Do you doubt that God loves you?
We often feel we are surrounded by problems and troubles, we don’t know where to turn; it is like God has abandoned us. An ancient poet had this feeling too, he wrote these words.
"Praise be to the Lord, for he showed his wonderful love to me when I was in a besieged city. In my alarm, I said, "I am cut off from your sight!" Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help." Psalm 31:21, 22.
DOUBT...
At such times we may feel far from God, and want to say, "I am cut off from your sight!" David felt God no longer looked his way as if God had become blind to him. We say, I have sinned too much and can’t get have God’s favor anymore, or, all these bad things are happening because God no longer loves me; but in the noise of battle and the din of clashing swords, God still hears us. "Yet you heard my cry for mercy." He hears our gentlest whisper. He is in tune with us. There is no static that can drown out our call to him.
MERCY...
Mercy is a humble request; it admits powerlessness, need, and it infers submission to the giver of mercy. Mercy is almost always the theme of true prayer. What a great opportunity we have by prayer! How often we experience failure because we don't pray. David prayed and basically said, "Lord, help me!" And he believed in God's power to hear and answer.
LOVE...
It was in that besieged city that David experienced God’s love just the way he did. It may be that you are going through a horrible time now but remain faithful and continue to call to the Lord of Mercy for his grace and you too will be saying “Praise be to the Lord for he showed his wonderful love to me.”
"Praise be to the Lord, for he showed his wonderful love to me when I was in a besieged city. In my alarm, I said, "I am cut off from your sight!" Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help." Psalm 31:21, 22.
PRAISE THE LORD...
God's love is truly wonderful! Considering what little we know about his love we can't help but be in awe. Like the verse, we should say, "Praise be to the Lord..." If we are not brought to that exclamation we need to just keep on thinking about God's love. It is not during happy times that we experience God's love most, David declares it was when he was in a besieged city that God showed his "wonderful love."BESIEGED...
An ancient "besieged city" was a dreadful place to be in. Outside would be an overwhelming number of attackers; more in number than the city defenders inside was starvation and death. We often feel "besieged," by our troubles, we are surrounded by difficulties of illness, loss, failed relationships, school problems, or financial worries and we feel alone without anyone to encourage us.DOUBT...
At such times we may feel far from God, and want to say, "I am cut off from your sight!" David felt God no longer looked his way as if God had become blind to him. We say, I have sinned too much and can’t get have God’s favor anymore, or, all these bad things are happening because God no longer loves me; but in the noise of battle and the din of clashing swords, God still hears us. "Yet you heard my cry for mercy." He hears our gentlest whisper. He is in tune with us. There is no static that can drown out our call to him.
MERCY...
Mercy is a humble request; it admits powerlessness, need, and it infers submission to the giver of mercy. Mercy is almost always the theme of true prayer. What a great opportunity we have by prayer! How often we experience failure because we don't pray. David prayed and basically said, "Lord, help me!" And he believed in God's power to hear and answer.
LOVE...
It was in that besieged city that David experienced God’s love just the way he did. It may be that you are going through a horrible time now but remain faithful and continue to call to the Lord of Mercy for his grace and you too will be saying “Praise be to the Lord for he showed his wonderful love to me.”
(c)Adron Dozat 5/4/11
