Anguished

Have you ever cried out to God in anguish? Perhaps you were in mental or physical pain, or in trouble, as we will read in our Psalm this week.

Psalm 34:17  MSG

17 Is anyone crying for help? God is listening, ready to rescue you.

              Anguish, Painting by August Friedrich Schenk

Last week, we read about the disciples In Luke 11, asking Jesus to teach them how to pray.   After Jesus teaches them the Lord’s Prayer, he tells them to be persistent in prayer, and then he says, 

9 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

The Bible is full of stories of people crying out to God in prayer.  These stories reveal a God who hears us, understands our pain, and does something to help.  He gives us a new beginning.

Hundreds of years before Jesus spoke about prayer to the disciples, when the Israelis were in slavery to the Egyptians, they cried out to God:

Exodus 2:23  NASB

And the sons of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage ascended to God.

God understood, the Message translation tells us. 

Stories of redemption and hope.  I could use a little of that.  Could you?