Daily Devotion

The Holy Spirit will lead us into amazing exploits in prayer if we simply ask Him what to pray, wait for Him to answer, and then obey. We are unwise if we say we don't have time to wait on God and allow Him to speak to us and lead us as we pray. We will wait 45 minutes for a table at a restaurant but say we do not have time to wait on God. When we wait on God, turning our hearts toward Him for direction, we honor Him. By our willingness to wait He knows that we want His will and that we are dependent upon Him for guidance. We save a lot of time by turning our hearts toward God and waiting on Him.

As the verse for today says, God shows Himself active on behalf of those who wait on Him. Start your prayers by simply saying, "I love you Lord and I wait on you for direction in my prayers today." Then begin to pray what is in your heart rather than what is in your own mind or will. I was recently praying for someone to do a certain thing that I knew they needed to do, but God showed me that I needed to pray for them to develop discipline because the lack of it was affecting many areas of their life. I would have prayed for the one area I saw, but God saw much more deeply than I did. Another time I was praying for someone concerning some problem behavior that I saw, but God showed me that the root of their problem was self-rejection and that I needed to pray for them to know how much God loved them. You can see that we often pray for what we see, but God will lead us deeper if we will wait on Him.

A good way to start each day would be to pray for Jesus to gently guide you in the way He would have you go and to help you hear and obey His voice.

Prayer of the Day: Father God, I ask for Your direction in my prayers. Help me wait on You and trust Your guidance, and please help me to always know that You will show me the deeper needs to pray for, amen.