150 Days of Psalms - Psalm 86

There are a lot of great verses in this Psalm.

There are verses that are a good model to pray when you have sin to confess:
"Listen, Lord, and answer me,
for I am poor and needy." v.1

Be gracious to me, Lord,
for I call to You all day long." v.3

"listen to my plea for mercy" v.6

There are verses that declare God's attributes:
"For You, Lord, are kind and ready to forgive,
rich in faithful love to all who call on You." v.5

"For You are great and perform wonders;
You alone are God." v.10

"For Your faithful love for me is great" v.13

"You, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God,
slow to anger and rich in faithful love and truth." v.15

But the verses I'd like to emphasize are found right in the middle of the Psalm.

"Teach me Your way, Yahweh,
and I will live by Your truth.
Give me an undivided mind to fear Your name.
I will praise You with all my heart, Lord my God,
and will honor Your name forever." vs.11-12

This is where I find my greatest need - and from what I see in so many lives I know I'm not alone. There seems to be a disconnect between our Christian faith and how we live each day.
We have divided minds. There is the church section, the sports section, the Friday night section, the work section, the home section...

This is nothing new, but it does seem to be worse now than it was 20-30 years ago.

We trust Jesus for our salvation, but if there are things we want to do or places we want to go that aren't exactly the kinds of things or places that are pleasing to God, we do them anyway.

We tell Jesus we love Him and then moments later we are screaming at someone who cut us off in traffic or at a salesman who didn't offer us the service we expected.

We say we trust God to supply all of our needs but don't trust Him enough to bring a Tithe as an offering. "Money's just a little tight this month. God won't care."

Jesus said to take up our cross (die to self) and follow Him.
He said that no one, after putting his hand to the plow, and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.

I hope these verses, Psalm 86:11-12, can not only be your prayer for the day, but that you will also put them in your life. Take the dividers out of your mind and your life so you can truly fear (reverence, obey, honor, follow) the Lord. And Praise Him with ALL of your heart - not just parts of it. Honor His name forever.

Then you will find and experience God's strength, goodness, help, comfort, faithful love... all the attributes and blessings of God we see in this Psalm.