Wait Until I Pray

Today’s Passage – Numbers 8 – 10 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – Click here to view the passage from Blue Letter Bible)

(Second Milers also read – Acts 13 – 15; Proverbs 18; Psalms 91 – 95)

Listen to this morning’s Scripture song – Joshua One and Verse Eight

Read the “0218 Evening and Morning“ devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Read a previous post from today’s reading – “Don’t Move“

“And Moses said unto them, Stand still, and I will hear what the LORD will command concerning you.” (Numbers 9:8)

In our text today, a group of men come to Moses with a problem: they wanted to observe the Passover, but they were ceremonially unclean because they had come in contact with a dead body. Moses did not just give them an answer based upon what he thought would be right. He told them to wait until he prayed about it, and then he would give them God’s answer. The Lord determined that these men should wait exactly one month and then observe the Passover. The Lord also revealed to Moses that this would also be the rule for people who were on a journey when the Passover was being observed. They would just wait a month and observe it in the second month. 

A similar situation happened in Numbers 27. The daughters of Zelophehad had a question about their inheritance, but Moses did not give them his answer: “… Moses brought their cause before the LORD.” (Numbers 27:5)

My thought this morning is that we need to make sure the counsel that we give other people, and even the decisions that we make for ourselves, are all bathed in prayer. People come to me all of the time for advice, or perhaps to ask me about some new thing that they would like to do in their ministry within the church. Oftentimes, I tell them what I think they should do without first checking with the Lord. That is not a wise thing to do. I should have an automatic reply similar to what Moses said: “Wait until I pray about it.” Of course, we should also seek answers for them from the Word of God as well. Waiting to pray and seek God’s will will ensure that good counsel is given and bad decisions are not made. Take time to pray before you tell somebody else what they should do, and also before you do something yourself. 

“But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:4)

“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” (James 5:16)

“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;” (Ephesians 6:18)

“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” (Philippians 4:6)