Morning, I Lay My Requests Before You and Wait in Expectation

In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation (Psalm 5:3 NIV).

God wants us to live life one day at a time. For the day is a God-given unit of time for man’s sake. Therefore it is best to begin each day by meeting with God.

A day which begins with a meeting with God has tremendous strength and blessing. It has to be experienced to be understood.

The morning prayer can be a time to tell God your needs of the day. This is not a listing out of things to be done. No. But it is like telling God to be actively involved in your day’s activities, needs and duties.

It is like inviting God to participate in your life that day. Such an attitude lifts prayer from a recital of needs to an intimate sharing with God.

Again, you come to know God as a person through such talk. He listens to you. Even in normal life, how lifted up in your heart you feel when someone sympathetically listens to you; don’t you?

How much more so you should be encouraged to have someone who has the willingness and power to act in your situation!

But that is not all. There is more for you to do than simply laying your requests before God. You need to act out your faith in His willingness and ability by waiting in expectation. This is one of the joys of prayer.

Yes, waiting can often be anxious. But waiting in expectation is not anxiety. But a calm looking forward to that day to see how God is going to meet your expectation.

The anxious part of waiting is that you do not know how God is going to meet your expectation. But you need to learn not to worry about how God is going to do something.

Instead waiting in expectation is an eagerness to have God participate in your day. He might do so in ways that you may not recognize when it happens.

But at the end of the day when you look back to something that had happened, you might say, “Oh, it was God. I did not know it then . . . Father, thank You for helping me today.”
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