05/16/2024
Where do we turn when we feel we are in trouble? What do we do that brings us comfort? Our natural inclination should be to pray. Prayer in times of trouble is more than something we are instructed to do; it should be our natural destination in response to any crisis. Prayer is our lifeboat when life’s miseries and issues begin to toss us about. Praying is not something we need to earn, or seek out, no, we are invited, not ordered nor rewarded, with prayer, and we are asked by God Himself to call out to Him in this way. If we do this then we will receive comfort, deliverance, and salvation from whatever is troubling us, and by allowing the Lord our God to do this for us it will bring Him glory.
“And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.”
Psalms 50:15 KJV
I find it most interesting that people who do not profess to be of faith, and even those who claim vehemently that God doesn't exist, seek Him when dire circumstances overtake them. I had a friend like that. My teenage friend was a person who stood beside me when bullies threatened, and he was one with whom I shared many likes and dislikes, but he argued against God whenever I spoke with him about Jesus Christ. I prayed for him often, but to no avail; he was adamant in his atheistic position. Our friendship was like a moth to flame, we desired each other's companionship, but there was a certain danger in the flame. I had befriended someone who wasn't conducive to my faith, and he had a friend who challenged the very core of his belief, or rather... disbelief. Yet, I always felt he was just a step away from Acknowledging Jesus.
One Friday evening we were driving around looking for girls (as is the custom of most teenage boys) when he pulled out of a sides street in front of a rapidly approaching car. He instinctively stomped on the gas and our car shot across the street into an embankment and then into the air before coming to rest in a field. We were fine, but in that moment of danger he had called out a single word... "Jesus!"
Calling on the name of Jesus when in trouble is more than just a random expression. Random expressions are curse words or other such worldly choices... Not the name of Jesus or the single word "God!" So my friend had prayed, and although the car was a total wreck and the horn was blaring, he continued to ask for help in prayer as he thought of his earthly father's reaction to the destroyed family car. He couldn't remain firm in denial of God any longer.
I was thankful we had been spared physical harm, and I was also glad that I hadn't been driving, but most of all I was amazed at how God had used this instant of trouble to shake my friend into a confession of faith. The Lord is right there to pick up the pieces of our lives when we find them shattered, and all we have to do is accept His invitation to believe, and to pray for His forgiveness and for Him to come into our life.
“Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.”
Psalms 50:23 KJV
Pastor E.M. Bounds said it this way: "Prayer sees God's hand in the midst of trouble and prays to Him. Blessed is he who knows how to turn to God in times of trouble." Perhaps our prayer is the final step in an uncommitted mind that has already been seeking God, maybe it is the determined faith of a believer, or a cry for help during some traumatic experience. It might also be an instinctive acknowledgement of what innately resides in each of us. Whichever it is; the beginning, the continuation, or the instantaneous epiphany of faith, God is there, and through praying a soul will see His hand.
This story of my youthful friend is somewhat humorous (now that I am a few years removed from it), but in that moment it was deadly serious and amidst our fear and panic a soul was won for the kingdom. There are battlefield conversions, prayers from burning homes, heartbreaking calls from hospital rooms, and the list goes on and on, but in all cases God is there and ready to change a life. As Christians we are his emissaries and should never abandon those who need our help in those times of prayer... Every great journey begin with a single step, and every request for salvation begins with one word… Father.
This morning let's pray that we will not neglect to act in a moment when our timely prayer with someone in crisis would change their life. Let's ask that our hands be humble substitutes for God's as we hold those approaching Him in that perfect instant of reconciliation. Let’s help them say “Father”, and then “I believe in your Son Jesus Christ.”
Prayer:
Father, thank you for drawing each of us to you through your Son Jesus Christ. Thank you for our various moments of need, and for revealing yourself in the midst of our troubles. Thank you Lord for holding the door to salvation open for us and calling us to enter through it with an invitation to pray and an offer of your joy, comfort, and relief. Help us to call your name in an instant of fear filled danger or immediate need for rescue. Open our hearts in these moments, and let the seed of our faith germinate and burst open within us as we confess our belief in you. Holy Father, in as much as we realize our belief in the blink of an eye, or within the span of a single breath, we offer you the glory of our confession of faith in that same twinkling. Help too those of us who come to you by long and deliberate consideration. Help all who wrestle with the thought of you, who contemplate you, your Word, and the gospel of Jesus for days and years before they too finally come to acknowledge you, not slowly believing over all their hours of deliberation, but in that same brilliant instant, and sudden moment when the door of their faith at last gives way in a mighty swoosh, and swings wide for them. These are our moments of epiphany, belief, and faith; and we thank you for them and give you all the praise and glory for having led us to them. Hear us as we pray Father, whether by many words, or a single word of faith and belief, such as your name, as we step fully into relationship with you. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who was, and is, and is to come, and who, in all of eternity, and in every flashing instant of our belief, has not changed one iota. Your love for us, prompted you to send your only begotten Son Jesus to live, suffer, die, and be resurrected for us so that we might be saved, and to call us to you through himself. Know our hearts Father in the brilliant flash and instant of our response. Wash us clean with the blood of Christ so that in our moment of confession we are revealed to be your child made worthy of eternity in Christ.
Amen!
Rich Forbes