4 Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. 5 Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. (Psalm 25:4 – 5)
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5 – 6)
Theme: If not You, then Who?
Today we begin a 3-day review of the Discipline of Prayer. God blessed us richly in our review of the disciplines of Bible Study and Spiritual Warfare last week and I am looking forward to more of the same this week.
Back in the 1960s (yes, I am dating myself), there was a popular TV series called Mission Impossible. In each episode, a team of secret government agents known as the Impossible Missions (IM) Force would be sent on a daring mission. They would get their orders from a mysterious government official known as the Secretary. At the start of each episode, the lead agent would get instructions for the mission via an audio taped message, which would include the following statement: “As always, should you or any of your IM Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This tape will self-destruct in 5 seconds.” In other words, the IM Force were on their own.
It is comforting to know that when we sign up for God’s service, He doesn’t leave us on our own and He never disowns us. And, unlike the Secretary, God wants to maintain communication throughout the mission.
This makes the prayer in our passage from Psalm 25 and the promise from Proverbs 3 very potent. Like David, we can and should communicate with God every step of the way and like Solomon we can be confident that as we trust God, He will direct us. “O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer!” (from the hymn, “What a Friend we have in Jesus”).
Question
Even though God is willing and ready to guide us, we often forget to maintain communication with Him. From your experience, what are some of the reasons why we don’t stay in communication?