Daily Prayer For Guidance

“Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.” (Ps 143:8 AV)

Just a friendly reminder.  Nothing new today.  The sweet psalmist prays his prayer first thing in the morning for guidance and direction.  Before he starts his day, he asks the LORD to show him the way wherein he should walk.  He wants to know, specifically and continuously, the right choices he should make.  His waking hours are dedicated to pleasing the LORD.  Thus, he seeks the Spirit to guide him every step of the way.

Many years ago, I used the Franklin-Covey system of day planning.  The idea was to define specific goals for roles you fill.  Father, pastor, personal goals, child of God, brother, spouse, etc.  For each role you identified, there were tasks created and assigned.  Then a value was placed based on priority.  You gave it an A, B, or C.  Then you organized those tasks by assigning numbers following the letter.  You might have an A1, A2, A3, A4, B1, B2, B3, C1, C2, C3, C4, and so on.  Goal was to knock off as many tasks as you could, starting with the ‘A’s.  Each morning, you would sit down with your daytimer and transfer any pending tasks from the day before into the current day.  At this point, you would add additional tasks that came up.  It was a rather efficient tool that helped the user become productive and organized.  The point was to start the day with a plan.  There were no penalty points if you failed to complete a task, so if something came up, no problem.  If an emergency occurred or an unplanned task interrupted your plan, that was ok.  At least there was a plan.

When it comes to living for the LORD each and every day, we may have a plan.  We may have certain things that need to be done.  Daily devotions and prayer are two of them.  There may be tasks in our different roles that have to be done every day.  For this, the psalmist is not praying.  That for what he is praying is guidance along the next sixteen hours or so.  He is asking the LORD to guide him in the midst of this plan and to steer him where the plan needs to be changed.  He is asking for strength to withstand temptation.  He is asking for wisdom in knowing what is a divine appointment and what is not.  He is asking for wisdom that if there are things that take more priority than what he has planned, that he sees the hand of God and reacts accordingly.  The Psalmist is seeking God's ever-abiding presence in all his decisions, goals, and plans.  He wants the LORD to show him every right way for every moment of that day.