
they would instantly be in a hot bath with soap bubbles resting comfortably
away from those stresses of the day. I
believe that most of us, including myself, too often want this type of relief
from our stresses and pain. I think a more honorable and better prayer
would be for strength to stay in the fight.
David
confesses to God what God already knows, people are trying to kill him. David takes the moment to clarify to God that
these people have no regard for God in their heart. David then pleads for God to put His eyes on
him, have mercy on him, and show His strength on his behalf. He asks God to save him. David prays for God to give him what he doesn’t
deserve. He asks for God’s mercy to be shown
through His strength on his own behalf.
He asks God to show a sign of goodness to him so his enemies, which are
also the enemies of God as they do not acknowledge Him as God, will be put to
shame as they plainly see God is with him and helps him.
Samson's last prayer was for strength. With his eyes
gouged out he was put on public display for ridicule by his enemies to honor their false god and this after being
betrayed from a false love, he prayed for strength. He did not pray to just be taken away from the pain and humiliation. He prayed for strength one more
time so he could destroy the Lord's and his enemies.
David is
continuing the theme in the prayer of God helping him so God will get the glory
and praise. Also, David does not pray
for the fight to end, but for God’s strength and favor to be revealed to those
who turn to Him. David wants to succeed
in the fight so God can be praised and everyone who doesn’t believe will know
God did this. He acknowledges that it is
God and God alone who can save him and he prays for God to show His strength so
God’s name will be glorified.
When good
things happen, we should be ready and willing to show how great God is for what
He has done for us. This is easy
actually. But when bad things happen,
how ready and willing are we to be excited knowing God will use this to show Himself
in a mighty way to someone? Do we look
for every opportunity in every person to see how God can show Himself in a
great way to them through our trials?
This is an incredibly hard thing to do and attitude to have. But that doesn’t mean it’s the wrong one to
have. Then, when we are delivered, we can
testify to everyone how God delivered us and they can see how our faith in
knowing He would deliver us was answered.
Hopefully, this might lead someone to believe.
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