Scripture: Psalm 66.  

OBSERVATION
(What is God saying here?)

Psalm 66:18-20 (NLT)

18 If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

19 But God did listen! He paid attention to my prayer.

20 Praise God, who did not ignore my prayer or withdraw his unfailing love from me.

APPLICATION
(How Can I apply what God is saying here to my circumstances today?)

I read through several Psalms this morning and there were so many nuggets that I hardly knew which one to choose, however these particular verses really caught my attention. I believe that we have become such a two-faced people, where we talk to someone, perhaps someone very close to us, and in spite of telling them how sincere we are in what we are saying, yet we withhold our true feelings, or the whole truth of the matter. I believe that this has become so prevalent in our lives that we often go before God in a similar fashion. The difference is that God really knows the whole truth of the matter before we ever go before Him. I could only imagine how He must shake His head sometime, hoping that we would be totally open with Him and share our true feelings and our sincere desires. That we sincerely ask for His forgiveness for the way we may have treated a brother, or a sister, or perhaps the things that we may have thought or said under our breath while they were sharing their heart with us. I believe that we should take David’s words and rearrange the scenario a little. When we feel like God is not hearing us, when we feel like our prayers are hitting a block wall, let’s stop and reexamine ourselves, our motives, our thoughts towards God, our friends or even life itself and be sure that we are being totally honest. When we go before our all-knowing God, the ultimate in holiness, we can only be assured of His attention and answers when we open ourselves up, seek His forgiveness for all those thoughts and/or unworthy feelings, so that we approach Him as an acceptable child of His. Let’s drop the fake and the false pretenses when we approach God, we can’t hide anything from Him. Then as David shared in verse 20, He will not ignore our prayer or withdraw His unfailing love from us.

PRAYER
(With God’s help, what am I going to do differently today because He said it?)

Lord God, coming before a holy and righteous, all-knowing God is an awesome experience, for I come before You in full transparency. You know all about my unworthiness and the many failures that unfortunately I allow each day. I am Your child, and I want to be just like You, so I not only seek Your forgiveness this morning, but I also ask for Your strength, guidance and wisdom today to say only those things that are truthful and/or in accordance with Your Word, and I ask that You fill my mind with clean and pure thoughts that would serve to give You praise. I am sincerely praying for Your unfailing love and attentive ear to my prayer and my desires, and I praise You in advance for Your promises. Thank You Jesus for loving even me!

 

àWords underlined may be a hyperlink to a song that God laid on my heart while sharing this devotional this morning. Click it and be blessed by the song, like I was when I listened to it! …… I would be overjoyed to have the opportunity to pray with you about a need in your life that may, or may not have been highlighted by this Nugget today. Why not drop me a note and tell me about it? You may email me at:
nuggetsfromgodsword@yahoo.com.
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