The Prayer of Every Saint

“Teach me to do thy will; for thou [art] my God: thy spirit [is] good; lead me into the land of uprightness. Quicken me, O LORD, for thy name’s sake: for thy righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble. And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul: for I [am] thy servant.” (Ps 143:10-12 AV)

This should be the prayer of the saint every morning!  This is what we are.  We are not co-equals with the LORD.  We are not a child who will eventually grow up beyond our parent’s need to parent us.  We will not mature to a place where we are charged with taking care of God.  No matter how old and experienced we get, in comparison to the LORD, we are still small children.  Children whose responsibility is to obey the will of the Father.  We are still the servants of the most High.  We are the namesake of a holy and righteous God and our responsibility is to live up to that namesake.

In all my years as a child of a father, I cannot remember once asking my father to teach me to walk in obedience.  I may have asked him exactly what he expected in a specific set of circumstances.  Not for the sake of pleasing him.  But rather, I knew that if I didn’t do as expected, there were consequences and that I would have to do it his way anyway.  In all my years as a parent, I cannot remember a single time when one of my children asked me to teach him how to always please me by obeying my word.  There may have been a time.  But I cannot think of one.

It is not in our nature to think this way.  It goes contrary to the old man.  We strive for independence and maturity.  We want to be our own person.  This is a good thing – when it comes to other people.  We should desire to outgrow those who were our mentors so that we can be mentors ourselves.  But when it comes to God, we will never outgrow Him!  This prayer should always be on our lips!  Always!