Isaiah 38:5 “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life.” God hears your prayers. He is with you even when you can't see Him or feel Him. In this episode I explain two things you can do to help you through a hard time. Music: "Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
I Have Heard Your Prayers And Seen Your Tears
Isaiah 38:5 “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life.”
I thought I would take a minute at the beginning of this episode to explain how I get the scripture verses that I use at the beginning of each episode. Every Thursday I attend a Catholic Charismatic prayer group. During our meetings we begin with a 5-10 minute teaching, then we go into praise and worship. Then we go into speaking in tongues and quiet time where we are silent and listen for anything the Lord wants to share with us, often times that will include scripture verses. I use the scripture verses from these meetings as I figure if God is sharing them with us, they are probably good ones to share with you.
This morning, however, I am leading prayer group and I did not want to use a scripture verse that had just been used at the meetings. So, I prayed this morning that God would give me a verse. Now I have been part of this group for 3-4 years now. Every week God shows up and shares with us. And yet, I am constantly surprised when he does. Or maybe I’m not surprised He shows up, but how He shows up. This morning I was not sure how I would know what scripture to use. I thought I would maybe just open the Bible and pick one, or maybe one from my scripture writing would jump out at me. I was unclear and if I am honest, I am not sure I fully believed that God would show me what scripture to use. Then, right before I finished my prayer time the words Isaiah 38:5 flashed in my mind. It was as if it was written in the air. I could see it plain as day. This has never happened to me before. God has spoken to me, but not that plainly.
I share this story with you because I want you to know that God is there for you. He hears your prayers. Just as it says in Isaiah 38:5 “‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life.” Sometimes we wonder if God is really listening. When I read this verse this morning my first thought was of a friend of mine. She is really struggling right now and I felt like God was talking to her when He said “I have heard your prayers and seen your tears.” Then I got to thinking and I actually have several friends that are struggling right now. Struggling with some really difficult issues.
For all of you that are struggling right now, I want you to know that you are not alone. Life is difficult for so many people right now. On top of all that we went through over this past year, you have had added levels of difficulty. I am so sorry that life has been so hard. We have had many difficulties this past year as well. Remote learning was a challenge. The isolation from friends was really tough on our oldest son. It has been a crazy year. And yet, I can see God was with me through all of it.
What if you can’t see that? What if you don’t know where God was in all of it? You can be someone who loves God, someone who has a close relationship with God, and also you can question where God is and what his plan is. King David was anointed, he had a very close relationship with God, and yet even He questioned God. In Psalm 13:1-3 “How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?” Have you had these thoughts before? Have you, or are you going through something, and you are wondering how long you have to endure the suffering before God will save you, before He will answer your prayers?
If this is you first, I want to let you know that this is okay. Sometimes we can make our pain worse because on top of the pain of the situation, we feel guilty because we are questioning the Lord, or we are mad at the Lord. Sometimes our minds say things like, “If I were a good christian I would just trust God,” or “I’ve had a relationship with the Lord a long time, I shouldn’t be worried, or questioning.” God can handle our questioning and our anger. He is strong enough for anything you have for Him. He wants you to turn to Him in times of need. You are not the only person angry with God and questioning how long you will have to suffer. Trust me, there are many people in the same boat. Please let the guilt go. Please do not judge yourself for questioning. David questioned often, just read the psalms and you will see just how often, and yet God chose David’s lineage to bring forth the savior of the world.
Second, I want you to know that this scripture verse is for you. God wants to talk directly to you right now when he says “I have heard your prayers, and seen your tears.” He is there with you, even when you can’t see Him or feel Him. He is there every moment of your life. I know it is a struggle sometimes, many times, to understand why you had to go through some of the things you had to go through. I know that the not knowing, is sometimes the hardest part. I want to assure you that things will get better. I don’t know how and I don’t know when. I do know that God wants ridiculously good things for you. It says in Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” God will get you through these difficult times and there will be great times on the other side of this hardship. Just hang on. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other and you will make it through this hard time.
I would like to give you two things that may help get you through this difficult time. First, is from the same psalm that I read from earlier. In Psalm 13 David was questioning the Lord and asking how long he was going to have to suffer. Then he ended the Psalm with verses 5-6 “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.” David does question the Lord, and then he turns back to praising the Lord. Praising the Lord in a difficult time can really be helpful in getting out of that difficult time quicker. Now, I can already hear some of you saying, “but what if I am struggling to trust in God’s unfailing love?,” or “What if I don’t know what to say?” This is ok, God knows this. When I struggle to believe in something I go to Mark 9:24, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”
Sometimes we get to a place where we can’t pray. Has this happened to you? If so I want you to know you are in good company. I am not sure if you know this or not, but Mother Teresa had this happen to her. She was so close to the Lord, she was doing His work every single day and yet she went through really long, like several years long, dry spells where she could not pray. She would enter into her prayer time and nothing would come. The enemy has a way of making us feel like we are the only one that these things happen to and that we are awful people because of it. I just want you to know that YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
I think that is part of the reason why God raises up Saints. I think we usually put them on pedestals and when we do I think we are missing the point. I think the Saints are actually to show us very real people that are not perfect, they made mistakes, in some cases big mistakes, and yet still were capable of carrying out God’s work. God does not use perfect people. He takes broken, imperfect people and makes them perfect through His grace. I think the Saints are showcasing God’s redemption. If you read about the saints you will quickly take them off the pedestal and you will be able to see parts of yourself in them. If God could turn their lives around so completely, He could do it for all of us.
The second thing is to read scripture. If you are going through a difficult time and you are questioning if God is there, reading scripture can be helpful. Seeing how God has shown up for others in the past can help you see how He may show up for you. If you struggle to trust in the Lord, read passages that talk about God’s faithfulness. If you struggle to believe God loves you read passages on God’s love. I have recently learned of something called scripture writing. I had no idea what this was. Well, obviously I could deduct what it meant, but I didn’t know how to do it. How do you know what scripture to write? How much to write? I had several questions.
The truth is, there is no one way to do it. The point is to familiarize yourself with scripture and you remember things better when you write them down. However, I like when things have directions that I can follow. So, if you are like me, here is what I do. I go online and google scripture writing plans. There will be tons of images that come up. Most of them have a theme, so I pick one that I feel is resonating with me for that month. One month I picked Be Bold, another month I picked Repentance & Renewal. Then the plan tells you which verses to write each day, it is usually just a verse or two. I just got a notebook and each day I write the verse for the day. It has been really great and I enjoy those 5-10 minutes with the Lord.
If you are struggling right now, maybe give scripture writing or praising the Lord a try and see how you feel afterwards. If you are not sure you would know what to say for praising the Lord, you could always listen to christian music and let the artists praise for you. If you are not sure what to pray, you can pray the scriptures. The Book of Psalms is also a great place to go for praising the Lord. If you feel like you can’t praise the Lord in your circumstances, you can borrow David’s praises.
You will get through this hard time. God is with you! You are not alone. He may let you fall, but He will be there to catch you and put you back on even stronger ground. You are amazing and God loves you more than you will ever know.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you be with everyone listening to this today. I ask that you let them see where you are in all of this. Lord, sometimes we don’t understand your plan or why we have to go through the hard times. We ask that you bless us with a supernatural trust in you. We ask that you help us to feel you in those really hard times. Lord, we ask that you fortify us with strength and protect us when we are weak. Lord, some of us are going through so really difficult times and can’t see the way out. I ask that you shine a light on each step of the way and fill us with assurance that you are there and are leading us out. Lord I thank you for being strong enough to handle our questions and our anger. I thank you for your mercy that when we are angry with you or questions where you are you do not get angry with us. I thank you for the graces you give us to each and every day. Lord we love you and are constantly amazed by you. Father, we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen