A Sample Prayer

Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm 19:12-14 NIV)

The disciples said to Jesus one day, "Lord, teach us to pray." We, too, need to learn how to pray, and the Bible is filled with examples to help us. The prayer of the psalmist, here, gives us 3 wonderful prayer requests to consider:

1. Help me see my own need. (vs. 12) We don't always see our own sinfulness, do we? The writer of this Psalm knew this when he talked about his hidden sins, and asked God to point them out to him. This was not an exercise in self-loathing, but rather an honest desire to be clean and right before God. It is both God's and the godly Christian's mutual desire, that nothing come between their relationship. It is a prayer for protection before the fact.
2. Keep me from my own sinfulness. (vs. 13) Then again, sometimes we do see our sin, and are even willful in committing it. It's easy to allow things in our lives, to get to enjoy them, and to continue to sin even when God makes it clear to us He does not condone the behavior. This is dangerous ground, and the psalmist prays that God would protect him from it ever happening, and he also prays that God would deliver him from it when he's in the midst of it. This is prayer for deliverance in the midst of battle.
3. Help me to be GENUINE. (vs. 14) May what we SAY be the same as what we THINK. May what people see about us be the same as what God sees. May we be people of integrity, genuine, REAL. Zig Ziglar said, "The most important persuasion tool you have in your entire arsenal is integrity." If we would reach our community and our world for Christ, we need God to help us be GENUINE.
   

I'm praying this prayer today. Will you pray it with me?