God Hears

Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD; O Lord, hear my voice.

Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.

If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?

But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.

I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.

My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning,

more than watchmen wait for the morning.

O 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. Psalm 130 (NIV)

Here is an example of a “Henry-ism”. My husband, Henry, who is a Bible teacher, says, “God answers our prayers much better than we pray them.” He has also reminded me that prayer is more for my benefit than God needed to be told what I need or what is going on in my life. He is after all…God!

Oh I have often thought and cried out that first sentence in my prayers. I have been “in the depths” and I am “crying out”! And I am so hoping that God is hearing my voice. (Is there a time when He doesn’t hear me?) If you are a parent, you may have had an experience where your child is in an adjoining room with several other children and there is yelling and screaming even an occasional crying and you are going on with what you are doing. Then you hear it. You hear the cry that belongs only to your child and out of all those children – you know your child’s cry. God knows my cry. He knows my cry vs. Henry’s cry. And being God, He knows the cry of each one of His children. Yes, God knows and hears my cry.

It is a humbling, overwhelming moment when you grasp the magnitude of your sin and purity and holiness of God. And you get the mercy and forgiveness of your Lord. WOW. It truly is unbelievable. But look at how God tells us over and over throughout the Old and New Testament how much He loves us and how merciful He is. I see the hope that is mine because of Jesus. The greatness of God is hard to describe and connect with words. The vastness of His love and forgiveness is beyond what I can grasp, isn’t it?

And then the psalmist tells his people with whom they should put their hope, their trust, their very lives should be entrusted to the Lord because of His great love and because only He can ultimately save them. I could stand on the pier at our local beach and say the same to my town. I could go to a joint session of Congress and say the same to my country. God and only God has provided the perfect atonement for our massive sins through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. Oh, my Lord, do not give up on us yet! Let us pray. Let us spread the Good News.