Living with God

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TODAY’S SPECIAL: Psalm 84:1-12

TO CHEW ON: “Blessed are those who dwell in Your house …
Blessed is the man whose strength is in You …
Blessed is the man who trusts in You!” Psalm 84: 4,5,12


This is one of my favorite psalms. I love its exuberance over spending time with God. I love its let’s-be-in-this-for-the-long-haul encouragement (Psalm 84:5-7). Today I realized there are three “blesseds” in it: “Blessed are those who dwell in Your house…  whose strength is in You… who trust in You.”

Of course the picture of dwelling in God’s house is a metaphor. So how can we do that in reality, and find strength in God and trust in Him in a living-with-Him kind of way, every day,  multiple times throughout the day?

One aid I’ve discovered recently that helps me with this is an iPad app called PrayerMate. What I love about this app is that I can easily add prayer requests to it and upload pdf files of, for example, my church’s monthly prayer requests. I’ve also added to it Scripture prayers, like this “Praying the Bible Prayer for Writers” that I cobbled together some time ago.

Earlier this year during our church’s prayer emphasis, our associate pastor gave some excellent teaching on prayer. I’ve begun using the simple template he introduced:

• Thanksgiving: Begin prayer time with giving thanks—for things related to your request, for things you’re thankful for generally.

• Ask: Tell God everything about the issue. Spill it out onto Him in your own words.

• Agree: Find, in the Bible, what God says concerning your issue and agree with Him in prayer, praying Scripture words back to Him. 

I’ve written a Thanksgiving-Ask-Agree prayer for the writing project I’m currently working on and I plan to apply this way of praying to many more requests. If you and I did this about every anxiety and challenge that came up during the day, wouldn’t we be one of those "Blessed" ones, dwelling in God’s house, getting our strength from Him and trusting Him?

And the nice thing about having this prayer aid on my iPad is that I can open it any time I have a minute or two, and, instead of playing Solitaire or Scrabble, spend a little time “dwelling” with God.

PRAYER: Dear Father, help me to experience the joy, contentment, security, and hope of living with You expressed in this psalm. Amen. 

MORE: What does the Bible say?
Need some help finding scripture verses about your issue? Here are a few online lists that will give you a start:

89 Bible Verses About Life

23 Encouraging Bible Verses

20 Key Bible Verses for Everyday Problems 

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.