Sometimes when we are going through a hard time and life seems overwhelming, God can seem far away. Our faith can even be challenged if we feel that God has forgotten us or doesn’t care about us anymore.
But when we are in the darkest valleys of life we need to remind ourselves of all the times that God has come through for us in the past. He has never failed a single one of His children who have trusted in Him yet. And if He’s never failed you before, He never will fail you.
God never ignores the cries of His children. “The Lord watches over those who do what is right, and he hears their prayers.” (Psalm 34:15)
God never forgets His children. The Psalmist wrote, “I am poor and weak, yet the Lord is thinking about me right now!” (Psalm 40:17)
King David wrote Psalm 40. When he was in the valley of despair he reminded himself of all the wonderful things God had done for him; all the ways God had come through for him.
By rehearsing those victories he encouraged his faith. We can learn a valuable lesson from David.
When tempted to despair, remind yourself of God’s past faithfulness to you.
He will yet again be faithful. Trust Him.
Psalm 40:1-5,
I waited patiently for God to help me; then he listened and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out from the bog and the mire,
and set my feet on a hard, firm path, and steadied me as I walked along.
He has given me a new song to sing, of praises to our God.
Now many will hear of the glorious things he did for me, and stand in awe before the Lord,
and put their trust in him.
Many blessings are given to those who trust the Lord and have no confidence
in those who are proud or who trust in idols.
O Lord my God, many and many a time you have done great miracles for us,
and we are ever in your thoughts. Who else can do such glorious things?
No one else can be compared with you.
There isn’t time to tell of all your wonderful deeds.”
Heavenly Father, may You bless and encourage the faith all who need a special touch from You.
Be with them in their valley, hold them close, fill them to overflowing with rivers of peace, hope, and joy from the streams of Thy heart. May they know You will never fail them. Thank You, Lord. I love You. In Jesus name. Amen.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank You that You have promised to never leave or forsake us and to give us a future and a hope. May we walk by faith with our hand in Yours, though we see You only in our hearts. May we never give up on You even as You have promised to never give up on us. We love You, Lord! In Jesus holy name. Amen.
“Ezekiel’s First Vision” Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (1794-1872)
My Ezekiel Prayer
Ezekiel was one of the captives of Judah who had been taken to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. His name means “God Strengthens.”
He was the son of a priest and was himself a priest. But since he was exiled from his homeland, he was jobless, for in Babylon he had no temple to take care of.
Yet God still had a job for Ezekiel to do. Though it was not what he’d trained all his life to do for the Lord, nevertheless, it was what God had created him to do. He called Ezekiel to be His prophet to speak to a nation that had broken faith with Him. The Lord wanted to use Ezekiel to vindicate the “holiness of His great name.”
When Ezekiel was around thirty years old, as he sat with the other captives by the Kebar river, he wrote, “The heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.” (Ezekiel 1:1)
Nuremberg (1702) “Ezekiel’s Vision” Wikipedia Commons
If you are a highly visual person like me and read Ezekiel’s visions you may long for an illustrated bible because they are quite surreal. But even if we have a literal picture of these visions right before us we soon realize that just like a website without the correct password is impossible to enter, so is a vision without the right interpretation.
God has a very good reason for everything He does. He chooses to speak to us in certain ways based on what He is going to do in our lives and how He wants to use us for the work He is calling us to carry out for Him. He chose to speak to Ezekiel in visions. In fact, they play a very prominent role throughout his book.
Typically, visions from God are not meant to be taken literally. They are visual metaphors illustrating spiritual realities. They are a kind of picture language from God sent to tell us something very important or to reflect obliquely future glories that await us to encourage our faith.
When Paul, who had been taken in a vision up into what he called “the third heaven” wrote about spiritual things He said, ”For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)
If we try to understand Ezekiel’s vision literally we may as well knock our heads together. Jesus said to those who would try to understand spiritual things in a literal way, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63)
God gave Ezekiel this amazing inaugural vision to prepare him for a very difficult calling. When we read the succeeding chapters of his book we understand just how challenging his work for God would be.
Ezekiel was asked to shut himself inside his house, isolate himself from his community, he would be bound with cords; was afflicted by God so that he could not speak temporarily, he had to lie on one side for 390 days and then the other for 40 more days and cook his food over a dung pile.
How many of us would think it was God’s voice we were hearing if the Lord asked us to cook our food over a pile of feces every day for 390 days? Uh huh..I am confessing right now that I would probably rebuke “that voice“ in Jesus’ name. Alas. I just wonder sometimes how many times a day the Lord gets rebuked in His own name because we just don’t recognize His voice as we should. And I wonder how often He gets exasperated with His own sheep who are supposed to know their Good Shepherd’s voice!
You might think to yourself, “Well, that was in the bible days, God would never ask us to do anything like that in this day and age!”
Don’t ever think that God is any different now than He was in Ezekiel’s day because His word says, “For I am the Lord, I do not change…” (Malachi 3:6)
And Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
It often occurs to me after studying the bible that God does not usually ask His servants to do what is convenient, comfortable, or easy. In fact, Jesus said we must be willing to take up our cross and follow Him.
I believe God spoke to Ezekiel in visions, (symbolic language) because He was going to make Ezekiel’s life a living metaphor to communicate His Truth to His people. Everything God asked Ezekiel to do was like a living illustration to His people, a picture of His message to go along with the words the prophet was asked to communicate.
I have studied and prayed over Ezekiel’s vision and made it into a prayer in the hopes that the Lord will use it somehow to transform my life the way He did Ezekiel’s into a person who could fearlessly communicate His truths to our world without complaining about the cost. (And when I do fuss about the cross the Lord has asked me to bear, I pray He will remind me that at least He has never asked me to cook my food over a dung pile and to help me to be thankful!)
Artist: Jim Padgett: “Ezekiel’s Vision”
My Ezekiel Prayer
(Inspired by Ezekiel’s Vision & Matthew Henry’s Interpretation)
Heavenly Father, I pray for divine wisdom and understanding,
To excel in strength and boldness like that of a lion, even as the angels who serve You and who are never afraid;
I ask that You help me to excel in diligence and patience like an ox, and to be unwearied in the discharge of the work You give me to do for You, even as those angels are who serve In Your holy court.
I ask for quick and piercing insight, like that of an eagle’s sight, to soar high even as the angels who serve You soar, spiritually close to You, quick to hear Your voice in my heart, quick to respond obediently to do all You ask of me without complaining; and always thankful, always humble.
I ask for willing hands and feet to do Your will, to walk Your paths wherever You call me to go, whatever You ask me to do.
Help me go straight forward like Your angels who serve in Your holy courts, with one heart, one soul, one mind, one purpose: to love You with ALL MY HEART, ALL MY SOUL, ALL MY MIND, ALL MY BEING.
Lord, like Your angels, let me turn not back, nor aside from serving You. Help me keep my eyes focused firmly on You. Let me not turn from my work to trifle with what is not Your will for me.
Help me go wherever Your Holy Spirit would have me go, to accomplish whatever You have chosen for me to do.
Oh dearest Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit, though I am no angel, please fill my heart with a burning zeal to serve You as those angels at Your court must have. Fill my heart with a burning love, a holy passion that grows only more intense for You like a flame that is eternal and grows deeper and higher and hotter day by day.
Let my love for You be like the eternal flame in the lamps of the temple of old Jerusalem; may it never wane, may it never die, but grow stronger and brighter each moment day by day by the power of Your Holy Spirit, in Jesus name, thank You, I love You, Lord,
Last Thursday I had an appointment in town. The sky was cloudy and the wind had picked up when I left my house that afternoon so I remembered to bring my umbrella thinking it might rain. I don’t usually listen to the radio or check the weather forecasts so I had no idea what kind of storms were brewing in the area.
I asked God to watch over me and to protect my little dog while I was gone and to please keep any lightning or thunder away till I could get back home since Miss Phee, my little Yorkie, is so scared of storms.
The wind gusts grew stronger as I drove down the highway into town.
Ominous clouds gathered overhead but still I did not think I had anything to worry about.
And the sky didn’t seem too threatening and there was no rain, no thunder or lightning.
My head hurt dreadfully, but it always hurt whenever a storm came remotely near. I went to my appointment and just as it was time to leave, the employee got a strange expression on her face and ran out to the lobby. When I went to pay my bill she looked at me with that same odd expression. She seemed very worried. “You be careful going home, you hear..I’m gonna call and make sure you make it home safely..”
The receptionist glanced outside nervously and said the same thing to me. I wondered why they were fretting so much. Then I looked out the window.
The sky was dark and heavy with the most ominous looking clouds I have ever seen. The wind was raging. Someone mentioned that there had been terrible tornado like storms already passing through one of our neighboring towns.
I paid my bill and said, “I’ll be okay, I will pray my way home.”
The receptionist laughed nervously.
I looked out the window. It never occurred to me before I stepped out the door of the building that day that a storm could harm me.
I went to open the door to leave but the wind was so fierce I could barely get it to open.
Although my vehicle was only about 15 feet away, the wind threatened to knock me off my feet and blow me away. I prayed all the way to my car–it was as if I was in a battle with a force that was determined to destroy me.
When I finally got to my car and managed somehow to get the door open despite the gale fighting against me, suddenly I was thrown up into my SUV and the door slammed shut after me and all 4 doors automatically locked on their own! This was amazing since the battery for the remote for my keys has been dead for over a year now.
Then my vehicle started rocking back and forth by the force of the wind as if it was going to turn over.
I was terrified!
No one was in sight. Everyone else had been smart enough to stay inside the building.
So I did the only thing I could do– I cried out to Jesus to stop the wind just as He did on the Sea of Galilee for His terrified disciples 2000 years ago. I cried, “Jesus, Your word says You are the same yesterday, today, and forever! I told those people in there I was going to trust You to get me home safely! Please show them You are going to do just that! GOD, Don’t let this wind destroy me in this car! Please calm this wind to a whisper in the mighty name of Jesus, at whose name ALL THINGS MUST BOW, even the wind!!!”
I was so glad no one could see me yelling and praying for my life because I am sure I must have looked like~~who knows what!!! ~ but it does not matter.
God HEARD my prayer! That awful wind DID obey the Lord’s name; Jesus calmed that mighty wind to a whisper. Suddenly my car stopped rocking, and His Spirit calmed me down.
I glanced around and saw people slowly coming out of their hiding places. I could not stop thanking the Lord for His faithfulness as I prayed my way home. The Lord kept me safe though it was still raining cats and dogs. Our house never lost power and not one tree lost a limb. God kept kept His word to me.
According to News reports our area suffered from something called a Derecho Storm System last week. We had sustained winds of up to 70 mph. Our area and surrounding counties suffered extensive damage with 10,000 homes in the NRV alone without power. On Sunday when I wrote this, some people were still without electricity due to those fierce storms.
We serve a mighty, LIVING God. God’s word says that at the name of Jesus Christ all things must bow, in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. I saw living proof of that last week when The Lord calmed the mighty wind to a whisper before my eyes and kept me safe in the storm.
God never promises we won’t experience storms in our life. Nor does He promise that we won’t sometimes have to experience suffering as a result of those storms.
But if we will have faith and trust in Him, His word assures us that He will be with us in every storm and guide us safely home.
Romans 8:35-36, 37, 38-39 “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.” No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Peaceangel Song 