How Long Lord?
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?
Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes,
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
Give light to my eyes,
or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say,
“I have overcome him,”
and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
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.
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.
-Psalm 13 (NIV)
How Long Lord?
The cry of our hearts is often, "How long, Lord?" How much longer will I have to wait? How much longer until God does something?
Suffering
The Bible teaches that we will suffer. If you don't get that, then you might try to avoid suffering, at all costs. We might run from suffering, avoid it, deny it, seek to bypass it; or interpret it as punishment. "How long, Lord?", asks God to get us through, and in that spoken communication to God, we reach out to him for help.
How Long, Lord.
Reaching out often means being honest. We need to tell God the truth of how we feel and what we are experiencing, even if it is a negative thought towards Him, like, "How long will you hide your face from me?" We can say, that it seems like you are not here.
We also have permission to ask God for what we want him to do, even if we sound a little bossy. We are children after all: "Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death..."
Reaching out often means being honest. We need to tell God the truth of how we feel and what we are experiencing, even if it is a negative thought towards Him, like, "How long will you hide your face from me?" We can say, that it seems like you are not here.
We also have permission to ask God for what we want him to do, even if we sound a little bossy. We are children after all: "Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death..."
Father's Loving Faithfulness
After we are honest to God and wrestle before him with what we are suffering with, we come to a place of "But". I always think of Job's saying, "Though He slay me, yet I will trust Him". We give all our complaints and requests to God and end up trusting Him, praising Him, and counting our blessings we have already received and trusting in his faithfulness to help us again.
Because, our whole lives rest on and hinge of God's love, Father's love in Christ. Father's loving faithfulness to save us and keep saving us and keep us saved, is in Christ Jesus, the Lord. This is salvation, this is what it means to be saved.
We do suffer and in our suffering, we want it to end, and we pray and pray. Whether we know it or not, He hears, He acts; and the basis for all this is the Lord's faithful love.
When we begin to get it that He loves us, intimately and personally, as our Father, the Father; then we can know, God has heard me. We begin to, more and more, walk in love; living in the rhythm of suffering, prayer, and gratefulness.
After we are honest to God and wrestle before him with what we are suffering with, we come to a place of "But". I always think of Job's saying, "Though He slay me, yet I will trust Him". We give all our complaints and requests to God and end up trusting Him, praising Him, and counting our blessings we have already received and trusting in his faithfulness to help us again.
Because, our whole lives rest on and hinge of God's love, Father's love in Christ. Father's loving faithfulness to save us and keep saving us and keep us saved, is in Christ Jesus, the Lord. This is salvation, this is what it means to be saved.
We do suffer and in our suffering, we want it to end, and we pray and pray. Whether we know it or not, He hears, He acts; and the basis for all this is the Lord's faithful love.
When we begin to get it that He loves us, intimately and personally, as our Father, the Father; then we can know, God has heard me. We begin to, more and more, walk in love; living in the rhythm of suffering, prayer, and gratefulness.
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