Wednesday, February 22, 2017

What do we pray?


Restore us, O God;
    let your face shine, that we may be saved!
Lord God of hosts,
    how long will you be angry with your people's prayers?
You have fed them with the bread of tears
    and given them tears to drink in full measure.
You make us an object of contention for our neighbors,
    and our enemies laugh among themselves.
Restore us, O God of hosts;    let your face shine, that we may be saved!

Psalm 80

The Psalm was looking on the disaster he called his nation. It was not good.  Everything had fallen apart; they were the laughing stock of the world.  So what are the bookends of his prayers?
"Restore us. We need you."  That really is how our prayers should begin and end, in good times and bad.  If we do not pray that way when things are going well, we tend to forget Him in our ingratitude. That leads to us find ourselves in the condition we do.  "Restore us, O God." Never a bad prayer to pray, beginning today.

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