Don’t leave me to the mercy of my enemies,
    for I have done what is just and right.
122 Please guarantee a blessing for me.
    Don’t let the arrogant oppress me!
123 My eyes strain to see your rescue,
    to see the truth of your promise fulfilled.
124 I am your servant; deal with me in unfailing love,
    and teach me your decrees.
125 Give discernment to me, your servant;
    then I will understand your laws.
126 Lord, it is time for you to act,
    for these evil people have violated your instructions.
127 Truly, I love your commands
    more than gold, even the finest gold.
128 Each of your commandments is right.
    That is why I hate every false way. (New Living Translation).

The love this man has for God’s Word; his valuing it (127), and deep concern over its violation (126) are evident for all to read. So also, is his eager, energetic, expectant longing for God’s promises to be fulfilled (123). He has a form of holy and healthy ‘eye strain’ as he looks for what God has said to come to pass. Clearly, ‘standing on the promises of God’ is not a passive thing.

I often think about something I read many years ago in an inspiring biography of George Mueller of Bristol. It was said that he developed a way of praying that was rather like a lawyer, in a court of law, arguing a case. Reverently but boldly, he would lay claim to God’s answers on the basis of His own Word. He knew His Bible so well.

This is an inspiring quote from the George Muller,org website. Let it inspire you to pray on in faith:


In November 1844, I began to pray for the conversion of five individuals. I prayed every day without a single intermission, whether sick or in health, on the land, on the sea, and whatever the pressure of my engagements might be. Eighteen months elapsed before the first of the five was converted. I thanked God and prayed on for the others. Five years elapsed, and then the second was converted. I thanked God for the second, and prayed on for the other three. Day by day, I continued to pray for them, and six years passed before the third was converted. I thanked God for the three, and went on praying for the other two. These two remained unconverted.
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Thirty-six years later he wrote that the other two, sons of one of Mueller’s friends, were still not converted. He wrote, “But I hope in God, I pray on, and look for the answer. They are not converted yet, but they will be.” In 1897, fifty-two years after he began to pray daily, without interruption, for these two men, they were finally converted—but after he died! Mueller understood what Luke meant when he introduced a parable Jesus told about prayer, saying, “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1).