Define Your Reality - Day 5
***This post was part of a Define Your Reality Devotional Series during the 30 Days of Prayer for Family Life Church in March of 2020. It was written by Jason Laird.***
Psalm 130 says,
“Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; Lord, hear my voice. Let you ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who can stand? But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you. I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in His word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning. Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.”
Believe it or not, this passage of scripture was actually written as a song to be sung when the Israelites were traveling up to Jerusalem for the different worship festivals. It’s part of what we call the Songs of Ascent (Psalm 120-134).
This particular psalm starts out in great anguish and pain. The writer says, “Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy” Now, If you are anything like me, there are probably times in your life when you feel as if the Lord isn’t listening to you. That he can’t hear your voice. I know that I have said this very thing before, and admittedly, I have said it recently. We all have times in our lives, when we simply struggle to be diligent in our prayer for many different reasons. We may think that God doesn’t hear us or that God just doesn’t care or that our problems and our suffering don’t matter. But they do! Our suffering matters, they are real and they are dignified, and this Psalm shows us that.
You see, when we act as if our sufferings are not real or that they don’t matter, no matter how big or small they may be, we deny the reality that we are living in. But, when we acknowledge the depths of our sufferings and we cry out to God from those depths, we are actually at the heart of things. In fact, it is in that moment that we are closer to where Christ was on the cross.
Our suffering is real, but guess what? SO IS OUR GOD! The writer of this Psalm goes on to write, “I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in His word I put my hope…..for the Lord is unfailing love and with Him is full redemption.” What an incredible promise. The more that we wait and watch for the Lord the more we can actually put our hope in Him. We can put our hope in Him because He is unfailing love. We can put our hope in Him because He is the God of redemption. We can put our Hope in Him in the midst of our trials and our sufferings as well as our celebrations and successes. We can put our hope in Him because we know that He does actually hear our prayers and our cries for mercy. In fact, when we don’t hear God or when we think that He doesn’t hear us, He is actually closer than He has ever been.
So hold on to hope as you wait and watch for the God of Unfailing Love.
Be Consumed,
Jason
Psalm 130 says,
“Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; Lord, hear my voice. Let you ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who can stand? But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you. I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in His word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning. Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.”
Believe it or not, this passage of scripture was actually written as a song to be sung when the Israelites were traveling up to Jerusalem for the different worship festivals. It’s part of what we call the Songs of Ascent (Psalm 120-134).
This particular psalm starts out in great anguish and pain. The writer says, “Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy” Now, If you are anything like me, there are probably times in your life when you feel as if the Lord isn’t listening to you. That he can’t hear your voice. I know that I have said this very thing before, and admittedly, I have said it recently. We all have times in our lives, when we simply struggle to be diligent in our prayer for many different reasons. We may think that God doesn’t hear us or that God just doesn’t care or that our problems and our suffering don’t matter. But they do! Our suffering matters, they are real and they are dignified, and this Psalm shows us that.
You see, when we act as if our sufferings are not real or that they don’t matter, no matter how big or small they may be, we deny the reality that we are living in. But, when we acknowledge the depths of our sufferings and we cry out to God from those depths, we are actually at the heart of things. In fact, it is in that moment that we are closer to where Christ was on the cross.
Our suffering is real, but guess what? SO IS OUR GOD! The writer of this Psalm goes on to write, “I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in His word I put my hope…..for the Lord is unfailing love and with Him is full redemption.” What an incredible promise. The more that we wait and watch for the Lord the more we can actually put our hope in Him. We can put our hope in Him because He is unfailing love. We can put our hope in Him because He is the God of redemption. We can put our Hope in Him in the midst of our trials and our sufferings as well as our celebrations and successes. We can put our hope in Him because we know that He does actually hear our prayers and our cries for mercy. In fact, when we don’t hear God or when we think that He doesn’t hear us, He is actually closer than He has ever been.
So hold on to hope as you wait and watch for the God of Unfailing Love.
Be Consumed,
Jason
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