The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. (Psalms 34:17) Jesus once said, "If you believe, you will see the glory of God." Can we then believe this simple verse from the Psalms? Notice the term, "he delivers them from all their troubles." That's really a revelation, isn't it? Whatever problems, be it small or big, let us take it to the Lord in prayer. We have a "prayer hearing God." Not only "prayer hearing" but also "prayer answering." Someone asked, "why trouble the Lord with the trivial matters in your life?" and the answer was, "just practising, so that I can put the bigger matters also easily through." No harm in "ASAP"- "Always saying a prayer" or even "always starting with a prayer." The Lord loves to hear us converse with Him. He knows everything, even before we utter a word, but He likes to hear it from our own mouths. Notice the woman Hagar, in the book of Genesis, running away from home, because her mistress Sarai was harsh on her. In the wilderness, an angel of the Lord calls out to her and asks her, "Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?"I'm running away from my mistress Sarai," she answered. " (Genesis 16:8) Our God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent and knows everything, yet here we read the angel asking Hagar a strange question. Why? One reason is to let her know that she is not alone and that God Himself is involved in all her problems; secondly, the angel sets up a conversation in her solitude and the third reason is He wants to guide her in the right path. The counsel that the angel gave her was not what she really expected but it was the right path for her at that time. Then the angel of the LORD told her, "Go back to your mistress and submit to her." The angel added, "I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count." The angel of the LORD also said to her: "You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard of your misery. (Genesis 16:9-11) If you are a child of God, God loves to hear you speak to Him. Tell Him things frankly as a child would speak to a loving father. He's always there to hear you and answer you. Not only that, as the verse here says, "He's there to deliver you from all your troubles." So trust in Him. Compassion Ministries International |