Psalm 57:5-6 “Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth. They spread a net for my feet I was bowed down in distress. They dug a pit in my path—but they have fallen into it themselves.” Today's episode talks about what to do when you are in a situation and you don't even know what to pray for. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
What About When I Can’t Pray?
Psalm 57:5-6 “Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth. They spread a net for my feet I was bowed down in distress. They dug a pit in my path—but they have fallen into it themselves.”
This verse starts off putting God in his rightful place. It starts off by acknowledging God is exalted above the heavens. Exalted means high ranking. God is in charge of all of Heaven and Earth. The next line asks God to let His Glory be over all the earth. David is asking the Lord to show us His glory. David wrote this psalm when he had fled from Saul into the cave. He said in the next line, “They have spread a net for my feet I was bowed down in distress.” Today’s verse comes after several verses where David is talking to God and asking Him for protection. He is asking God for mercy and for God to protect Him. I think this verse shows us what we should do when we are struggling and when we encounter something we can’t handle. David drops to his knees and bows down.
David knows this is not a situation he can handle on his own. He was hiding in a cave from the king. He didn’t do anything wrong, Saul was just jealous of him. How does one fix that situation? David knew this was something only God could fix. Do you have a situation like that right now? Are you in circumstances well above your head? Maybe you are not hiding in a cave from the king, but you are stuck in a situation in which you can’t see a way out. I have a friend that is in a seemingly impossible situation right now. I have also been in many situations like this. The type of circumstances that drive you to your knees. The type of situation where you don’t even know what to pray for because you can’t see any positive outcome. Did you know it is ok to not always know exactly what to pray for? You don’t have to know, God knows what you are struggling with. God knows the best way to solve your problem. He has it all figured out already.
You can do as David did and ask for God’s glory to be over all the earth. You can bow down in distress and just Be with the Lord. God knows there are times when we can’t pray or we don’t know what to say when we pray. God knows this and is ok with it. The best thing to do when we can’t pray is to praise God. I know this is probably when you want to praise God the least. I know it seems counter intuitive to praise God when it feels like all is falling apart. However, praising God always helps the situation. God loves our praises and He loves when we turn to Him. Whether you are praising God, or just sitting there being with Him, God is happy. He doesn’t need us to come to Him with the perfect plan or perfect prayers. He doesn’t actually need anything for us. He is happy just being with us.
In this Psalm, David didn’t know what to ask for? He didn’t know how the Lord was going to save him from Saul? However he did trust that God had a plan. He knew to praise God in his time of need. If you ever need inspiration on how to praise God, read the psalms. David was a master at praise and worship. He was also a master at turning to the Lord for help. David knew he couldn’t do anything without God on his side. He also knew when he sinned he could always repent and turn back to the Lord. Sometime we don’t turn back because we think what we did was too bad for God to forgive. David always turned back to the Lord and repented, no matter the severity of his sin, and David had some pretty severe ones.
The last line it this verse is great. It says, “They dug a pit in my path—but they have fallen into it themselves.” This is the awesome thing about being on God’s side, He wins every time! Things may look bleak at times, things may seem like there is no hope to be found. There will be times when you can’t even imagine life getting better. Things are so bad and you can’t see a way out. You are not alone in your situation. There are others that have gone through something similar to what you are going through and they have made it through to the other side. With God, we don’t always know the journey, but we know the ending. God will always find a way to redeem His children and also redeem the situations we find ourselves in. If you or a loved one is in trouble right now and you can’t see a way out I hope you hear me when I say, God knows about your situation and He is working it all out. You don’t have to know what to pray for, God’s got this! Just praise God, not for the situation but for being the incredible God that He is! Praise God and then sit back and watch in amazement how he takes an impossible situation and turns it into a beautiful life lesson. God’s love always wins out in the end. God is the victor every single time!
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, help all of those who are in impossible situations today. Helps them to keep their hope. Help them to know you are with them through this all and you will come out victorious in the end. Lord, give all those who are struggling the strength they need to keep waking up in the morning, the strength to keep hoping when all seems so hopeless. Lord, give them a super natural understanding of their situation and how you are working in it. Help them feel your love the entire time. Help give them the peace of Christ in their hearts. Lord, you are awesome and we are so grateful you take such wonderful care of us. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. Tomorrow’s guest speaker is my good friend Nancy. Nancy was the leader of the prayer group when I first joined and has been a great mentor to me on my faith journey these last 4 years. She will be witnessing this week about a prayer she prayed for a very long time. A prayer that seemed to go unanswered for a very long time. I think we all have those prayers we feel God doesn’t hear. Nancy’s witness provides encouragement to all of us to keep praying those prayers because God is so faithful. I know you are going to love her witness. I can’t wait to share it with you tomorrow. Have a blessed day!