Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths.
Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long. Psalm 25:4-5
Need medical guidance? Financial wisdom? Relationship untangling? We ask God for healing and help, direction and open doors, to relieve personal pain and renew relationships. Have you ever pondered why?
We pray because of the last phrase in verse 5—our hope is in Him all day long. Our issues are too big and too complicated to handle by ourselves and the verses following give us three good reasons to talk to God. When we ponder them our prayers grow from frantic pleas to confident conversations.
All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful… (v 10a)
He will not steer us wrong. Every path He sets us on is birthed out of love and faithfulness, like the goodness and mercy we saw in Psalm 23. ALL His ways! He can’t help Himself—He cannot act outside His love or desert us. We cannot say that of our most trusted friends or most gifted advisers, but God will prove Himself again and again. He always demonstrates love and faithfulness to us. Selah.
He will instruct them in the ways they should choose. (v 12b)
The guidance we desperately need is promised us. The big questions—where to live, what doctor, which position or person is right for me, and the smaller wonderings—what to spend, how to eat, who to befriend, are honored by God and He instructs us. “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it’” (Isa. 31:21). Selah.
The Lord confides in those who fear Him… (v 14a)
I return to this verse often as one of those forever verses that repeatedly awes and ministers to me. I can barely take in the scope of it and yet, experientially, I know it’s true. The Lord confides in me. When I meet with Him and still my heart, humbly resting in His presence, quieting my soul, He speaks to me. The Holy Spirit is present to teach us and reveal truth. Friends, the Lord actually confides in us! Selah.
BARBARA HIGBY 