God Hears Our Cries

I've been communicating off and on this week with a person in my life that I care dearly for about some struggles he was experiencing in his personal life - temptations of the enemy that he for some reason felt he wouldn't be able to resist. He kept asking me to pray for strength, to pray for him to keep on course, to pray for him to get past it without messing up. He would make comments in real time about what he was going through at that moment and what he didn't want to happen, etc. So obviously I was reassuring him that he is strong in the Lord, that he could handle it, that he should trust in the power of God that is in him that he has recently been touting as a significant change agent in his life.

All the while as this was occurring, it was hard to capture the true breadth of his emotional state in the words I was reading from him. I know him well, so I could imagine how he was feeling, but not being with him at those moments face-to-face to see what he was experiencing left me wondering how he was really doing. Part of me wanted to sluff it off to drama that we create at times when the enemy comes against us, but something inside told me there was more.

I imagined him crying out for help in his situation, be it as little or as big as it may have been. I envisioned him dealing with the Lord in those moments but also needing a more tangible reach of someone he knew would battle beside him (even if in fact that person was most certainly not in a physical sense).

This all brought me back to something I read yesterday in Psalm 107. This passage of Scripture talks about the great deliverence that God made for the people of Israel, the many times he brought them out of harm (darkness) and into His promise (light). Though I am amazed at the mighty, steady hand of God, it wasn't the recount of His historical moves that captured me this time. Verse 6 tells us that the people of Israel "cried out to the Lord in their trouble". Ok, so how many of us haven't? Even those who claim to not believe occasionally cry to the Lord in desperation in a moment of need. Regardless of who we are or what level we're at in our relationship and walk with God, doesn't crying out to Him still demonstrate our innate need for our Creator?

My two-year-old nephew (there's some photos of him at www.myspace.com/justinandsuzie) is a very..let's say...strongheaded and strongwilled child. He is very independent in himself, satisfied at most times to play his way and do his own thing. However, when a time comes that he is in need of something, all of that pride of being his own person quickly fades into a cry for help. All of us should really be like that with God always. Sure, He has equipped us to operate somewhat self-sufficiently, but only in the grace and strength He put within us. The people of Israel were strongheaded and strongwilled children of God, but even in the midst of their personalities, they knew to cry out to God. There was no other choice, was there? They had tried to subsitute for God by creating a golden calf at the base of the mountain while Moses communed with God (as if God wasn't able to be with Moses and them at the same time) - look where that got them. They spent a significant season in Egypt where life seemed good, but what did they really possess? Eclipsing the "goodness" they thought they had was the fact that they were captives! And when it got bad in the desert, they wanted to go back to Egypt! Eventually they came to their senses because in every time of need we witness in the history of Israel, we always see them coming back to God for the answer, and rightfully so.

Ok, so what's the big point in this? The second part of Psalm 107:6 tells us that "He delivered them out of their distresses". Big deal, you say? YES! Verses 13, 19, and 28 of Psalm 107 repeat the exact same cycle: the people of God are in trouble and turn to Him for help, and He delivers/saves/brings them out of their distresses. The moments in life that bring us the most trial and testing should be the moments for which the outcome we are most assured of because we have the Heavenly Father backing us up. Any opposition, any hindrance, any scheme of darkness or weapon formed against us by the enemy of our souls is POOF! taken care of...and it doesn't even take 12 trips to the altar, 4 vials of anointing oil and 40 days of fasting to get God to respond (not that any of those things are bad in their own right) - all we have to do is cry out to Him, and He'll deliver us out of our distresses!

I'm happy to say my dear brother that spurred this was able to stand strong against what he felt was a losing battle. But it just showed me that no matter who we are, Satan is going to come against us, usually in the area he knows we are the weakest. Do we fret? Perhaps, if we're human - but only for a second. For the battle isn't really ours anyway - God said, "It's mine"(2 Chronicles 20:15)...and He always wins!