“O Lord, You have heard the desire and the longing of the humble and oppressed; You will prepare and strengthen and direct their hearts, You will cause Your ear to hear.”
Psalm 10:17 AMPC
Grace Perspective:
Grace humbles our hearts and prepares us to pray. Humility is a gift of grace that gives us the right perspective of who God is and who we are in relation to Him. In this Psalm, we see how to respond to the evil that all around us.
David wrote this passage lamenting the wickedness of prideful men who were oppressing the poor. He saw the devastation that greed and selfishness caused the weak and needy. David cried out to the Lord asking, “Why do You stand afar off, O Lord? Why do You hide Yourself, [veiling Your eyes] in times of trouble (distress and desperation)?” (Psalm 10:1) Was God hiding? Not at all.
Often when we are in a dark place, we feel God doesn’t see or care about us. Yet we know from Scripture that God will never forsake His children. (Romans 8:31-39) Yet God desires us to see Him at work during difficult times to humble us to see the pride that has kept us from seeking Him.
God hears the cry of a humble heart. Though we may not understand why He allows the wicked to oppress the poor and needy, we can trust that He will rightly judge prideful hearts that oppose Him. Living with a heart of gracious humility keeps us close to the One who will strengthen us and direct us when we pray with a humble heart.
A Touch of Grace:
Where do you see pride in your life?
What do you need to humbly confess before the Lord?
Grace Application:
Pride is what cast Satan from heaven and is at the root of sin. If we allow pride to rule our hearts, we will find ourselves far from God and on a path that may bring great pain, not just to ourselves but to others around us. If we’re honest, we all struggle with pride.
Pride destroyed my peace with God and almost took my life. You see, for many years, anger and bitterness hardened my heart. I held on to the pain and refused to forgive others who hurt me. I mistakenly believed that forgiveness meant the hurt wasn’t real. But God, in His gracious way, revealed that my sin was just as ugly and that refusing to forgive was causing me more pain. That pain caused me to cry out to God in prayer, humbly confessing my sin and seeking His forgiveness.
When we humble our selves before God, He prepares our hearts. He softens the calloused places pride has subtly built up when we thought we didn’t need God. As the Lord removes the hardened parts, He strengthens our faith in Him, for prayer reveals that we no longer trust ourselves, but seek the One we can trust.
God desires us to live humbly before Him, sharing our deepest needs and desires to Him so He can direct our hearts. While He won’t give us everything we desire (that would be disastrous!) He does give us what we need. And as we submit ourselves to Him, He slowly sanctifies us to become more like our humble Savior. Jesus humbled Himself to die on a cross for our sins. God hasn’t asked us to die for our sin, but humbly lay aside our pride to receive the grace of humility.
Prayer:
Gracious Father, Thank you for the grace of humility. Forgive me for the sin of pride. Help me to overcome the pride of (________________). Lord, help me see pride as You do and confess it quickly so that I humbly come before You to have stronger faith in You as You direct my heart. In the precious name of Jesus Christ, our Savior, Amen.
**Today, as you read this, I pray each of you will know for certain you are in Christ Jesus. If you have any doubt, please call out to God so all doubt may be erased. Today is a good day to be assured of salvation in Christ Jesus. If you have any questions, please contact me at graceisdawning@gmail.com**