Praying from My Soul

There are times you pray and then times you pray from the very bottom of your being. These are the times you pour out your soul. Join us as we continue our prayer journey in Psalm 25.

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Transcript

Press means to apply force.

When God said press, prayer reaches every single situation.

He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through. And in this podcast, we are going to learn to apply force to what's applying pressure to us.

Greetings everyone.

Welcome to the Press podcast.

Thanks for tuning in today.

As I mentioned in going through the book of Psalms, I'm going to go ahead and skip around a little bit. I'm not going to cover all of them sequentially right now. We can come back to them at the end of our journey, but I want to pick out a few that just jump out at me. And at first I started to go with some of the more popular ones, some of the ones that you may know off the top of your head, like of Psalms 23, the Lord is my shepherd, or Psalms 27, which is one of my personal favorites. But my eyes fell on Psalms 25 and that's where I want to start today. In Psalms 25, we'll read through it and talk through it simultaneously.

The Bible says, unto thee, oh Lord, do I lift up my soul.

I love that it says he's lifting his soul, not his eyes even, not even his hands, but God, the innermost part of who I am, the part that only you can save, touch and heal, the part that only you truly know, that is what I am putting in front of you today.

This tells us in verse one, this is a bare all prayer. This is not him praying from a standpoint of keeping anything undercover, but rather this is me telling you, God, I need you to my core. The Bible goes on to say in verse two, Oh my God, I trust in thee, let me not be ashamed, let not my enemies triumph over me.

I'm reminded of a song by Fred Hammond when he said, no way, no way, you won't lose.

I hear you Lord reassuring me.

Sometimes we just have to remember that our enemies cannot and will not triumph.

But it does take remembering because there are moments where it feels like a close call, but God knows how to win. And so I understand the Psalmist saying, let it not happen, but also understanding it's not even possible that the Lord will let me be ashamed or my enemies triumph. The Bible says in verse three, yea, let none that wait on thee be ashamed. Let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.

That means God get the ones who are wrong and they know they're wrong and they have no reason to be wrong, but they're just wrong. But Lord, those that are doing everything they know, God, don't let us be ashamed.

The Bible says, show me thy ways, oh Lord, teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation.

On thee do I wait all the day.

Saying, God, I want to know your ways. I want to perceive your ways. I want to understand them. I want to become acquainted with them.

Oh God, lead me in their truth.

I don't want to go to the left or the right. I don't want confusion to settle in me, but the God who saved me knows how to keep me and he knows how to keep me in the way that's right, the way that's true. I say that to all of us, the God who saved us, no matter how complicated it looks, no matter how our enemies are threatening, he knows how to keep us in our truth.

So he continues in prayer, remember oh Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving kindness, for they have been ever of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions according to thy mercy.

Remember thou me for thy goodness sake, oh Lord. When he says, remember oh Lord, thy tender mercies and thy loving kindness, I started thinking about how when you don't have a plea before God and you don't have a right to ask him on your behalf to do something, you can always say to him, he can do it because of who he is. You're not asking God to remember who you are or who you've been. You're asking him to remember who he is because he's God.

The Bible goes on to say in verse eight, good and upright is the Lord. Therefore will he teach sinners in the way.

It's still talking about who he is. There's some things God will just do because of who he is.

When you can't make a case for you, you can go to prayer in mercy with a case being made for who he is.

This is a reflection of your mercy, God. I'm a reflection of your grace.

It's not my goodness. It is the Lord's mercies that I'm not consumed.

And the prayer continues in verse nine, the meek will he guide in judgment, and the meek will he teach his way. That word meek means the poor, the humble, the afflicted. And in this instance, it's not even talking about poor in terms of money, but that poor in spirit that we see in Matthew 5, the humble in spirit, the ones who are low enough to recognize they need him.

There's nothing wrong with needing God.

We need him every day.

But there comes times when you're like, no God, I really, really, really need you because there's literally no option I can concoct in my own mind that can help me right now. And those are the moments where it can feel almost desperate, but it also is the opportunity to see God as he is, that he is the only one that can help, the only one that can save, the only one that can deliver. I submit to you that needing God is a good thing because the Bible says in verse 10, all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

Every way he takes me, every way he directs me is mercy and truth. He's not hiding from me, he's not tricking me, he's not taking an opportunity to punish me beyond what he should. Every way he directs me, every way he leads me is mercy and truth.

So verse 11 says, for thy name's sake, oh Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.

He goes on in verse 12 to say, what man is he that fears the Lord? Him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.

Again, not my choice, not my will, but yours God.

His soul shall dwell at ease and his seed shall inherit the earth. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will show them his covenant. This word secret means counsel, his assembly, where you find how he thinks, how he directs, his recommendations.

All of that is with him when you follow him, when you fear him.

That word fear means reverence or to be afraid.

When you hold him in the proper respect, the counsel of the Lord is with you. And he will keep his promise to you is what that second part of verse 14 is saying, he will show them his covenant.

Psalms 25:15 says, mine eyes are ever toward the Lord, for he shall pluck my feet out of the net. Understand that even when I get trapped, even when I get entangled, I don't know if you've ever had your foot caught in a net or something and it's trapped and you try to pull and all that, but the Bible says he's going to pluck me out of it. He's just going to yank me out. Instead of me trying to figure it out and untie things, maybe getting more tangled up, just pluck me out of this Lord.

Why?

Because mine eyes are toward the Lord.

I am looking to him in the way that he's taking me and his truth and his mercy. So even if it looks like I get stuck, he's coming to get me out of the net.

Turn thee unto me and have mercy upon me, for I am desolate and afflicted, verse 16 says.

The troubles of my heart are enlarged. Oh bring thou me out of my distresses.

Look upon mine affliction and my pain and forgive all my sins. Consider mine enemies for they are many and they hate me with cruel hatred. Oh keep my soul and deliver me. Let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in thee. I love how he ties together in verse 18, look upon mine affliction and my pain and forgive all my sins.

You see Jesus do this in the New Testament too.

He in dealing with the man who had palsy, he didn't just heal him, he didn't just let him go. The Bible says, Jesus told him, thy sins be forgiven thee, along with telling him, rise up, take up thy bed and walk.

He connected his deliverance to his repentance, to his cleansing of his soul.

I understand we can ask God for lots of things, but he's partial to the clean hands and the pure heart. He wants to forgive sins.

And so you see this a lot with people when they get into trouble and they have prayers, let's just say on TV even, television shows, I've seen it where the character is perhaps not really religious, but somebody's in a bad situation whom they love and so they're bargaining with God and their bargaining is typically, Lord, if you do this, if you'll heal them, I'll do and they'll let go of something or they'll start going to church or they'll be a better person.

Why?

Because innately we know God doesn't owe us anything. And so to tell to God, we understand innately, there's a cleanliness that comes with that.

And the Psalmist ties this together in prayer when he says, look upon my affliction and my pain and forgive my sins.

When you look, when I'm telling you to come look at me, I don't want you to see anything dirty.

The scripture continues in verse 20.

Oh keep my soul and deliver me. Let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in thee. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait on thee.

Redeem Israel, oh God, out of all his troubles.

I love that he asked the Lord to do it all. Sometimes I believe that I at least pray too small, where I ask in part or with the things that I can fathom.

But the Psalmist wrote here and most presume that it is David, deliver me out of all of them. Sometimes you just got to ask God to do all of it.

Why?

Because he can. He's God.

Today be encouraged.

Lift up your soul to the Lord.

He knows how to handle it. He knows how to lead, how to direct in truth and mercy.

And as you're crying out, remember that prayer reaches every single situation.

Be blessed.

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Did you know that when you are quiet, your voice is missing God's ears?

I know some of us have prayed and we're wondering, how long should I pray about this? Why should I pray if God already knows?

How will I know God is answering?

And what do I do when I feel like God's not listening? But God is listening for your voice.

It's too quiet in this world for the troubles we have.

You have to raise your voice and God wants to hear from you. It's too quiet, a book about prayer is designed to answer your prayer questions and build your faith.

Visit press to pray.com.