Most Important Prayer

“O LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee:” (1Ch 29:18 AV)

 

If there was one prayer, at least to me, that would be the most important one of all, this would be it.  As far as striving for godly living, in my opinion, this request would be the first and most important.  In David’s prayer, he is asking the word of God be kept in the forefront of the minds and hearts of God’s people.  That doesn’t always translate into perfect living.  One can know and meditate upon the word of God and still fall.  However, having the word of God in the forefront of one’s mind and heart makes it much more difficult to do so.  The request goes deep than merely improved recall.  Not the details of this request.  The request isn’t restricted to memory.  It goes deeper into imagination.  Imagination is not a simple recall of information.  Imagination has to do with the creative or practical application of what one already knows.  Imagination means the entire world view or how we process our world as we interact with it.  In short, David is asking the LORD to keep His word and principles as the only lens through which the nation of Israel looks for living and serving God.  Keep the word of God forever in the thoughts, feelings, and actions of the saints continually and without interruption.

As shared before, one of my hobbies used to be photography.  My father took a lot of snapshots.  He set up a darkroom in the basement of our home.  We learned to roll bulk film.  We learned to develop our own film.  And we learned how to make prints from that film.  Inside a dark room, there is a red lightbulb.  This lightbulb is the light from which one works.  Any other type of light would destroy the film and or prints.  The door locked from the inside.  That way, no one could come into that room while someone was working.  This process was very exact.  Prints were no big deal.  If you burned a print because someone opened the door or white light was turned on, you can always print another.  Film, on the other hand, cannot be replaced.  If film is exposed to white light, it would be ruined.  So, one can imagine how important it was for the darkroom tech to be not disturbed under any and all circumstances while developing film.  Unless the house was burning down, he was not to be disturbed.  I loved developing film!  Thirty minutes all to myself without parents or siblings to interrupt me.  Needless to say, I developed a lot of film!  When I was in that darkroom, my complete attention and focus was on that film.  What I was doing completely consumed all my thoughts and purpose.

This is what David had in mind.  This is what our prayer should be.  We should be so focused on the word of God and God’s will for us that there are no other considerations.  To have our entire person overwhelmed by the principles and purposes of God will keep us from the shame and guilt of sin.  David knew if Israel were to make that level of commitment and strive to that end, the LORD would bless them beyond what they could possibly imagine.  The same is true for us.  If we simply discipled the mind and heart to constantly focus on the word of God, His purpose, and His person, then our lives would never swerve into failure, guilt, and shame.