Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant. ( Psalms 86:16 16 Oh turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; Give thy strength unto thy servant, And save the son of thy handmaid. )

Future grace is the constant plea of the praying psalmists. They pray for it again and again to meet every need. They leave every saint a 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!” ( Psalms 30:10 10 Hear, O Jehovah, and have mercy upon me: Jehovah, be thou my helper. ).

• When they are weak: “Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant” ( Psalms 86:16 16 Oh turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; Give thy strength unto thy servant, And save the son of thy handmaid. ).

• When they need healing: “Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord” ( Psalms 6:2 2 Have mercy upon me, O Jehovah; for I am withered away: O Jehovah, heal me; for my bones are troubled. ).

• When they are afflicted by enemies: “Be gracious to me, O Lord! See my affliction from those who hate me” ( Psalms 9:13 13 Have mercy upon me, O Jehovah; Behold my affliction `which I suffer' of them that hate me, Thou that liftest me up from the gates of death; ).

• When they are lonely: “Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted” ( Psalms 25:16 16 Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; For I am desolate and afflicted. ).

• When they are grieving: “Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief” ( Psalms 31:9 9 Have mercy upon me, O Jehovah, for I am in distress: Mine eye wasteth away with grief, `yea', my soul and my body. ).

• When they have sinned: “O Lord, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you!” ( Psalms 41:4 4 I said, O Jehovah, have mercy upon me: Heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee. ).

• 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” ( Psalms 67:1 Chapter 67 1 God be merciful unto us, and bless us, `And' cause his face to shine upon us; Selah –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.