When "I am in trouble, Lord!"
I just had a moment this morning… I was just going to look quickly at my e-Sword (Bible Study software) for just one quick thing because, “I had other things to do…” but…
When I opened the software my “Daily Devotion” popped up, and the words of F.B. Meyer (written in the 1930’s – during the “Great” Depression) caught my heart, and I knew that I had to share them.
He uses as his Scripture Isaiah 38:14b which in the New Living Translation says (rather bluntly) “I am in trouble Lord. Help me!” And then Meyer goes on to say:
"THIS PRAYER is so indefinite that it will suit any emergency, and yet brimful of faith that God will undertake all responsibility. Are you oppressed with the sense of failure, with temptation, with the consciousness of sin?
Or oppressed with poverty, or debt, or the fear of unemployment, or with inability to find work? Or cast down with bitter persecution within or without your home? Or sorely beset and hindered by ill-health, the hopelessness of recovery?
All these eases of oppression are included in this petition, and may be handed over to your faithful Creator, with the certainty that He is as willing as He is able to undertake for you. He is never weary of hearing your cry; the Everlasting Arms are never tired; and our God neither slumbers nor sleeps.
What may we expect from a prayer so simple, yet so comprehensive? We shall know God."
Read the familiar story of Hezekiah’s cry when God (through Isaiah) told him that he was going to die. We remember Hezekiah’s turning to the wall and crying, but we may not know that later in that chapter we are told what he actually prayed.
Meyer goes on to say:
“At the pit we learn God's Love. How can we measure God's love? They say that a man's fist is the measure of his heart. Come and stand beneath the stars! There is God's hand! Now judge His heart! It is illimitable!
By that love He has put our sins behind His back into the ocean depths!
With that love He has drawn us out of the pit of our sins!
By that love He bears with our cold response and languid petitions!
Through that love He will bring us to glory! His is a love that will never let us go!
Then he ends with:
"Take the hand of Jesus to steady you; look down into the hole of the pit from which you have been redeemed, and then look up to the Throne of God to which He passed at His Ascension, and recall His own words: "where I am, there shall ye be also." Trust Him to undertake for your little life!"
Part of his prayer closes with:
"May I trust more than I know, and believe more than I see; and when my heart is overwhelmed within me, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I."
To which we add… Amen!
When I opened the software my “Daily Devotion” popped up, and the words of F.B. Meyer (written in the 1930’s – during the “Great” Depression) caught my heart, and I knew that I had to share them.
He uses as his Scripture Isaiah 38:14b which in the New Living Translation says (rather bluntly) “I am in trouble Lord. Help me!” And then Meyer goes on to say:
"THIS PRAYER is so indefinite that it will suit any emergency, and yet brimful of faith that God will undertake all responsibility. Are you oppressed with the sense of failure, with temptation, with the consciousness of sin?
Or oppressed with poverty, or debt, or the fear of unemployment, or with inability to find work? Or cast down with bitter persecution within or without your home? Or sorely beset and hindered by ill-health, the hopelessness of recovery?
All these eases of oppression are included in this petition, and may be handed over to your faithful Creator, with the certainty that He is as willing as He is able to undertake for you. He is never weary of hearing your cry; the Everlasting Arms are never tired; and our God neither slumbers nor sleeps.
What may we expect from a prayer so simple, yet so comprehensive? We shall know God."
Read the familiar story of Hezekiah’s cry when God (through Isaiah) told him that he was going to die. We remember Hezekiah’s turning to the wall and crying, but we may not know that later in that chapter we are told what he actually prayed.
Meyer goes on to say:
“At the pit we learn God's Love. How can we measure God's love? They say that a man's fist is the measure of his heart. Come and stand beneath the stars! There is God's hand! Now judge His heart! It is illimitable!
By that love He has put our sins behind His back into the ocean depths!
With that love He has drawn us out of the pit of our sins!
By that love He bears with our cold response and languid petitions!
Through that love He will bring us to glory! His is a love that will never let us go!
Then he ends with:
"Take the hand of Jesus to steady you; look down into the hole of the pit from which you have been redeemed, and then look up to the Throne of God to which He passed at His Ascension, and recall His own words: "where I am, there shall ye be also." Trust Him to undertake for your little life!"
Part of his prayer closes with:
"May I trust more than I know, and believe more than I see; and when my heart is overwhelmed within me, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I."
To which we add… Amen!
Labels: On Prayer, Prayer of burden, Reflection, Scripture Study
posted by Betty Newman at 8:06 AM
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