Our Needs, He Feeds

Last night I gathered with a handful of youth pastors and youth leaders to pray and cast vision into the Seattle-area Foursquare Summer Camp for 2014. We registered and talked logistics and laughed and worshiped together. Both firstly and lastly we prayed.

In the closing prayer, the director for junior high camp told us to pray for our needs and to proclaim them in God.

So if our needs are that we are currently weak and apathetic (low energy), then when we pray, "Thank You God for your strength, thank You for Your energy."

It was simple. And yet it stirred my faith in a new way.

Instead of complaining or praying myself into a pit of despair, my prayers did not focused on me and my humanity but on God and His infinity.

I cried out, "God You are strong, God You have the answers, God You are understanding, God You can turn all situations around for Your good, God You know what will be, God You have peace, God You are confident."

Wow. WOW! What if we spoke out our needs by proclaiming how God is and has all that we need?

So that was last night, today on my break between classes (it literally took my computer refusing to turn on for me to stop wedding planning and to open my dang Bible), I opened my Bible to the book of Psalm.

I began reading Psalm 28, a psalm of David.

"1 I pray to you, O Lord, my rock.
Do not turn a deaf ear to me.
For if you are silent,
I might as well give up and die.
2 Listen to my prayer for mercy
as I cry out to you for help,
as I lift my hands toward your holy sanctuary.

3 Do not drag me away with the wicked--
with those who do evil--
those who speak friendly words to their neighbors
while planning evil in their hearts.
4 Give them the punishment they so richly deserve!
Measure it out in proportion to their wickedness.
Pay them back for all their evil deeds!
Give them a taste of what they have done to others.
5 They care nothing for what the Lord has done
or for what his hands have made.
So he will tear them down,
and they will never be rebuilt!

6 Praise the Lord!
For he has heard my cry for mercy,
7 The Lord is my strength and shield.
I trust him with all my heart.
He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy.
I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.
8 The Lord gives his people strength.
He is a safe fortress for his anointed King.
9 Save your people!
Bless Israel, your special possession.
Lead them like a shepherd,
and carry them in your arms forever.

You'll notice I broke up this psalm into 3 different sections.

First, in blue, David is calling out to God in distress for God to come to his aid.

Second, in purple, David is listing injustices against him and against his people and he's calling on God for justice.

Third, in red, what is David doing? Thanking God? Why? Did God answer his prayers before he finished writing this psalm? No.

David began thanking God and he prayed for his needs by proclaiming how God would provide.

"For he has heard my cry for mercy", "The Lord is my strength and shield", "I trust him", "He helps me", "The Lord give his people strength", "He is a safe fortress".

Are you seeing what I'm seeing?

I could never figure out why David always brought his praises back to God in the midst of psalms that start out so dramatically "For if you are silent I might as well die".

Now I see. David was not only bringing the praise and focus back to God but he was proclaiming God's provision for all of his needs.

So how 'bout it? How about when we pray we pray for all the ways God can meet our needs? It's changing up the way I'm praying and thinking about my daily needs, it could change yours.

Be blessed today.