I want my prayers to be more God-centered. If you stop and notice your own praying, does it focus mostly on God and praise to Him? Or like me, are you going on and on about yourself and your requests?
Take a look at Psalm 86. Here the Psalmist is in the midst of a great trial, fearing for his life. But his concentration is decidedly upon the Lord. By my count, David refers directly to God 48 times in the 17 verses of this prayer-psalm. Yes, he mentions his needs, but his soul is lifted up to God (v. 4). He knows he’s in physical danger, yet he pours out worship for God’s mercy, grace, faithfulness, forgiveness, and steadfast love.
How often do we start praying, and our minds come up with need after need that we can’t take care of on our own? Worrisome thoughts can run this way and that in our heads. What we should do is herd all those needs and requests to God.
We can leave our petitions with the Lord, saying with the psalmist, “For You are great and do wondrous things; You alone are God” (v. 10). We all tend to go off in many different directions. So David prays, “unite my heart to fear Your name” (v. 11). Unite my heart. Make me whole-hearted toward You, Lord. Single-minded to reverence You in love.
Charles Spurgeon says, “Our minds are apt to be divided between a variety of objects, like trickling streamlets which waste their force in a hundred [little channels]; our great desire should be to have all our life floods poured into one channel and to have that channel directed towards the Lord alone.” Good stuff! May God be the center of our lives, and the center of our prayers.
