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 … the prayer of the upright is His delight

 ~ Proverbs 15:8

 

Good morning dear sister!

May the Lord bless you with unexpected joy today!

As I read through the book of Proverbs, like I’m supposed to be doing, lol, one verse in particular has stuck with me, “the prayer of the upright is His delight”! Like Moses, who turned aside to see what was going on with that burning bush, I thought to myself that I must investigate this wondrous thought myself! Thanks for coming with me, dear sister!

The whole verse says, “The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight” Verse 29 of the same chapter illuminates the thought even more; “The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous.” 

The wicked heart cries out to God, not to give Him glory, but rather uses His holy name as a curse. The Lord is far from them, but He always hears the prayers of those who love Him, whether shouted, whispered or hidden in our hearts!

I was humbled by this verse many years ago. As a new Christian, I was brought into a wonderful fellowship church family that was very nurturing and concerned for my growth, much like HCF! I did indeed grow, with an emphasis on spiritual disciplines, especially on prayer. In some ways, I remember WCF as a boot camp for Christian soldiers and prayer warriors!

Then we moved away to Rochester. Our growing family chose our new church for two main reasons; first, we could walk there, along with many of our neighbors (cool!) and, secondly, the pastor was the only one to respond to Ted’s lunch invitation to learn more about the church!

That little church was our home church for more than 20 years and I learned a lot from the wisdom of the older women there. It was being among them when I was humbled by the little verse about God hearing the prayers of the upright.

I was always confident God heard my prayers because I “knew” how to pray “properly” from my experience in the boot camp church. I was mortified and embarrassed when the sweet, little ladies in our prayer meeting (I was the youngest there by 30 years) offered their timid prayers in quavering voices; unsure, sometimes losing track of their thoughts, not according to any kind of formula! 

But God, our almighty, loving Abba, answered those quavery little prayers in power and might! God wasn’t listening to their words so much as listening to their hearts! The prayer of the upright is His delight!

That’s when I stopped trying to have a ‘good’ relationship with my Abba and started having a real relationship with Him! 

How can we hope to please God when we only give Him words and not our hearts?

God doesn’t want to have a polite, distant relationship with us. In fact, He might even call that detestable! He wants every part of our being! All of our holy passions and desires come from Him and therefore belong to Him!

And….. He already knows all of our hopes and fears, dreams and desires, failures and shortcomings. It’s not like there are special words that will hide all of that. He sees our hearts. He sees our sincerity. He also sees just how far we get before we fall down again. Yet He delights in the prayers of the upright in heart because He also knows that, by His own hand, we will get up again and keep on moving forward!

So, my dear sister, if you worry about your words, worry less! Be generous and honest with more of your heart! Relinquishing your self identity, your ego, to Him will allow the Holy Spirit to put words in your mouth that will cause you to marvel as you see God at work through little ol’ you!

Why not start practicing now? An opportunity will soon arise when you will have a chance to pray for or with someone! Remember that your prayers are a delight to God and you will be delighted when you see Him moving through you!

God will bless you, my sister! I know it!

Keep loving Jesus and moving forward!

With love, your sister, Celeste