Please Help Me

I told a friend that I had pleaded with God for help on a pressing issue, and her reply was, “You don’t need to beg God.”

That’s true, and I know I don’t. He is not like the judge in the Bible parable who initially refused to help a poor widow. He was unmerciful, but she wore him down with her continued begging until finally he relented. God is ready to hear. In fact, before they [God’s people] call, I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.” (Isaiah 65:24)

There may be another aspect to examine. While we do not convince God to hear us by our earnest praying, we ourselves may profit from the exercise of our spiritual muscles. During a time of extreme financial stress, I prayed intensely, “Please give me a miracle or a workable plan. Please! Please!” I learned then to wait until it was God’s time, and the “door” swung open easily. Had I not been so desperate, had I prayed more casually, perhaps I would not have been so expectant, failing to recognize that God was at work engineering the answer that eventually filled the need so well.

I know a couple who had a wayward son. They could have sat in their easy chairs and prayed, “Help Jimmy come back to Your way.” But at one particularly crucial point, they lay on the floor, sobbing, “Oh God! Keep Jimmy! Oh God! Help Jimmy!” God hears the lowest whisper, but their own brokenness made them know they had touched God for their child.

“Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.” Isaiah 59:1

MaryMartha
Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.