Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant. (Psalm 86:16)

Future grace is the constant plea of the praying psalmists. They pray for it again and again to meet every need. They give us a beautiful model of daily dependence on future grace for every exigency.

• They cry out for grace when they need help: “Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me! O Lord, be my helper!” (Psalm 30:10).

• When they are weak: “Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant” (Psalm 86:16).

• When they need healing: “Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord” (Psalm 6:2).

• When they are afflicted by enemies: “Be gracious to me, O Lord! See my affliction from those who hate me” (Psalm 9:13).

• When they are lonely: “Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted” (Psalm 25:16).

• When they are grieving: “Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief” (Psalm 31:9).

• When they have sinned: “O Lord, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you!” (Psalm 41:4).

• When they long for God’s name to be exalted among the nations: “God be gracious to us and bless us . . . that your way may be known on earth” (Psalm 67:1–2).

Unmistakably, prayer is the great link of faith between the soul of the saint and the promise of future grace. If ministry was meant by God to be sustained by prayer, then ministry was meant to be sustained by faith in future grace.