Why pray? Does HE hear me?

I am praying.  Is HE there?   
Why is HE so quiet?    
Does it matter that I cry out?    
Can HE help me with this situation? 

Wow!   Really?   Can we really ask those questions and not understand the power of God, our heavenly Father?  And yet, in times of desperation, we do - we question ourselves. 
   
In Psalm 78:40-42,  we see how many times God helps the children of Israel as they are led out of bongage in Egypt.   My husband and I always wondered as we read, how they could do this.  
They provoke God and limit God.   I have underlined some words below that I find to be shocking to read.  Yet we know this is what they did to the One who led and cared for them.  Unbelievable.   It reads like this: 

40 How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, And grieved Him in the desert!
41 Yes, again and again they tempted God, And limited the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember His power: The day when He redeemed them from the enemy,

Jeremiah 10:6   
There is NONE like you, O Lord; you are great, and your name is great in might. 

Never doubt God.  Never doubt His presence.
​Look up!  All this you see in the night sky - HE spoke into being.
Look around!   All that lives was spoken into life.
He knows the hairs on your head and the pain in your heart.
Never doubt that HE hears your prayer.  Never doubt. 

So can God help me you in your trial?  YES!
Don't give up.  Keep on knocking at His door.   Keep listening for His soft reply. 

Annie Johnson Flint  is a special woman to me.  She was born in 1866, in the same town as I.  Her mother died when she was 3 and her father left her and her sister in the care of a family where she was unwanted.  Two years later, kind neighbors, Mr. & Mrs. Flint adopted both girls and provided a good christian home.  They were taught to be confident and trust God.  She was cheerful and optimistic and looked on the bright side of life.  She completed high school and began teaching until painful arthritis set in.  Henceforth, she would be a helpless invalid. 

With the death of both her adopted parents, and her only sister very frail,  she found herself in need of a way to compensate those who were needed in her daily care.  She loved to write poems and had been told in the past how much they were enjoyed.   She stated that they were born of the need for others...not from her own need.  But she never could have written as she did for the comfort of others unless she had the experience of facing her own life crises. ​

​With a pen pushed through bent fingers and held by swollen joints she wrote first without any thought that it might be an avenue of ministry, or that it would bring her returns that might help in her support.

​ Her verses provided a solace for her in the long hours of suffering. Then she began making hand-lettered cards and gift books, and decorated some of her own verses.

​
​Annie became thoroughly convinced that God intended to glorify Himself through her, in her weak, earthen vessel, and like Paul she had three times and more prayed that this might be taken from her, there came to her with real assurance the promise which said, "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness." She reached the place where she could also say with Paul, "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me" [2Cor. 12:9].

​He Gives More Grace by ​Annie J. Flint
He gives more grace when the burdens grow greater,
He sends more strength when the labors increase;
To added afflictions He adds His mercy,
To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

Fear not that thy need shall exceed His provision,
Our God ever yearns His resources to share;
Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing;
The Father both thee and thy load will upbear.

His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He gives, and gives, and gives again.
​

Have you ever thought about writing down your own words to be a blessing to others in the future?

One day you will no longer be here, but your words can still remain.  I have written letters to my children and placed them into large envelopes with pictures and things that were special to me in regards to each child.   Consider writing some faith-filled words to those you care about and leave them something that they can read over and over - especially those who need to know Christ. 

A Talk With the Lord Notebook
by flowersandverses