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Hear the devotional here: https://anchor.fm/eradio-valverde/episodes/Dear-God--Help-Us-Out-of-This-Mess-e1ns6me
1 God! Barbarians have broken into your home, violated your holy temple, left Jerusalem a pile of rubble! 2 They've served up the corpses of your servants as carrion food for birds of prey, Threw the bones of your holy people out to the wild animals to gnaw on. 3 They dumped out their blood like buckets of water. All around Jerusalem, their bodies were left to rot, unburied. 4 We're nothing but a joke to our neighbors, graffiti scrawled on the city walls. 5 How long do we have to put up with this, God? Do you have it in for us for good? Will your smoldering rage never cool down? 6 If you're going to be angry, be angry with the pagans who care nothing about you, or your rival kingdoms who ignore you. 7 They're the ones who ruined Jacob, who wrecked and looted the place where he lived. 8 Don't blame us for the sins of our parents. Hurry up and help us; we're at the end of our rope. 9 You're famous for helping; God, give us a break. Your reputation is on the line. Pull us out of this mess, forgive us our sins - do what you're famous for doing! (Psalm 79:1-9 The Message Bible)
Some issues back I shared how the most popular prayer is probably, "Help me God!" I identify with it, and more than likely you do too. It's in our nature to disobey and wander. It's on page two. God places Adam and Eve in what we perceive to be a paradise garden and tells them to freely eat of every tree, save for one, and where do they go? Yes, like our kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews, straight to the tree they were told to stay away from. And, as happens when we disobey, we suffer the consequences. And like shampoo and conditioner, we rinse and repeat. And that was Israel's story as well. We can compare it to having Halloween candy in our homes way too early. Oh, and we're trying to lose weight. In some homes, the delciousness of chocolates (yes, my favorites) are placed atop of the refrigerator, next to the cereal. There they will safely sit for maybe two days, but one morning while trying to decide which cereal to have, hey, wait, are these Snickers? What? Yes, they are, though the mini, bite-sized ones, but next to Special K, they seem to know my name! And what are they saying? Is that MY name they are calling? And is that the voice of that little red devil on my left shoulder saying I should have just one, because after all, what is it going to hurt? A large bowl of Special K will certainly offset the teeny bar of chocolate goodness! And as I sit to enjoy my bowl of cereal I have to explain to the wife the chocolate stains on my lips. And you know the rest of the story, day by day this temptation is carried out and by the end of the week another trip to Sam's or Costco is needed to restock the goodies for the little goblins and monsters that will ring our doorbell on the anointed day of Halloween. Israel had a big problem with Snickers. And Twix. And M&M's. And before they knew it, their defenses were down, and their addiction to sugar (okay, really obedience to no-gods and plaything gods, their streets showed the aftereffects of disobedience, as this psalm describes. No home was safe, even the temple was no longer holy; the holy city was now a pile of rubble, with streets strewn with bodies of the unfaithful, now serving as food for the birds of prey.
The psalmist knows that they as a nation have become a joke in the world community, with desecration of the walls by graffitti adding the icing of the cake as to their present state of dishonor. Then the questions and prayers go up; "How long do we have to put up with this, God?" "Will Your smoldering rage never cool down?" If You are going to be mad, be mad at the guilty and the true sinners, not us! Should we pay for the sins of our parents? How long will it take for You to hear our prayers and act in our favor? Then, the seriousness of the psalmist's prayer; "Hurry up and help us; we're at the end of our rope. You're famous for helping; God, give us a break. Your reputation is on the line. Pull us out of this mess, forgive us our sins - do what you're famous for doing!"
That prayer may sound familiar to what we may have prayed in our past, or even in our present. We know that God hears our prayers and is all the things the psalmist knows God to be, and God will come to us when we repent and turn away from our sins. And we should find a better place to hide the treats so that our trips to buy more are negated!
PRAYER: Loving God, bless our efforts to be Thy efforts. Help us to learn from the pages of Israel's life to better ourselves with Your strength and blessing. Help us to be examples to others; in Christ Jesus we pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! YOUR CALL TO ACTION: Start your day with prayer so that you might bless all.
Receive my blessings of peace and hope,
Pastor Eradio Valverde, Jr.
PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray for Patsy Hanks. She went into the hospital last week to have a pacemaker put in and has been having complications. Please pray for her healing. Ms. Hanks is a member of FUMC-Gonzales.
