Do you ever feel stuck in your prayer life?

Perhaps your prayers feel repetitive, routine, or lifeless—as though you keep saying the same things about the same concerns day after day. You know prayer matters, but sometimes your heart simply isn’t engaged.

Or maybe you’ve noticed another discouraging pattern in your spiritual life: just when you think you’ve finally learned a lesson about patience, trust, anger, forgiveness, or self-control, God allows you to face the exact same kind of test again. And you find yourself wondering, “Lord, why am I back here?”

Today’s readings speak to both of those struggles.

We’ll look at how praying Scripture—especially the Psalms—can breathe fresh life into our conversations with God by helping us pray His Word back to Him personally and thoughtfully.

We’ll also watch David face repeated tests of character and trust. After passing one difficult test with Saul, David is almost immediately confronted with another through Nabal’s foolishness and insults. Yet through both situations, God was patiently shaping David’s heart and teaching him to trust His timing rather than take matters into his own hands.

Perhaps those repeated struggles in our lives are not signs that God has abandoned us, but evidence that He is lovingly training us—giving us opportunities to practice what He is teaching us until obedience becomes part of who we are.

And finally, in John 1, we’ll be reminded that Jesus delights in using unlikely people. Nathanael could hardly believe anything good could come out of Nazareth, yet God often chooses the least likely people and places so that He alone receives the glory.

Welcome to “God’s Word Day by Day,” where I blog through the Bible in a Year. I hope you’ll join me every day. If you’re not already signed up, you can do it here or subscribe on YouTube.

Today’s Readings:

1 Samuel 24 & 25
Psalm 60.1-5
Proverbs 16.3
John 1.29-51

Breathing Life Back Into Prayer

Psalm 60.1-5:

One Answer for a Boring Prayer Life

In his book, Praying the Bible, Donald Whitney poses the question, “Why don’t Christians pray more?” He gives the startling answer that we don’t pray more because we tend to pray the same old way about the same old things, day after day, and prayer becomes boring!

Praying from the Psalms

1 Samuel 24 & 25:

David’s Test

David was still on the run from Saul, and he had been hiding in a cave when Saul came into the cave to relieve himself. It seemed too good to be true! Had God delivered him into David’s hands? His men thought so.

But David recognized it as a test. If he had killed Saul, he would have been taking matters into his own hands instead of waiting on God. David responded rightly, and Saul, convicted by David’s righteousness, went back home. Good job, David. Now, everything should be smooth sailing from here on, right?

Instead, God gave David another opportunity to practice waiting on God’s timing and trust Him.

Another Opportunity

David and his men, in their coming and going through the less inhabited regions, had watched over and protected other men, in this case, some shepherds who worked for a man named Nabal.

When it was time for the sheep shearing, Nabal and his men were celebrating and enjoying the rewards of their labor. David sent some of his men to ask if they would provide them with some provisions.

Nabal, whose name means “fool,” lived up to his name. He selfishly and pridefully not only refused but insulted David, and David was hot! With a who-does-this-guy-think-he-is attitude, David mounted up with his men and headed to their camp to wipe them out.

But God sent Nabal’s wife, Abigail, to intervene, and David recognized the truth of what she told him. God in his mercy had provided the way of escape (1 Cor. 10.13). David listened and changed his mind. I believe that is why God called David a man after his own heart, not because he never blew it, but because when God called his hand, he repented and did what was right. And, as I said, this was another opportunity for David to wait on God and trust Him to avenge any wrong done.

God’s Homework

Do you ever feel like God does the same to you? Does He give you repeated opportunities to respond with patience or trust or to overcome evil with good or to develop some other godly character quality (Rom. 12.14-21)?

Perhaps the reason is the same one that causes a teacher to give homework to solidify what she taught in class. While her students may understand a concept, without practice, it won’t become a lasting skill.

So, how do you respond when you seem to deal with the same temptation over and over? How do I? How do we respond when someone points out a poor response? Do we respond with defensiveness, avoidance, and selfish pride? Or do we respond with humility and genuine repentance? Perhaps, if we responded more like David, we’d have fewer opportunities to repeat the lesson!

Commit It to the Lord

Commit your works to the LORD, and your thoughts will be established.

The word “commit” speaks of total trust and submission to the Lord. When we’re relying on ourselves, especially in a difficult situation, we often fret and worry, and second-guess our decisions. But when we give them to Him, totally and completely, and trust that He is working and giving us wisdom, our thoughts will be established, and we’ll be at peace.

John 1.29-51:

You’ve Got to Be Kidding!

I love this passage where Jesus is gathering some of the disciples to Himself. We see their humanness, especially with Nathanael when he is first told to come and meet Jesus of Nazareth. He responds by saying, in effect, “You’ve got to be kidding! Are you telling me some guy from Nazareth is the One Moses prophesied about? ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?'” (v. 46).

But, thankfully for most of us, God often uses the least likely people. That way, He receives the glory, and we grow as we learn to depend on Him.

Coming Up:

In the coming days, we’ll talk about how we sometimes do the Christian two-step (one step forward, two steps back). We’ll also look at so-called white magic, what it means to resist the devil, what to do when you’re at your wits’ end, and how to respond to imperfect authority.

I hope you’ll sign up so you don’t miss any of them. You might also like to check out the latest videos on our YouTube channel.

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Blessings as you grow in Christ,
Donna ♥