Keep on Crying Out.........He Hears Us!

In my Quiet Time for 10/17/06 I was led to Psalm 120-121. I thought someone out there may need this word of encouragement as I did. Recently this passage was brought up in an email by a friend and again God was saying I need to blog about these two encouraging Psalms.

I call on the LORD in my distress,
and he answers me. (Psalm 120:1)

When we cry out to Him in our distress; He hears us to the extent of responding to us with an answer. I wonder how many times we miss His voice because we don’t stop long enough to hear Him. Yes, cry out in your distress but then wait for His response. I didn’t say your troubles would be over because He would speak them away. I am saying that when we seek Him out as our help He will be found. Believe. Believe that He hears and helps.

After writing the previous paragraph I had questions for the Lord. I asked the Lord about the times that I had cried out for the Lord and waited for His response and “felt” only silence. I knew that silence more often than not is a result of living in un-confessed sin or tolerating a lifestyle of sin. But there have been times that I have been walking in sweet fellowship that I cried out and still felt the sting of “silence.” I sincerely asked the Lord to answers my question not only for me but for others. It was about two to three hours later while I was reading, “He Speaks to Me” by Priscilla Shirer that God answered. I heard Him whisper, “Here is the answer to your question.” Glory! I love Him! Have I told you how much I love You, Lord? I do love You!

I want to share with you what He shared with me through Priscilla. “Trust that in His silence, God is speaking to you. He wants silence to make you desperate not for a solution to your problem, but for more of Him.” “We know that we are becoming spiritually mature when God is silent and, instead of asking why, we humble ourselves before Him and persevere in prayer. It is a mark of maturity to believe that even though God may be silent, He is still in control.” Priscilla used the passage in Matthew 15:21-28, where the Canaanite woman continued with perseverance in seeking Jesus’ attention to her problem despite Jesus’ ignoring her, insulting her and giving her reason for not helping her. (I can almost imagine Jesus interceding for her before the throne, “keep asking, you have the faith;” all out of her physical sight and hearing.) She continued to petition Him for help because she knew He was her only hope. If you are crying out from your distress and hearing nothing, persevere in prayer believing God is hearing and is responding whether you are hearing or not. HE HEARS US!

1 I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip—

Where do you lift your eyes for help, man, the stars alignment, therapists, TV, food, books? Your help comes from the Lord. He alone is your help. You look for your help anywhere else but Him and I guarantee your foot will slip.

3 b he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

Take comfort that He does not sleep on the job. We are His job, His creation. In fact He tells us that we are His delight and treasure. If you knew that an enemy was stalking your child. Or that the difference between the abundant life and mediocre life was at stake with your children would you sleep? Although our earthly bodies may give out eventually no matter how hard we fight, His will not! He is continually watching over His own. He watches over you personally. He is watching over you right now. Yes, right this very minute He is watching over you. The Holy Writ tells us that, “He…shall neither slumber nor sleep.” These are two different words in the Hebrew. The first one means that He not only doesn’t sleep, He won’t get drowsy either. He remains completely alert. Isn’t it nice to know we can’t bore Him to sleep? The other word means to be slack, slow, growing old, stale or hardened. He isn’t slow or slack when it comes to us and our circumstances. Our cries do not cause Him to grow old or weary. He cares about us; “watches” means that He attends to us. So continue to pour out your heart to the Lord.

5 The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;

The LORD promises to be our shade. Working under the heat of this life can be tiring. The “heat” can really take its toll on us. His answer is to give us shade, relief from the “heat”. He provides Himself as our shade from the distress. What a loving God we serve. All other relief we seek from the heat is temporary at best and only hits the surface. His relief is eternal and penetrates deep to the soul. Now this is how this is all coming together. When you are laboring in the heat and you need rest and refreshment you SEEK out the shade. You go to it! You have to stop long enough to go rest in the shade. It is in the shade you glean what you need to persevere. When you are laboring in the “heat” of your distress, you need His shade. You need to rest in Him so that He becomes your strength and then you can persevere. But you must seek Him out as your shade. His shade is His presence and His Word. God promises us that when we seek Him out as our “shade” we will not be harmed by the externals of life. God invites us to take refuge in Him; soak in these verses:

You are my hiding place;
you will protect me from trouble
and surround me with songs of deliverance. Psalm 32:7

Keep me as the apple of your eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wings Psalm 17:8

How priceless is your unfailing love!
Both high and low among men
find refuge in the shadow of your wings. Psalm 36:7

Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me,
for in you my soul takes refuge.
I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings
until the disaster has passed Psalm 57:1

He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. Psalm 91:4

7b he will watch over your life;
8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

This is important, He doesn’t just watch over “us” but our lives! Wow!! This is what stopped me and caused me to really ponder then write. I think this is huge, and if we can grasp it, it will cause great faith and growth. You see when we cry out in our distress and the answer is no, wait or be still… anything but a definite yes. We can trust that He is watching over our lives and not just our current situation. He continues to move us along His bigger purposes and plans and not just moving us out a particular circumstance. There is so much more at stake than what we see with our eyes. This is why it is by faith we must walk and why it is impossible to please God without faith. His purpose and plans for us are bigger that just today’s sorrows or even this seasons hardships. It’s about a life purpose and plan…His! Yes He is watching over you now, but it is about more than what we are experiencing here and now it is about the whole, the life. The here and now is only important when seen in the bigger picture of the whole life.

So while you are in the shade consider what the bigger purpose and plan may be. Ponder His heart and mind towards you and your life. I am!