"Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word." [Psa 119:17]

How many times do we ask for blessings in our lives simply to make them easier? Simply to have some sort of pleasure or benefit that is not necessarily spiritual? How many prayers for blessing are not prayed in order that Jesus may be benefited in some way? We must change the way we pray; we must have our desires purified. Let us pray for blessings in our lives so that we might keep God’s word. Let us pray for blessings of victory, blessings of Jesus’ life, blessings of a greater ability to die to ourselves. Let us pray as the Psalmist, “Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word.” Let us pray for a greater obedience, for a greater fear of God. Let us not pray for an easier, wealthier, healthier, softer life. Let us be content with what we have right now and pray so that we may live and keep God’s word. If good health and luxury will lead me to a greater disobedience, then may it never come. As it is written in the Proverbs,

Two things have I required of Thee; deny me them not before I die. Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: lest I be full, and deny Thee, and say, who is The LORD? Or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain." [Prov 30:7-9]

As saints of Christ in the New Testament, our life is “hid with Christ in God.” [Col 3:3] Our life exists through Jesus. He tells us that “because I live, ye shall live also.” [Jn 14:19] Paul says, “for we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.” [2 Cor 4:11] So let us pray for this blessing, for a greater ability to die; that we would get up on that bloody cross with our Lord and die! So that His magnificent and glorious and victorious and beautiful life would flow through us! May our hearts ever yearn for a greater obedience to our blessed God, and may our prayers ever become more God-centered.