Burunche’s Blog

Urgent Prayer for the Restored Favor of God

To the Chief Musician. Set to “Lily of the Testimony.” A Michtam of David. For teaching. When he fought against Mesopotamia and Syria of Zobah, and Joab returned and killed twelve thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt.

“O God, You have cast us off; You have broken us down; You have been displeased; Oh, restore us again! You have made the earth tremble; You have broken it; heal its breaches, for it is shaking. You have shown Your people hard things; You have made us drink the wine of confusion.

You have given a banner to those who fear You, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah That Your beloved may be delivered, save with Your right hand, and hear me.

God has spoken in His holiness: “I will rejoice; I will divide Shechem and measure out the Valley of Succoth. Gilead is Mine, and Manasseh is Mine; Ephraim also is the helmet for My head; Judah is My lawgiver. Moab is My washpot; over Edom I will cast My shoe; Philistia, shout in triumph because of Me.”

Who will bring me to the strong city? Who will lead me to Edom? Is it not You, O God, who cast us off?
And You, O God, who did not go out with our armies? Give us help from trouble, for the help of man is useless. Through God we will do valiantly, for it is He who shall tread down our enemies.”

 “O God, You have cast us off; You have broken us down; You have been displeased; Oh, restore us again! You have made the earth tremble; You have broken it; heal its breaches, for it is shaking. You have shown Your people hard things; You have made us drink the wine of confusion.”

David and his men have embarked on a military campaign believing that they are doing God’s will. But they’ve had some setbacks and now David isn’t sure about anything anymore. Things are not going as well as expected. It is unclear just which campaign this is, but it seems to be near the start of David’s reign as king. Things are going so badly that David is asking both himself and God what has gone wrong? Normally, David and his leaders are skilled at military strategy; yet, gambits that have proved so successful in the past are proving useless. Now David is afraid and confused.

“You have given a banner to those who fear You, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah That Your beloved may be delivered, save with Your right hand, and hear me.”  David is reminding God that he has tried to serve God throughout his life. Now is the time for deliverance! Why is God delaying? David’s cry is simple: “God, we need help and we need it NOW!”

“God has spoken in His holiness: “I will rejoice; I will divide Shechem and measure out the Valley of Succoth. Gilead is Mine, and Manasseh is Mine; Ephraim also is the helmet for My head; Judah is My lawgiver. Moab is My washpot; over Edom I will cast My shoe; Philistia, shout in triumph because of Me.” David is reminding both God and himself of God’s promises of victory. We can feel David’s confusion; God has made all these promises, so why isn’t He acting instantly?

“Who will bring me to the strong city? Who will lead me to Edom? Is it not You, O God, who cast us off?
And You, O God, who did not go out with our armies? Give us help from trouble, for the help of man is useless. Through God we will do valiantly, for it is He who shall tread down our enemies.” The strong city referred to here might be Petra, the city carved out of rock, although the Edomites undoubtedly had several other strongholds. But David is worried; he’s been begging God for assistance, and so far God has refused to answer. David fully realizes that unless God is helping, all the efforts of his men and him will fail miserably. David is also reminding God that God is the One who gives victories and they are waiting on Him.

APPLICATION: One of the wonderful things about the psalms is that we see the writers warts and all. When someone is angry at God or confused, they say so bluntly. How many of us have prayed for years, praying prayers we think are in the perfect Will of God, and yet, we are still waiting for results?

One important lesson of the Kingdom of God is that “Delay is not denial.” We always want instant answers. “God, give me patience and give it to me right now!” But God sees things far differently than we do, and He continues to arrange events to benefit the maximum number of people, not just us.

We must remember that it is God who has subjected the whole creation to futility just so human beings would come to know Him and trust Him. Romans 8:20-22 says, “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.” God’s purposes are far higher than we can possibly imagine.

When we came to the village of Saboba thirty years ago, there was only a small health center with 11 workers, no electricity, no running water. One year after we arrived, a tribal war broke out and suddenly we were the only safe facility for 100,000 members of the dominant local tribe. We had to cram a small OR, a laboratory, a pharmacy, and men’s, women’s, and children’s wards with a total of 37 beds into that health center building. It was the impetus of that crisis that helped expand the facility into a true hospital. Today we have a well-functioning district hospital with more than 100 beds, an active laboratory and OR, a dental unit, an eye unit, and a public health unit. We continue to expand our services. Only God could bring all this progress about.

Perhaps you have been praying earnestly for years and are beginning to get tired. Why pray any longer? But let’s learn from the example of George Mueller. George Mueller was a man of great faith who founded orphanages in Bristol, England that catered for 10,000 orphans. Mueller also preached internationally and supported a number of missions, both domestic and foreign. Lacking resources, himself, Mueller trusted God to bring in funds. If anybody could pray effectively, George Mueller was that man, and yet….. one of Mueller’s friends had a son who hated God and who emigrated to Canada to escape his father’s influence. Communications were far poorer in those days. Mueller promised his friend to continue to pray for that son. It was when Mueller died that the son learned of Mueller’s death, came under conviction, and turned his life over to God completely. Mueller never saw the fruits of his prayers; the fulfillment came after his death.

Are the answers to your prayers delaying? Remember, delay is not denial. If your requests are in God’s Will, He will certainly fulfill them. But fulfillment will come on God’s schedule and not on yours.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, many of us are sitting with unfulfilled prayer requests. We praise you that delay is not denial and that You are already sending answers but on Your time schedule and not ours. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

This entry was posted on November 11, 2023 at 12:01 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.