Week 19: Day 5

Intro: Hello, and welcome to Orbit. My name is Aaron. And it's been an absolute joy this past week leading you through some of these reflections. And my prayer is that hopefully some of them are really encouraged you, and help put Jesus at the centre of your life. And we've come to the last part of that.

Bible: And today we're going to look at Psalm 17. So I'd love to read verse one, and then verse six and seven for you. It says this:

O Lord, hear my plea for justice.
Listen to my cry for help.
Pay attention to my prayer,
for it comes from honest lips

I am praying to you because I know you will answer, O God.
Bend down and listen as I pray.
Show me your unfailing love in wonderful ways.
By your mighty power you rescue
those who seek refuge from their enemies.

Thoughts: And as I read those words, now more than ever, I'm reminded of the power of prayer. I'm reminded how often in Scripture, especially in the books of psalms that David comes to God and praise and praise honestly. Now, I don't know about you, and we look at everything happening around us. I think we pray. We come to the place of prayer. And I love it. I love that David comes to God with honesty. He just comes as he is. He says actually, you know what, God, this is how I'm feeling. I'm overwhelmed. And some of the words that we didn't read. It says, you've tested my thoughts. And I'm scrutinised, and I've been pressurised. I'm up against it. So please, would you look down on me? Would you answer me, but even as David comes to God, and name some of what he's going through time and time again, across these chapters, David also acknowledges who God is.

Now, for me, the power of prayer has always been a very evident thing. I grew up in a home where prayer was really important. I saw my mum pray always, when I was in my college times, and especially if I left an assignment to towards my deadline, I would be up doing all nighters, trying to get them, you know, done just before the deadline. I don't recommend doing that, by the way. But when I was up late at night, a times during the night, I would hear her without fail, wake up at 3am in the morning, and pray for us pray for every single one of us, pray for family, pray for the church and pray for the nation's and still to this day. She does that without fail. And I'm aware that in my life that I've seen the power of my mum's prayer, at work in me, but also growing up I've seen the power of my prayers changed my life.

But as I say that I also want to name I've also prayed for things and contended for things. That hasn't happened. But I think I still come back to the place of I believe that prayer works.

And to encourage you a story that I recently heard from a friend of mine, called Tim down in Southampton is Tim as a student worker, and they and a few students went to prayer walk their campus. And as they were prayer walking they saw a student who was at the library and the student was a friend of one of the students was out there prayer walking. And this friend had he had been praying for him to come to me Jesus and they were really good friends for three years he had journeyed with them really well ,loved him really well. And in this moment, as they met him in the library, they prayed for him and invited him to join them on the prayer walk. And as he walked with them and as he finished, he couldn't dismiss just how real God was that, the love he had seemed to his friend and and the power of prayer. In that moment in front of that library in that campus he had given his life to Jesus. And that Sunday itself, he got baptised and welcomed into the family of God. Now that is one of many stories of where prayer has really made a difference in the lives of people. So, what would it look like for us to be people of prayer, but not people who are just praying stuff for the sake of praying but actually come to God and bring everything to him?

Challenge: So today, I'd love for you to do this. In your quiet time as you create some space to sit with Jesus, maybe today or sometime this week, I'd love for you to take a journal or a piece of paper. And I'd love for you to write your own song. And that might either just be a prayer might come as a song, and most of the book of the Psalms is filled with songs that David writes or prayers that he prays. But my encouragement to you as you sit to write these is just to be honest, write what you're feeling, right what you'd want to tell God. And also, write who he is to you and maybe these prayers, you'll keep coming back to your keep praying again in the season, it might be words that will encourage you and lift your faith in this season. So as you do that today, I finally just want to remind you, once again, there is power in prayer. And there is power in us acknowledging in the midst of everything that is happening around us how we feel, but ultimately, also who God is.

Prayer: So I'd love to pray for you:

King Jesus, we thank you, that you are a God who meets us and invites us to come as we are, we don't need to pretend. We don't need to have it all together. And as we read in Psalms that David just comes to you as he is, brings it all to you. But even as he does that God he is acknowledging who you are in the midst of that place. Teach us to be those who can come to you in honesty and bring all that we carried to you. But also teach us to acknowledge who you are Jesus and teach us to be people of prayer. We love you. We give you glory and honour. In your beautiful name we pray. Amen.

Outro: It's been an absolute delight to have joined you this past week. In these reflections, my prayer and encouragement for you is this that you would use these as encouragement, but it will really steer you to put Jesus at the centre of your life. And as you keep him at the centre of your life, everything that we do, flows from that place. God bless you