“And he said, oh Lord God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham.”
– Genesis 24:12
So the context here, Genesis 24:12, this is a servant who has gone to look for a wife, for Isaac, Abraham’s son. And the servant gets to this point where he stopped and he basically just looks up to God and he says, “I pray for success.” In other words, “to help me to find a wife for Isaac that is good for him, pleasing to you.”
We are hopeless apart from God. We need His intervention daily. Let us pray that God will continually conform us more into the image of Christ each day.
Our Need for God’s Intervention: Marriage
And I just love the way the servant knows that apart from the intervention of God in this picture, he’s hopeless. I think about my own life. So obviously kind of stepping out of this context for a moment, in my life, I need the intervention of God, like all day long, every day. Now I’m not looking for a wife, I have a wife, and I thank God for my wife. But I just think about the decisions I make during the day. Things I’m doing. Even my responsibility as a husband to my wife. I find myself every day saying, “God, please help me to love her, honor her in a way that most honors you and is best for her.”
Our Need for God’s Intervention: Parenting
When I think about my kids, I’m asking God for divine intervention every day. “God, please help me to be the dad you’ve called me to be. Please help to parent them well and wisely in ways that are good for them.” In my work as a pastor, I pray all the time, “God, please help me to be the pastor these people need me to be, I want to love them well. I want to serve them well. And I want to just shepherd them well.”
Our Need for God’s Intervention: Fighting Temptation
I think about my battles with sin and temptation in my life. I need divine intervention all day long. “God, please help me in this or that struggle, this or that temptation.” I think about just every facet of my life. I need divine intervention, so “God give us the perspective of this servant in our lives every day. Lord grant us success today.” I think of all the ways I want to succeed today. I want to succeed as your child following you, resisting temptation, walking humbly with you, seeking you, becoming more and more like Jesus. Lord, I want success in all those ways today.
Genesis 24:12: Asking God to Help People Grow in Their Understanding of Him
Please help me in those ways. I pray that not just for me but for those who are listening to this. Lord, I pray for their success in all those ways today. Please help them to grow in you, in an understanding of you and the knowledge of you. Help them to be more conformed into the image of Christ today. Please cause the fruit of your spirit to be in us, love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control.
Genesis 24:12: Asking God to Help Us be Successful in Singleness, Marriage, and Parenting
God, please cause these things to be found in increasing measure in us today. We pray for success in these ways. We pray for success in singleness in marriage and parenting. God, as different ones of us are single or married or parents or grandparents or children. God, please help us to honor you. Lord, please give us success in our family relationships. Lord, help us to be the husbands, wives, moms, dads, sons, daughters, singles that you’ve called us to be. God, in our work and our jobs.
Asking God to Help Us Honor His Word
Lord, please give us success today. God, not in a worldly sense, but in a sense of your word and the sense of faithfulness to your word. Help us to work hard because we’re working for you, ultimately, not for men. Help us to honor You with our word. Give us success in these ways. Give us success in witness, oh God. Make us witnesses today use us to point people to Jesus. Today we pray for success in that way. Use us to lead people to Jesus. We pray, oh Lord God, please grant us success today in all that you’ve called us to do. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
