“I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.” Psalm 116:1-2
God hears you…he knows your voice. Then you may ask if he hears me, why doesn’t he respond; why doesn’t he help me. Regardless of what you may think, God is answering your cry for mercy, but he is working it out in the best way for you. We live in an instantaneous world and have learned that we can get what we want now. However, now isn’t always best for us.
For example, we may want a house and even have the picture perfect one in mind. We head to the bank and are told we can afford a $200,000 loan with nothing down and payments of $1700 a month. We might have hoped for a $1200 a month payment and feel that is realistic for our budget, but the BANK says we can afford this so let’s go for it. You begin to discuss how you could save by not having certain things and think about future raises. Eventually, you have talked yourself into this loan and payment based on emotion and not really upon what you can afford.
What happens? You get into this $200,000 dream home and begin to struggle month to month to afford the payment. The raises don’t happen as planned and you wish the BANK would have denied you the loan. Getting what you want before you can afford it has not blessed you, it has hurt you and put you in a place where you are stuck.
When we cry out to God for mercy, he knows your future. He is not going to lead you into a place you shouldn’t be and the fact is, the thing we may be praying about for God to deal with may be exactly the thing that is being used to bring us to the place we want. The problem we have is that we cannot see how things will turn out so when something hurts, we just want it to go away. Trust God with everything and let him take you where you need to go. Don’t try to direct your life on your own, because without God we will probably not make decisions in our best overall interest.
Be encouraged by this verse that he has heard your voice, your cry for mercy. Respond by loving him.
Dale Weerts 