Precious Promise #7: Psalm 34:17-18

Does a situation you are facing leave you gasping for air? Does it feel as though your heart is being torn from the very core of your being? Does your spirit feel crushed?

Cry to God, your Lord! He is listening. He is ready. He hears. 

In the midst of the reeling in your spirit... He is there. In the very middle of the torture of your heart... He is present. In what feels like chaos of your mind to sort it all out... He remains.

He is close. He's in the business of rescuing. Cling tightly to Him and His promises. He has not left you to endure this alone! He hears, He sees, He helps and He will rescue!

He is our Hope!

Psalm 34:17-18

(New Living Translation)
The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help. He rescues them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.

(Message)
Is anyone crying for help? God is listening, ready to rescue you. If your heart is broken, you'll find God right there; if you're kicked in the gut, he'll help you catch your breath.


What promise have you been reminded of this week?


More about "Precious Promises"

Would You Give of Yourself... with No Name?

The other night while driving home from work I was challenged.  They were interviewing a young gal who had just recently graduated from a Bible college.  She was living and ministering in another country, giving of her very life.  However, they couldn't use her name on the radio for the sake of her safety.

She interviewed... with no name.

Instantly the thought struck me.  Would those of us that find ourselves giving to others continue to do those same things with the same intensity of effort and determination of heart... if our names were in no way associated with that?

It caused me to personally evaluate my own heart.  My own motives.  It forced me to call it all into account, making sure that everything I say, do and am about is for God and His glory alone.

Ministering with no name.  This challenge has now been added to the things I evaluate as a personal assessment from time to time.  

"People see what we do.  God sees why." 

Precious Promise #6: Psalm 121:3b

(NIV) "He who watches over you will not slumber."

Whatever situation you are facing, you do not need to stay up wondering, worrying, solving or being concerned. He is awake, in control, and aware at all times!

So rest... for He is watching over you.

He will not slumber!

What promise have you been reminded of this week?


More about "Precious Promises"

What Kind

After a diagnosis is given, what kind of parent allows their child to go through the necessary testing and procedures to resolve the problem?  What kind of parent would allow their children to endure discomfort, anxiety, and even possible pain in an attempt to heal the underlying condition needing fixing?

What kind?....

A caring, loving, compassionate parent.  A parent who only wants and allows what's best for the child and has their best interest in mind.

Not only accompanying them to such an appointment, but having first called to even schedule such an experience.  A parent whose underlying concern is for the overall well-being of the child.  The end result of restored health being the primary goal and focus.

~~~~~

What kind of a God allows difficulties in our lives?  Do I dare say that I think I am beginning to understand an answer more and more?

If He uses suffering, trials and testing to grow me more like Him, then is it not ultimately for my overall well-being?  If a situation is brought before Him and He gives permission, in His sovereignty and goodness, to allow that to come before me...can I not rest assured that He has a purpose... in even that?

It's not as if something tragic happens, and then He scrambles to make something good of it.  Oh no my friend.

Instead, He sees the potential situation and already knows the growth and change it could generate in me.  He already sees how much it could be my good.  How much it would allow me, through faith in it all, to reveal who He is... all for His glory.

Just as I take my child through what they might define a difficult and potentially painful experience to get to the bottom of a health issue...how much more would I not expect that my God might schedule an appointment of another kind, knowing full well that He will accompany me through it, to get to the other side of a "spiritual heart" issue.

Should I not instead welcome it, having full confidence that He already has a purpose in each moment of it?  If I will just honestly give every piece of it back to Him.

Not for my comfort.  Not for the ease of my life.  But to make me more and more into the imagine of His own Son, Jesus.  All for Him and His glory alone!

Trials, testing, difficulties... gifts of His grace to not leave me as I am, but to restore me to all that He designed me to be.

What kind indeed... 

Precious Promise #5: Jeremiah 29:11

The Israelites find themselves in captivity.  Yet in the middle of that, God whispers hope...

  
Jeremiah 29:11

(NIV) "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

(Message)  "I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for."

In the middle of what we are facing, there is a plan! However, it is God's plan and not ours. What we may think needs to or should happen may not be the perfect plan God has in store.

It is God's plans for us that we must trust and cling to!!

In the middle of the situation you are facing, THERE IS A PLAN!! It is not one of destruction, harm, abandon or devastation. It is a plan full of care, hope and a future. Even when it seems all is falling in around you, God has a plan of victory that you can cling to!

Precious Promise #4: Romans 8:26-27

(Amplified Bible)

"The [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groaning's too deep for utterance. And He Who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of the [Holy] Spirit [what His intent is], because the Spirit intercedes and pleads [before God] in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God's will."

(Message)

"The moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves and keeps us present before God."

Does a situation you are facing leave you speechless? Does it go so deep that you aren't even sure how to ask others to pray, or even how to pray yourself? Is the waiting for the situation to be resolved getting long?

The Spirit is praying and interceding for you and on your behalf. He presents you before God and makes sense out of your sighing and groaning.

He knows how to pray. He knows what to ask. He knows better than we even know ourselves. Ask Him to pray on your behalf.

"If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me." --Robert Murray McCheyne, (1813-1843)