Faithbase

Good morning, we're back to Psalm 7 and we're praying through verses 6, 7 and 8 today. My preference, as I mentioned before, is to pray through the entirety of each psalm, but there's time constraints and I guess that's the only reason really, because what I don't want to do is have you come here and then expect you to commit to, you know, 15 minutes or whatever. But one of these days I probably will, I'll just, probably just pray with you through an entire psalm as we did the other day and that was about a 10 minute prayer, but today is 6, 7 and 8, chapter 7, Psalm 7. And there we read, Arise, O Lord, in your anger, lift yourself up because of the rage of my enemies, rise up for me to the judgment you have commanded. So the congregations of the peoples shall surround you for their sakes, therefore return on high. The Lord shall judge the peoples, judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to my integrity within me. Heavenly Father, as we read earlier and as we prayed the other day, sometimes you use the actions of humanity, actions of other people, other men, to bring correction to your own people, Lord. And so we ask that as you do that, you will be satisfied, I guess we could say, and be able to hear our prayers become before you, Lord, if we are experiencing this kind of thing right now, we ask that you would rise up and punish those who have been our punishers. We think about the children of Israel and how you would bring nations against them to punish them and then you would bring punishment on those same nations. Lord God, I ask that whatever means you are using to bring correction in our lives, whatever means you might use in my life and in the others that are praying with me today, we pray that you would reform those who might be antagonizing us. We ask that when you rise up in your anger and you lift yourself up because of the rage of our enemies, that your desire would be to bring them into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ, that you would kill the old man and raise up a new creation in these people. Rise up for us, Lord, to the judgment that you've commanded and your primary command is that all people would believe in the name of Jesus Christ and be saved. So that is what we pray, Lord God, that you would stop the persecution of your people, that whatever we might be experiencing, it might even just be, Lord God, our neighbor, somebody who is not so-called, I guess you'd say, persecuting us and yet we look at the scripture and we know that just the laughter, the scoffing of those who despise you and your ways is considered a form of persecution. And so, Lord God, I pray anyone who's praying with me right now that is experiencing the persecution of that sort from, say, a neighbor, a coworker, a relative, Lord God, that you would rise up in judgment against them and instead of destroying them in any way physically, you would destroy them in the old man and that the new creation could rise out of that and there would be judgment in that fashion, Lord God, because your primary command is to believe on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and to be saved. Lord, your congregation of people will surround you and will find glory and greatness in the salvation of those who are against the church, against your people, against those of us that are praying this morning, Lord God. We ask that you would return on high, that you would show yourself to be mighty, show yourself to be the majestic and great king. Lord, you shall judge the people. You are the one who is the judge. Paul says he doesn't even judge himself, Lord God. We should never look to ourselves and say, aha, I've decided that I've done right, that I'm good, that I have accomplished things that are wonderful, but instead, Lord, we should look to you and say, Lord God, may you be my judge and Lord, judge me according to my righteousness and that is the righteousness that we have in our Lord Jesus Christ. Your scripture tells us that if we live a life that is pleasing to Jesus, that if we live according to his commands, we have that strong foundation and that is the righteousness that we have, that we express the salvation we have, the new creation that we have in Jesus Christ, that is our righteousness and our integrity that can only develop as we have a right relationship with you in Jesus Christ. So we pray, Lord God, that the judgment you bring against those who are persecuting your people would be a judgment of destruction of the old man and bringing them into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. We pray that you would judge us according to the righteousness that we have cultivated in Jesus Christ and that we would be able to express before you and before the world that Christ-like righteousness, that Christ-like character that you have developed in us, Lord. So guide us and direct us today to seek out those who need to hear the word of salvation in Jesus Christ, that we might be your instruments of judgment, of judging the old man and bringing new life to those who are against you and are against your people, Lord God. So bless us, we pray, according to our righteousness in Jesus Christ. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.