From Calvary Chapel of Roswell

Pastor Jim Suttle

Msg #521                                    Wednesday, August 27, 2008

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"Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning,

For in You do I trust;

Cause me to know the way in which I should walk,

For I lift up my soul to You."

 (Psa 143:8) 

Do you ever feel dense?

You know what I mean, right?  When you feel that it takes a proverbial 2x4 to get your attention.  For Jonah, it was a whale.  For Peter it was a rooster.  For Paul, it was being knocked down by a bright light.  Sometimes we are just slow to listen to the Lord and it takes God working powerfully to get through to us.  Webster defines dense as: “slow to understand : stupid, thickheaded”.  So I ask again:  Do you ever feel dense?  I do….

As I read Psalm 143 – I wonder if David felt dense.  I wonder if he looked at his heart and knew he was having a hard time hearing from God.   Perhaps that is exactly what David was feeling…although we don’t know for sure.  Yet His prayer is a good prayer for those who feel dense. 

What was David needing and praying for?  Two things.

First David needed to know God’s love. He needed to know it daily – each morning.   Now, the reality is God does love me and He does love you.  He never changes and His love today is as consistent as it has always been.   Yet, again, David prays that God would help him begin his day, with really understanding, really hearing and knowing the love of God! (Eph 3:19).   It is a good prayer.

Second David needed guidance.  He asked  to know the right way to take in life.  Choices surround us, some big, and some small…yet every choice we make effects the course of our life.   David wanted to be on the right course in life – God’s course for his life.   He pleaded with God to help him make right choices, to go in the right direction.  I like this prayer!

Yet – the problem again – being dense.   Perhaps the phrase that draws me the most today, is the phrase David uses twice in this verse – Cause me.  He asks God to “cause” him.   To cause something is to make something happen.  It is to overcome obstacles – perhaps to penetrate one who is feeling dense.   In my own words, it would sound something like this:

“Lord, You know I am dense and slow to get it…so please Lord, cause me, make me to hear…make me to know.”

Or maybe something like this:

“Lord, right now I am having such a hard time hearing and knowing what You have for me – please break through my thick head and cause me to hear Your voice.”   

I like this prayer…it fits me. To pray this way is to ask God to break through my thick head, and make sure I understand.  I know that is what I need.

With these two prayers before us…notice which one comes first.  It is important to know God’s love before we know God’s plan.  For if we know God’s plan, but not His love…we might be fearful of what He has for us.  But if we know His love…then we want all His plans! 

Is this a good prayer for you today?  It is for me.  I invite you to pray with me this day that God would cause us to know His love for us afresh and to direct our lives in the way that He would have us go.  Let us plead with God to break through any thickheaded resistance we have …can cause us to hear and know.

Jim

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