Give It Your All

We become like that which we behold. We will never be transformed into the likeness of God or be conformed to the image of Christ Jesus until we learn how to behold His beauty. To see Him is to be like Him. As David beheld the beauty of the Lord, as he meditated on the glorious perfections and passions of God's character, he became more like God. More than that, he fell ever more in love with God.  Sam Storms

I want to be more like David.  Not the whole sinful part, but the part where he loved God.  If you read the Book of Psalms, David expresses every emotion and all of the emotions he expressed were in conversations with God.

David went to God with everything.  When he was happy he spoke with God.  When he sinned, was afraid, when Saul was trying to hunt him down and kill him, the one thing that always stood out about David was he turned to God in all times.  The following are a list of some of the things David prayed for to God.

The safety of the faithful -  Psalm 4

Prayed for Guidance – Psalm 5

 Prayer and Praise for deliverance from enemies – Psalm 7

The glory of the Lord in creation – Psalm 8

 Faith in the Lord’s righteousness – Psalm 11

Trust in the salvation of the Lord – Psalm 13

  A plea for deliverance and forgiveness – Psalm 25

 An exuberant declaration of faith – Psalm 27

 Rejoicing in answered prayer – Psalm 28

The joy of forgiveness – Psalm 32

This is a very small list of the discussions that David had with God. The thing that stands out is that David had an ongoing emotional relationship with God.  He expressed every emotion when he was talking to God.  He didn’t hold back his thoughts, joy, sorrow, hurt, fear and thanks for God’s goodness.

Too many times in my life I have not put my all into my prayer life.  There were times when my prayers had no soul.  If I am to have a powerful prayer life, I must give it my all as David did every time he spoke to God.  When he was ashamed he didn’t hesitate to admit it and when he was filled with joy he didn’t hesitate to show God the joy he felt.  The thing that stands out is he gave it his all.  A powerful prayer life means that we give God our all.  When emotions run rampant in our heart we need to give it and show it to God.  He already knows what we are feeling but he wants us to show Him.  Showing Him builds our faith and our relationship with Him and makes us fall more in love with the Lord who created us in His image. 

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, I am guilty of passionless prayer.  I have often come to You without emotion to express what is in my heart.  If I read what the Bible has to say about the way I am to love You, to love the Lord your God with “all” your heart, “all” your soul and “all” your  strength, then Your Word will live in my heart as it did in David’s.  Help me Father to pour my heart out to You.  Thank you for loving me when I didn’t do such a good job of loving You.   

Scripture: Be strong Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You.  Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise. For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—These, O God, You will not despise. Psalm 51:10-17