sacrifices and offerings = the desires of your heart

12/5/11                                                                             Psalm 20

Scripture: Psalm 20:1-5,8&9 May the Lord answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you. May he send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion. May he remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings. May  he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. We will shout for joy when you are victorious and will lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all your requests. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm. O Lord, save the king! answer us when we call.

Observation: The psalm is about the good things that the Lord will do for you, such as answering your calls when in distress and let the God of Jacob protect you, when you might stumble and fall. May the Lord send you help from the sanctuary and grant support from Zion. remember all your sacrifices and accept your offerings and give you the desires of your heart and make your plans succeed. May the Lord grant all your requests so that we can rise up and stand firm.

Application: The relationship that we have with God is give and take. It seems that we ask for everything under the sun yet God knows when to make you stumble and fall, so that you can rise up and stand firm. The key is to help the Lord grant others there requests. We need to make sure that we sacrifice and pray that he will accept our offerings so that the desires of our heart will be granted. We need to help our fellow man, by being there for them, prayer, help with housework, school work, taking the kids to give them a break, ETC. I think that you get the idea. We are asking God to remember all of our sacrifices and accept the burnt offerings so that the Lord will answer us when we call.  Maybe this week you need to stop hitting the snooze button on the alarm clock so that you can be in prayer with God or to help out your fellow man.

Prayer: Oh Lord God, help us in our ways, let us be there for our fellow man to help them with the desires of their hearts that we will sacrifice for our self. Please let us think of those that are unfortunate at this time of the year, because of loss of job, loss of hope, loss of future. We ask you to remember our sacrifices and accept the offerings that we give to you, so that you will answer us when we call on your name. For only great things can be done through you. Amen.