Prayer! with an exclamation point

Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!

You have given me relief when I was in distress.

Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!

Psalm 4:1

Prayer can be urgent, wasting no words, wanting real answers. When that is the state of our souls, it is good that we pray. David’s urgent plea to lead off the fourth psalm captivates me personally right now. There are seasons where my lead in words in prayer are exactly like this pattern David lays out. The first words aren’t a quiet and reflective “Dear Heavenly Father…” Instead they flow from an unsettled soul, the words are rougher, desperate, confused, and urgent… “O God… please…!” The directness and exclamation points in David’s first words in this psalm comfort me. It’s OK to want God to hear, to plead with Him in earnest, to roughly cry out in our need, even if our underlying incredulity is driving us to ask of Him.

How many times have I prayed this way in my life? I can recall a few seasons of knowing this kind of urgent prayer. How many times have I been overwhelmed in urgent, emotional, desperate one-sentence exclamations of my soul’s distress in the last five months? Almost daily. Not all day on any one day, but certainly at least at one point in each day feeling like an overwhelming need MUST burst forth to God like a geyser of want from my soul. And I am starting to see that in this season the great care of God is there for me in ways I have may not have appreciated before this season. I will praise Him for this depth of care. I feel His undeserved favor in my bursts of need.

I notice that sandwiched between David’s two urgent exclamation point requests is a sturdy observation of faith. It makes a kind of “sandwich of security” to help frame our most desperate moments:

Answer me when I call, O God!

You have given me relief in my distress.

Be gracious to me and hear me!

Right in the middle of the “sandwich” is faith firmly grounded in the faithfulness of God. And that sweet insight provides perspective and solid hope for my heart to stand upon when my soul cries out with exclamatory “prayer pleas”.

Lord… God of my life,

Thank You that You hear us in our urgent, emotional, sometimes bewildered moments. You bring relief in our distress. You bring peace in our disquiet. You ease our pain and use our sufferings to pour grace into us to make us see Your holiness, Your mercy, and Your great love. May my first response, whether in crisis or in calm, be to seek Your sustaining grace!

Amen

Surrounded

Many are the sorrows of the wicked,

but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD.

Psalm 32:10

All around me

encircled and trapped

in my circumstances

I have no map

I feel limited

and afraid

Yet You surround me

enfolded and wrapped

in Your protection

though strength is tapped

I feel well guarded

and safe

Sorrow and fear

were what I knew

in a loss

as to what to do

yet I trusted

and was saved

Steadfast love

flew straight from You

to comfort, strengthen

as I grew

to bigger belief

and firm faith

Grace and love

became my bright wall

looking up

I saw that all

that befell me

led lovingly to You

my heart’s desire

May he grant you your heart's desire

and fulfill all your plans!

Psalm 20:4

When we trust God… when we refuse to think like everyone else around us who would trust in worldly means and personal might, God will align our desires with His and grant us what our hearts want most. And no matter what season of life we may journey, we can trust in the Lord our God.

In Psalm 20 David as king over Israel refused to believe that military might alone would ever keep Israel safe. This is a big admission for a warrior king! But David was not one to trust in his war chariots and horses. He would trust in God because he knew that worldly power would collapse before the sovereign purposes of God. Israel’s only chance at standing safe and secure was to trust in the name of the Lord their God (Psalm 20:7-8). And only in that trust could plans be made!

O Lord,

You must be my trust, now and for always. My heart desires some things right now that seem so impossible. My plans, basically shattered, need to be reborn, infused with Your gracious love for me, in Your time. But as confusing as it is, I do confidently know this: Your purposes will guide me as I lean back into Your mighty arms. I refuse to trust in the chariots and horses around me. I will not take a whimsical, perhaps fatal, step away from Your Word and Spirit’s leading. I will instead soak my soul in scripture. I will seek Your wisdom over time. I will counsel only with Your people. I will seek wise perspective among my family in the Body of Christ. And I will wait for the wisdom that only You give to shape my desires so they may align solely with what is holy, focused sharply on Your kingdom, for I am convinced that only there will I be truly happy. May I come to see my desires easily granted Lord, not so that my wants can be appeased, but rather because I have been transformed to want what You want in my life and then to thrive as I find my satisfaction in You in the place You have lovingly positioned me for Your glory.

Amen

Why I will fear the Lord

Who is the man who fears the LORD?

Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.

Psalm 25:12

If I want to know which way to go, I must start in the fear of the Lord. I must value the steadfast love of God for me because all His paths are faithfulness (Psalm 25:10). I must seek God’s wisdom, obey His Word, love His commands, and trust Him above what my own heart screams and demands right now. The person who fears the Lord is given secured promises because God rewards humble faith well, for God is good and upright (Psalm 25:8). He can be nothing else. God wants to do a lot for me if I would just look only to Him. I believe this.

What will God instruct and teach me if only I would center my focus upon Him? 

He will grant me wisdom. And right now I crave His wisdom in what can sometimes feel like an overwhelming situation of baffling new choices. I will wait for the gift of His wisdom. He has promised to instruct me in the right way. He will lead me to the choices that will honor Him, conforming me more to Christ (I am so distant still), and helping me find true fulfillment in His provision for me.

He will help me to experience true well-being (Psalm 25:13a). I want, not just to exist, but to thrive. I want to rest in His care and presence no matter where I am in my life. I want to know His goodness is always for me, always supporting me, always growing me in a direction that will bring praise to the God I fear.

He will be my legacy (Psalm 25:13b). My life’s fruit, both physical and spiritual, will bear witness to an inheritance only God, through Christ, has given me. It is a wealth beyond description, and whatever I leave behind in this life, I wish to solely point to God as the great Giver.

He will be my friend (Psalm 25:14). This is the over-the-top reward of fearing God. Like a sneak attack kiss, it catches me off-guard in the text, but is the warmest part of the experience. We don’t fear God by being scared of God. Instead, we respect Him as our deepest friendship. I desire most to keep gaining an intimacy with the Almighty that leads me ever closer to my Lord. Jesus called His disciples “friends”, and this is always what I want to crave, to seek, to know. It is what my heart cries for most right now, even as other things want to confuse my affections. My life is certainly blessed with so many caring companions, so many people whom God has given to express His love for me. And since this year has begun, God has moved so many to care so much. But not one person among scores of people who love me can compare to my Eternal Friend Who gave Himself for me, the One Who reveals Himself in His Word and providential care (even now in the hardest providence I have ever known). O Lord God, always be my heart’s dearest love!

when we center on Jesus

And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.

Luke 24:52-53

This was the response of the apostles after Jesus ascended into heaven after His resurrection. In their response we see them continuing in a relationship with Jesus even as He is now gone from them. And from this we see how we should respond as disciples who follow Jesus right now.

Worship. The first response of a follower of Jesus is to worship Him. He has saved us. He died for us. He is risen from the dead. He gives us life. He commands us in following Him to help make disciples of others. And all of that is in a context of worship. One of the key things disciples do is gather in worship. We gather to know Him, to praise Jesus, to learn from His Word, and to encourage one another as we follow Jesus.

Joy. The life of a disciple is NOT dull drudgery. It is not the tyranny of religious rules. It not mere checklist following, looking down our noses in judgment of others, or mournful sin shaming. Jesus brings joy! He wants us to know life in Him “to the full”. It is all an outrageously fun adventure. If not…. Well then personally… I’m out! A disciple’s life is the ultimate in fulfillment… a wonderful joy in Jesus that goes beyond the worst losses and pains life may throw at us. Jesus is our joy. Even though He is not physically among us, His joy is. And every gathering of believers should stoke that joy! Which leads to the third response…

Gathered Community. The first disciples, when Jesus was absent, instantly became a gathered group around His teachings. They began meeting at the temple… it appears from here, and in Acts, it was a daily experience. Christians need community. We aren’t solo artists. We are a big, loving, slightly messy, always together, diverse and beautiful band! At the center of each gathering is blessing Jesus, believing and celebrating the gospel, and blessing one another. We receive blessing in the Word, in song, in praise, in the sweet fellowship of the saints. We know one another, mess and all, and love one another as Christ loves us, mess and all! And in these ways we KNOW Jesus is with us, even as He now is at the right hand of the Father interceding for us.

breakfast with Jesus

Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord.

John 21:12

I love this resurrection appearance of Jesus as John records it. It is a call back to all the times Jesus spent with His disciples. They did life together. They are back in Galilee, by the lake, much like when many of them were first called to follow Him.

The guys had spent all night trying to catch fish (commercially… and unsuccessfully). Jesus calls out to them to cast the net one more time to the right of the boat. The net was so full that they had to close it up alongside the boat and drag it back to shoreline. And when the net did get emptied, they had quite a fish story to tell! 153 lunker fish caught in that one cast of the net. My guess is it was the biggest single haul any of these men had ever known. And after that astonishment, they ate breakfast on the shore, their fishermen’s pride quite satisfied.

Here is Jesus, resurrected Lord, Author of our Salvation, Destroyer of Death’s dominance, and He has built a fire and prepared for them a meal of grilled fish and bread. He is concerned with the physical needs of His disciples. He prepares and shares a meal for them. Jesus, King of the Universe, in simple hospitality and love for these men, stooped to serve once more. It is a beautiful picture. Jesus wants to serve His disciples, even as they must now learn to transition to living their entire lives for His gospel and will be literally giving their lives up for Him. Every man on that shoreline, laughing, breaking bread, and eating fish, amazed at a net full of fish, would eventually suffer martyrdom in bringing the gospel to their world. All, but John, who would survive several attempts at murder, only to be exiled to die alone on Patmos, but not before writing this gospel story down and communicating the vision that is the Book of Revelation. But in that shoreline freeze frame moment, there is Jesus, bread, fish, and the joy of companionship together knowing Jesus is risen just as He said.

The Lord Who calls us to serve Him with our lives will always stoop to be with us around our fires. He will provide for our daily bread (and fish). We know that He is the Lord, and as we serve Him, His grace will serve us and fill our nets in so many ways. We too are tenderly cared for each day of our lives by our Triumphant Savior!

Jesus revealed

But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.

Luke 24:21

Two men walking to Emmaus

talking with each other

about what happened to Jesus

and He drew near to them

Three men walking to Emmaus

two did not know

the third was Jesus

they were kept from recognizing Him

Up spoke one man, Cleopas,

spoke of what happened in Jerusalem

how their hoped Messiah, Jesus,

was crucified, devastating them

And furthermore “some women amazed us”

with a story of an empty tomb

finding no body of Jesus

— a vision of angels given to them

The Stranger answered on the road to Emmaus

beginning from Moses to the Prophets

it was necessary for Jesus

to suffer these things happening to Him

Three men sat down for dinner in Emmaus

and taking the bread in blessing

two of them recognized Jesus

then smiling — He left them

“Did not our hearts burn within us

while He talked from the scriptures

on the road to Emmaus?”

They found the others and told them

There on the road to Emmaus

The Savior revealed what all scripture said

that every page points to Jesus

so we can find life in Him