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Preparation is pivotal to painting. That’s why painters spend five times longer on preparing a surface than painting it. They know that the better the preparation, the better the paint looks and lasts.

If that’s true for making a surface beautiful, how much truer for making a soul beautiful? Soul preparation is vital for soul salvation. If we want a salvation that looks good and lasts long then we must be prepared for some preparation. How can we prepare for salvation? Luke 1:1-25 takes us up two preparatory steps.

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Our prayers are too passive and patient. They need to be more urgent and pressing. We ask God for submission to wait for him; why don’t we ask God for speedier responses?

But, is it ever okay to ask God to hurry? Our instincts would say, “No.” The Bible says, “Yes.” David tells God to hurry four times in Psalm 70. He opens and closes this short five-verse Psalm with four ‘Hurry ups.’

• Make haste, O God, to deliver me! (1)
• Lord, make haste to help me! (1)
• Hasten to me, O God! (5)
• O Lord, do not delay! (5)

Although waiting patiently on God is commended far more frequently in the Psalms, there are occasions when it’s fine to ask God to hurry. What are these occasions? What can we ask God to hurry? Let’s look at Psalm 70 for guidance.

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I was talking to a teen recently who told me that the hardest part of High School was the rude and degrading comments the other students made about her body. The boys’ insults were mainly about sex, while the girls’ insults were mainly about how thin or fat she was.

This brought back awful memories of my own High School years. No matter how much I ate or how much I worked out, I was always just skin and bone. Some kids used to call me ‘The Cambodian’ because there was a lot of TV reporting at the time about painfully thin kids dying in the famine there. That was forty years ago, and despite multiple anti-bullying initiatives, verbal abuse continues to be part and parcel of life, whether we are young or old. What should we do when we are verbally abused? Psalm 69 provides comforting counsel for the abused.

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Past victories inspire us to future victories. That’s why sports coaches will often play previous championship triumphs in the changing room before a big match. That’s why, in the UK and the USA, so many movies have been made about the allies second world war success. Past victories inspire us to future victories.

Psalm 68 recounts a past victory to inspire future victories. What’s the greatest victory in the Bible that can inspire us to future victory?  Psalm 68:18 answers that question.

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In my early twenties, just after I was converted to Christ, I had the opportunity to bring aid to Hungary and Romania. It was the biggest eye-opener of my life. Up until then, I’d lived an utterly selfish life, blinkered to the needs of others. It was all about I, me, and myself. But God used my year or so there to rip off my selfish blinkers, expand my narrow heart, and widen my tunnel vision. Almost every day, I met someone who had suffered and lost so much under communism, yet all they could think about was how to get the Gospel out to the surrounding nations. I learned so much about my own selfish heart, but even more about God’s international heart as seen in his people.

Sadly, thirty years later, I still find my heart defaulting back to internally focused rather than internationally focused. How can we replace our selfish heart with God’s international heart? Psalm 67 is the answer. As we study this Psalm count how many times “all peoples” and “all nations” appear.

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How’s your story going? I don’t mean that book you’ve always planned to write. I mean your life, your life-story. How’s that going? Are you happy with that story? Maybe you’re one of the many who want to write a better story but can’t get started. Maybe you’ve tried to start over but failed again. Or maybe you just don’t know where or how to start. Is there somebody that can help us write a better story? Let’s meet the StoryChanger in Psalm 66.