On Christmas Day I was seeking God concerning 2020, the year of clear vision. As I read the Psalms, six principles came across my radar. I had a hunch that these were exactly what I needed to embrace in my pursuit of clear vision, and after further prayer, I committed to keeping these \u201cpillars\u201d before my eyes all year long. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pillar #4 (a): God\u2019s favor <\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the favor of the Lord our God\nrest on us<\/em>\u2026Psalm 90:17a<\/p>\n\n\n\n I will not be shy this year about\nasking God to pour out His favor upon me every day. Without His favor, I may go\nthrough the motions\u2014work, pray, write, study, counsel, give\u2014but nothing of\nsubstance will be built up or stored to my account. Why not? Because of what I\u2019m\nleaning on\u2014my own abilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On the other hand, when I ask for the\nLord\u2019s favor to rest upon me, I am acknowledging that my own abilities are not<\/em>\nenough; I need Him<\/em>. I need His favor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As you may remember, Pillar #1 also touched on favor from God: The Lord takes pleasure in [favors] those who fear Him (Psalm 147:11).<\/em> Are <\/em>you recognizing your need for God\u2019s favor? Then camp out in the fear of the Lord. It pleases Him and will cause His favor to come upon your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pillar #4 (b): God establishes for\nyou the works of your hands<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026establish the work of our hands\nfor us\u2014<\/em> Humans are creative. We do things. We make things. We think, sing, run, talk, serve, dream, solve problems, and ponder about new ways to approach everyday issues. Bottom line\u2014we all work one way or another. And most of us can admit that at some point we have felt like a mouse on a treadmill, constantly running, doing, working, but getting nowhere fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Solomon lamented the futility of the human condition when he wrote, Vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What advantage does man have in all his work which he does under the sun?<\/em>(Ecclesiastes 1:2b-4).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember, there was a time in Solomon\u2019s life when he was in limbo\u2014he\nknew God was real, but he wasn\u2019t living for Him at all. He had stepped away\nfrom his earlier fear of the Lord. The result? The heavy oppression of futility\nrested upon him despite his fabulous wealth, women, and accomplishments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s my observation that a large percentage of the human race\n(with and<\/em> without Solomon\u2019s advantages) are living daily lives of futility,\nfeeling absolutely worthless. But no matter how much failure, oppression or\nplain old existential nothingness any one of us have faced in life, it doesn\u2019t\nhave to remain that way. Psalm 90 shines a light through the darkness of\nfutility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can<\/em> ask for favor from God. He gives you permission to do just that. Then ask Him to establish the work of your hands\u2014to cause lasting, eternal impact through your work\u2014however that may look in your life. And realize that in God’s economy, the quietest, most obscure person can have an enormously profound impact on multitudes of lives just for the asking: Lord, Establish the work of my hands for me\u2014yes, establish the work of my hands.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n An amazing truth about allowing God to\nestablish for you the work of your hands is this: you may never know until eternity\njust how very impactful your life has been. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And remember this: The dark season of vanity in Solomon\u2019s life had nothing to do with bad luck or tough breaks. He entered his season of futility when he set aside his fear of God and allowed life\u2019s distractions to distort his vision. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But as for you, determine that this<\/em> year you will fear the Lord. Ask Him daily for His favor to rest upon your life, and dare to trust Him to establish\u2014making eternally fruitful\u2014the work of your hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And I\u2019ll bet that as you pursue this course,\nyour vision will grow ever clearer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dorothy<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a9 2020, Dorothy Frick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Christmas Day I was seeking God concerning 2020, the year of clear vision. As I read the Psalms, six principles came across my radar. I had a hunch that these were exactly what I needed to embrace in my pursuit of clear vision, and after further prayer, I committed to keeping these \u201cpillars\u201d before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prayerperspective"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8435"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8452,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8435\/revisions\/8452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nyes, establish the work of our hands\u2026<\/em>Psalm 90:17b<\/p>\n\n\n\n