The first week of the year, Bob asked the Lord for a word. Asked for instruction, for discernment, anticipation of what God was saying and intending to do in this immediate season.
The Holy Spirit directed him to Psalm 20:5, a blessing prayer and celebration of the victory of God. He was so encouraged, as we remain in the high-pressure place of need for multiple types of victories, accomplishments only God can give. For all earthly purposes, there are some major challenges we still must overcome in preparation for our launch with SIM and Sports Friends. We feel ready to get started in this particular service, but there is an un-readiness God is yet addressing through this process of defined preparation. An un-readiness measurable in our outstanding requirements, an un-readiness as He continues specific works in our hearts, and an un-readiness of His to reveal the fullness of His plan prematurely.
A few days later, the Lord started speaking to me out of Psalm 20:1-3, His promise for help, sustenance, and remembrance of our offerings. I was encouraged, and it wasn’t lost on me that the immediately following verses were what He’d just given Bob.
The boys and I have been reading I Dared to Call Him Father, the testimony of a woman whom Jesus met with in her dreams. The boys began reading their Bibles more independently and asking God to speak to them more. The Sunday morning after our local snowstorm, one of the boys came to my prayer corner and asked by reference if I knew what a certain Bible verse said. Curiosity piqued, I gave him a Bible to look it up and asked him why that particular segment. “I had a dream last night that I was reading it. I couldn’t see the words, just which verses it was.” The reference? Psalm 20:1-5.
Now, Bob had shared his verse with me the day he got it. Otherwise, Psalm 20 had just been personal gifts to him and me. Clearly God intended to say something to and over our whole family with this (so clearly it became the Scripture for home-church that morning, in our snowbound community).
We’d like to share this amazing gift of His Word with you. First, I pray that it strengthens and encourages you, and leads you to celebrate the mighty presence and goodness of GOD. I invite you to begin praying this blessing over your own family/life/service as you seek the Lord with all your heart, delight yourself in Him, and make His praise glorious. (Jer 29:13, Ps 37:4-5, Ps 66:2). And finally, I ask you to join us in praying it boldly over our family, according to God’s call and purposes. Believe Him with us, and we will with you, that He will fulfill His purposes for us all.
Psalm 20
May Yahweh answer you in a day of trouble;
may the name of Jacob’s God protect you.
May He send you help from the sanctuary
and sustain you from Zion.
May He remember all your offerings
and accept your burnt offering.
Selah
May He give you what your heart desires
and fulfill your whole purpose.
Let us shout for joy at your victory
and lift the banner in the name of our God.
May Yahweh fulfill all your requests.
Now I know that the Lord gives victory to His anointed;
He will answer him from His holy heaven,
with mighty victories from His right hand.
Some take pride in chariots, and others in horses,
but we take pride in the name of Yahweh our God.
They collapse and fall,
but we rise and stand firm.
Lord, give victory to the king!
May He answer us on the day that we call.