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Hear the devotional right here: https://bit.ly/3jmnldT
1 Help, God - the bottom has fallen out of my life! Master, hear my cry for help! 2 Listen hard! Open your ears! Listen to my cries for mercy. 3 If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings, who would stand a chance? 4 As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, and that's why you're worshiped. 5 I pray to God - my life a prayer - and wait for what he'll say and do. 6 My life's on the line before God, my Lord, waiting and watching till morning, waiting and watching till morning. 7 O Israel, wait and watch for God - with God's arrival comes love, with God's arrival comes generous redemption. 8 No doubt about it - he'll redeem Israel, buy back Israel from captivity to sin. (Psalm 130 The Message)
Thursday! Welcome to our lives and bring in to them the blessings of our Creator! May it be so, dear ConCafe Family, and may you, Friend, be filled to the brim with hope, joy, and peace! And may that bring blessings to those around you now, and always!
The Upper Room's devotional for today was very powerful. A grown man writes that as a child his grandfather taught him a "big little prayer." It was, "Help me, God!" The boy expected more, but that was the prayer. "He told me that if ever I am in danger, have a problem, am afraid, or have to make a decision, I can call on the Lord." I doubt that grandpa wrote that prayer. It may just be the oldest prayer in history that even Adam or Eve might have uttered more than once! In fact, any one of the characters from the Old Testament and New Testament might have said those very words as well. And we certainlyl have that prayer in an even briefer form here at the hand of King David; "Help, God." And if we think about it, any prayer is good enough for us to share with God. All prayers uttered from the heart reach the heart of God. And in this case, the broken and contrite heart of David upon the news of his son's death cries to God asking for any assistance God could share with him. And many of my prayers, and perhaps yours, have been lifted from the depths of despair and need; and this prayer of David's is no exception; he's hurt from the death and also for his transgressions against God, against Uriah and Bathesheba. David's cries are for mercy, for he truly wants to hear that he is forgiven. David delights in remembering that God is a forgiving God, and worthy of our praise. He has come to delight in his prayers to God and knows to listen as God responds to his needs. And the prayer includes the king's hope that help for the nation Israel will also come as an answer to this prayer. For Israel's true captivity is to sin, and from sin they need to be delivered.
Sin is at the root of all our troubles and afflctions and even the afflictions of our nation. David, as king, prays for himself and concludes by praying for his people as well. And the remedy for sin is prayer. God hears, God responds, God forgives and God moves on, leading us away from our sin areas into our abundant life areas. Our God is the God of second chances. And our God is a God on the move. For us to reach those places where we get bogged down and mired, are exactly the places that God visits with the intention of pulling us out and taking us with Him to places where we can serve Him by helping others. For a king to be guilty of adultery and murder is to reach a place that seems impossible to recover from, but God lifted David out of there and on to the plaes where he needed to be to continue in his role as God's anointed and appointed person to serve God in this very critical position and crucial time. The devil may have won a skimrish but the ultimate battle winner was, of course, God.
This may well be your story, dear friend. You may have survived an encounter you didn't expect, and you may even feel defeated, but we take heart in knowing that God has not given up on you and is even now offering you a second chance. Remember, God is the God of life, not death, and not matter how dead you may feel, cry out in prayer, that big little prayer, "Help me, God" and guess what? God will help you!
PRAYER: Loving God, we celebrate You and praise You for being the God of new life. Create in all of us new hearts, fitted for and filled with, Your love and vision. Guide us to where we might continueour discipleship walk with You. May we bring honor and glory to You; in Christ Jesus we pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! Lift someone who needs the lift of love from God that you carry in you!
Receive my blessings of joy and peace,
Pastor Eradio Valverde
