I will come into Your house with burnt offerings. I will perform my vows to You, that which my lips uttered and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.....
Come and hear, all who fear God, and I will tell what He has done for my soul. I cried to Him with my mouth, and high praise was on my tongue. If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But truly God has listened. He has attended to the voice of my prayer.
Blessed be God because He has not rejected my prayer or removed His steadfast love from me.
(Verses 13-14;16-2)
When I was in trouble. Prayers we pray when we are in the foxhole. Telling God we will do anything He wants if He just gets us out of the mess we are in. Perhaps in testing the genuineness of our faith, God also sometimes tests the veracity of our promises to Him. What we say with our mouths that we will do if He will only come through for us. Nothing like trouble to bring us to our knees. But what of our devotion to the God who then rescues us and sets things straight again.
Every time I think of us crying out to the Father when we are in trouble, I see Him looking down on the world and its masses of people in various nations, believing different things about Him, going about their customs and business, unaware of His glance. Languages of every kind fill the air of the universe -- some loud, some small -- as voices run into each other, babbling, yelling, crying, extolling or cursing. Cacophony. Warring nations and tribes pursue each other. It is night one place and day in another. People are crowded together so closely it's hard to see the individual....or someone is alone in the dark and afraid. Angry mobs wave flags of rebellion. A group of Christians gather in a small house church with the lights off as they quietly read the Bible and pray. Women are bearing children. People are dying. Rats race through filthy streets where beggars live and millionaires take a dip in their heated rooftop pools. All going on at once. Loud and colorful. Millions and millions of people living out the drama of their lives. How on earth does God hear me when I call for help? My one little voice ringing out in the din of chaos that is the world?
When my babies were little, I knew which cry in the nursery belonged to my child. I was familiar with it. So our Father knows our cry. Responds to it with His heart. Above the fray, our voices are special to Him. He hears it! Our prayer of need. Because He loves us, He will not reject us in our trouble. I am too finite to understand His amazing reach. To fathom how the Spirit still hovers over the face of the waters that threaten to engulf me. But I know He hears because my God has rescued me out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, has set my foot upon a Rock and put a new song in my mouth. A song of praise to Him! I can't hide from Him. Get far enough away even in my own rebellion that He will not hear me when I am done with sin, caught in the web of the enemy, and, from the foxhole of fear, cry: "Abba! Jesus!"
Blessed be God who heard my prayer! Dance little feet! Clap happy hands! Shout to the Awesome One! Then live a life of reciprocating love to the Father Who sees our need, hears our cry and works His wonders on our behalf! He sees not only our need but also our thankful, willing hearts. If we have only said with our mouths that we will praise Him when we become untangled and set free, but don't live it out once the ground is solid again, we hurt the heart of the Father Who ever watches over our lives. Thumb our noses at His mercy. Forget how precious is His watch care over our little lives in this twisted, complicated world. May we look up at Him looking down to us and smile, for we have an Abba Who hears our cries.
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayer. 1 Peter 3
Come and hear, all who fear God, and I will tell what He has done for my soul. I cried to Him with my mouth, and high praise was on my tongue. If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But truly God has listened. He has attended to the voice of my prayer.
Blessed be God because He has not rejected my prayer or removed His steadfast love from me.
(Verses 13-14;16-2)
When I was in trouble. Prayers we pray when we are in the foxhole. Telling God we will do anything He wants if He just gets us out of the mess we are in. Perhaps in testing the genuineness of our faith, God also sometimes tests the veracity of our promises to Him. What we say with our mouths that we will do if He will only come through for us. Nothing like trouble to bring us to our knees. But what of our devotion to the God who then rescues us and sets things straight again.
Every time I think of us crying out to the Father when we are in trouble, I see Him looking down on the world and its masses of people in various nations, believing different things about Him, going about their customs and business, unaware of His glance. Languages of every kind fill the air of the universe -- some loud, some small -- as voices run into each other, babbling, yelling, crying, extolling or cursing. Cacophony. Warring nations and tribes pursue each other. It is night one place and day in another. People are crowded together so closely it's hard to see the individual....or someone is alone in the dark and afraid. Angry mobs wave flags of rebellion. A group of Christians gather in a small house church with the lights off as they quietly read the Bible and pray. Women are bearing children. People are dying. Rats race through filthy streets where beggars live and millionaires take a dip in their heated rooftop pools. All going on at once. Loud and colorful. Millions and millions of people living out the drama of their lives. How on earth does God hear me when I call for help? My one little voice ringing out in the din of chaos that is the world?
When my babies were little, I knew which cry in the nursery belonged to my child. I was familiar with it. So our Father knows our cry. Responds to it with His heart. Above the fray, our voices are special to Him. He hears it! Our prayer of need. Because He loves us, He will not reject us in our trouble. I am too finite to understand His amazing reach. To fathom how the Spirit still hovers over the face of the waters that threaten to engulf me. But I know He hears because my God has rescued me out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, has set my foot upon a Rock and put a new song in my mouth. A song of praise to Him! I can't hide from Him. Get far enough away even in my own rebellion that He will not hear me when I am done with sin, caught in the web of the enemy, and, from the foxhole of fear, cry: "Abba! Jesus!"
Blessed be God who heard my prayer! Dance little feet! Clap happy hands! Shout to the Awesome One! Then live a life of reciprocating love to the Father Who sees our need, hears our cry and works His wonders on our behalf! He sees not only our need but also our thankful, willing hearts. If we have only said with our mouths that we will praise Him when we become untangled and set free, but don't live it out once the ground is solid again, we hurt the heart of the Father Who ever watches over our lives. Thumb our noses at His mercy. Forget how precious is His watch care over our little lives in this twisted, complicated world. May we look up at Him looking down to us and smile, for we have an Abba Who hears our cries.
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayer. 1 Peter 3
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