Daily Hope with Rick Warren 14 July 2024, Saturday Devotional Message
Pray First, Pray More
By Rick Warren
“After this the armies of the Moabites, Ammonites, and some of the Meunites declared war on Jehoshaphat . . . Jehoshaphat was terrified by this news and begged the LORD for guidance.” 2 Chronicles 20:1,3 (NLT)
Sometimes it seems the odds are against you.
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I once read the story of a man named Brian who had a day like that. First, his apartment flooded from a broken pipe. When he went to rent a water vacuum, he discovered that he had a flat tire. He went back inside to phone a friend for help. But grabbing the phone while standing in water gave him such a startling electrical shock that he ripped the phone off the wall. By the time he was able to leave, water damage had caused his door to swell shut, and he had to yell for a neighbor to kick it down. While all this was happening, somebody stole Brian’s car.
That evening, Brian attended a military ceremony at his university and injured himself when he sat on his bayonet. Doctors stitched his wound, but no one could resuscitate Brian’s four canaries who were crushed by fallen plaster from the wet apartment ceiling. On top of all that, when he got back from the university, he slipped on the wet carpet and injured his tailbone.
Brian said he began to wonder if God wanted him dead but just kept missing.
Have you ever had a day like that—or maybe a year like that? What do you do when you’re facing insurmountable, overwhelming problems?
Before you do anything else, you go directly to God. You say, “God, I am overwhelmed!” And you ask, “God, what do you think about this situation?”
While your perspective is limited, God’s perspective is eternal—he can see the beginning and the end. He can see past, present, and future all at once. You need to get God’s perspective, the bigger picture of the problem that seems so overwhelming to you right now.
Too often we see prayer as a last resort rather than as our first thought. Prayer is usually something we do way down the line after we’ve tried everything else. People will say, “I guess all we can do now is pray!” like it’s their last option.
Prayer should be your first choice, not your last resort. If you want God to help you overcome the odds in any area of your life, you have to turn to him first.
2 Chronicles 20:1,3 says, “After this the armies of the Moabites, Ammonites, and some of the Meunites declared war on Jehoshaphat . . . Jehoshaphat was terrified by this news and begged the LORD for guidance” (NLT). When verse 1 says “after this,” it’s referring to a great national revival, a spiritual awakening. There was great prosperity and blessing in the land. But soon after, there was war.
With every high, there is a low. After every victory, there is a letdown. And with every blessing, there comes a testing. You may not be in a battle right now, but you’re going to be in one tomorrow or the next day or the day after that. You should expect blessing in your life, but you also need to expect battles in your life.
You’re going to have difficult times. But you should never let an impossible situation intimidate you. Let it motivate you to pray more and turn to God first.
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