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E V E R Y D A Y L I G H T
Daily readings to help you see Jesus' light in your life
by Selwyn Hughes
God - Sleeping on the Job?
"Awake, O Lord! Why do you sleep?" (v.23)
-- For reading & meditation: Psalm 44:13-26
A third characteristic of "revival praying" is boldness or
directness. Here again I have been struck, as I have read and
researched this subject, by the daring and direct language used by
God's people when pleading with Him to send revival. We can see
something of this in the verses that are before us today. The
psalmist appears to be accusing God of sleeping on the job. Listen to
the graphic language used in the Moffatt translation of this passage:
"Bestir thyself, Eternal one! Why sleep? Awaken! ah discard us not
for ever! Why art thou hiding thy face, forgetful of our woe and our
distress? For our soul is bowed to the dust." This language of the
psalmist is forceful and direct but it is the kind of attitude and
language that prevails with God. Notice I say attitude as well as
language. You and I can come before God and use similar language but
if it is not accompanied by the kind of holy desperation that the
psalmist felt, then it will sound false and hollow - even
impertinent. Such was the spiritual decline around him that it looked
to the psalmist as if God was asleep and needing arousing. His deep
concern over the declining conditions with which he was surrounded
made his language appropriate and permissible. When we feel as
strongly about the moral and spiritual bankruptcy that surround us as
the psalmist felt in his day, then we can speak as strongly as he
did. We dare not copy the words unless we are also prepared to copy
the psalmist's deep spiritual concern.
PRAYER:
O God, my concern at this moment is not so much whether You are awake
but whether I am awake - awake to the urgent needs that lie all
around me. Wake me up, dear Lord, and help me pray with boldness. In
Jesus' Name I ask it. Amen.
FURTHER STUDY:
1 John 3:16-22; Heb 4:16; 13:6
1. Why can we come to God with confidence?
2. What can we say with confidence?
Additional devotionals are available from Crosswalk.com:
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Copyright 2002 Selwyn Hughes, CWR, Waverley Abbey House,
Waverley Lane, Farnham, Surrey, England. Come to
http://link.crosswalk.com/UM/T.asp?A1.7.27462.2.1698058
for more inspirational devotions by Selwyn Hughes.
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