TODAY'S ENCOURAGING WORD
I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.
-- John 16:33
OUR LISTENING GOD
O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.
-- Psalm 65:2
There come times in each life when loneliness overshadows like a cloud and no one is there to listen and provide counsel. Or perhaps there is some problem so personal and intimate that it seems unfitting or too embarrassing to share with anyone else.
But God will listen! No need is so small, no place too remote, no burden too heavy, that He who is the "God of all grace" and "the God of all comfort" (1 Peter 5:10; 2 Corinthians 1:3) will not listen and care. "The LORD will hear when I call unto him" (Psalm 4:3).
Young people sometimes complain that their parents won't listen to them; wives may say their husbands don't listen; sometimes it seems that no one will listen to our questions or ideas about anything. But "the LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth" (Psalm 145:18). Therefore, "pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah" (Psalm 62:8).
But how can He listen? After all, God is far away upon His throne. The risen Savior ascended far above all heavens, to sit down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. How can the Father hear when we whisper a prayer in our hearts that no human could hear?
God is indeed up there, but He is also right here! Jesus said: "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you" (John 16:7). Our God is a tri-une God, and He can be both in heaven and in our room, and even, as the Holy Spirit, within our very hearts. Of course, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me" (Psalm 66:18). But for those who confess and forsake their sins, "his ears are open unto their prayers" (1 Peter 3:12).
PRAYER TO DO GOOD
Guard me, O Lord, from brooding over the sin I have committed: let not my thoughts sink into the mire of my wrongdoing, but free them to offer Thee the pearl of good deeds.
If I have done much evil, grant that I may balance it by doing much good. Help me to hurry over the prayer "For my sin," and to meditate with joy and thankfulness, on the prayer "Thou, O Lord, shall reign."
Forward to your family and friends!
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God Bless You!
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