Prayers

Get a Move On

by John Puckett 
11/16/22
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Get a Move On, God!

To our average restrained evangelical ears, urging God to hurry up seems audacious, disrespectful, or even rude. When did you last hear someone telling God to hurry up?
Obviously, some Old Testament people considered it fitting and proper.

“Make haste to help me,” David cried out in Psalm 38:22.
Ten times he used the phrase “Make haste,” so he must have thought it suitable.

Why be reluctant to speak to God in that way?
Is it because we do not see our imminent danger as acutely as David perceived his?
Is it because we lack David’s absolute conviction that God, and only God, can remedy our situation?
Is it because we lack his close relationship with God that we feel uneasy about David’s plain speaking?

The condition of God’s people and of His holy city deeply disturbed the prophet Daniel as well, and he poured out his heart in urgent prayer. The end of his prayer includes ‘Hurry up.’
“O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.” Daniel 9:19

However, the explanation for that bold urgency of both David and Daniel lies in that greatest of all reasons for God to do anything – “For your sake.”
On another occasion David prays, “Revive me, O Lord, for your name’s sake! For Your righteousness’ sake, bring my soul out of trouble.” Psalm 143:11
Both of these men were supremely concerned that God’s honour was at stake. They were in danger, yes, but in a certain sense God was also in danger. His name, his reputation, his honour, his cause was under threat from the pressures and evils of this world, as well as the damage caused by God’s own people.
Their intense concern for God’s honour encouraged David and Daniel to pray, ‘Hurry up!’

Maybe we need to get rid of lamely adding to our prayers an easy ‘For your name’s sake,’ as though the phrase guaranteed God’s acceptance.
Maybe we need to get a genuine concern for God’s honour as our governing motivation.
Maybe we need God’s reputation be an ever-burning fire in our hearts.

Then our prayer vocabulary might begin to include ‘Hurry up.’
No doubt God would like that!