O Lord, To You I Make Petition

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From the Psalms the psalmist gives us good instruction to petition the Lord for today,

“Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips. Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice deeds of wickedness.” (Psalm 141: 3-4 – NASB)

As you and I make our way through the day, and for that matter, every day, may it be our petition to our Lord to “set a guard . . . over (our) mouth.” Much comes out from our “mouth” in the course of day, a week, a month, a year. I know I find myself saying things all too often that the Holy Spirit brings His word to bear on, and I end up saying, “Forgive me Lord, I shouldn’t have said that. It goes against the counsel You have given me in Your word.”

So we say, “Keep watch over the door of (our) lips.” For I would think that each one of us has a heart-driven desire to please our Lord, do we not? Do we not want to have our words be in line with His? “Keep watch” Lord, “Set a guard,” for I am capable of sinning against you and against others by that which flows from “my mouth,” from “the door of my lips.”

And Lord, “Do not incline my heart to any evil thing.” We would pray that You would, through Your Word, move our hearts to do what is good in Your sight and not that which is “evil.”

There is a great deal of “evil” in the world and it would be our prayer Lord that as we set our face to be conformed to Your image by taking in the counsel of Your word, that You would not allow our “heart” be “inclined . . . to any evil thing, to practice deeds of wickedness.” We who are Yours are called to a different walk then those who do not know You, to those who walk “according to the course of this world.” It should be our desire not to do “evil,” not to “practice deeds of wickedness.” We who are Yours are “salt” and we are “light” to a world that deals in “evil” and “wicked” things, to a world that walks in darkness.

O Lord, to You we make petition regarding what we say and what we practice . . .

“Set guard, O LORD, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips. Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice deeds of wickedness.”

Have a good day brethren . . . and as you walk may this petition be yours as you seek to speak only that which honors the Lord and practice that which is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and of good report (Philippians 4:8-9).

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