Make me to know your ways O Lord;
teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all the day long.Psalm 25:4-5
This prayer that David offers up to God challenged me in two ways that I would like to encourage you all with:
- For David to pray that God would make known to him his paths certainly implies this one fact: God is going somewhere and is doing something–do we know what God is up to?
Indeed, God is doing a million things in the world and is always calling his people to walk in his ways and to go where He is going. Yet a casual look in our daily schedule would show that we are often more intent on doing our own thing. To obey God is to first know his ways. And to know his ways is our gain. Yet, how should we know his ways?
- The response of this pursuit of knowing God’s ways by David is shown by this last prayer: “for you I wait all the day long.”
I understand that in American spirituality, we are unacquainted with waiting. We are a culture of instant-this, 5 minutes-this, and drive-thru’s. But Biblical spirituality is different. It often involves what many American Christians are unaccustomed to doing: waiting helplessly.
It is waiting in the closet of prayer where God reveals his secrets to his servants. There is no drive-thru Christianity. And surely, as we wait, God will reveal his purposes to us.
Do you want to walk in good paths? Walk in the pathways of God.
And do you want to know the pathways of God? Seek Him in the place of prayer.
