Pour Out Your Heart

Arise, cry out in the night at the beginning of the nightwatches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children who faint for hunger at the head of every street.

Lamentations 2:19

 My children aren't fainting from physical hunger and I thank God for it. Yet last night, I brought them before God in the wee hours of the night.

Apart from physical hunger, there's another kind of famine in our land. A famine that's destroying the generation we live in. Amos the Old Testament prophet talked about it in Amos 8:11:

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD,
“when I will send a famine on the land—
not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the LORD.

Sleep eluded me, and I couldn't help but think about them, for the younger generation as a whole. God laid on my heart the necessity of praying for my children, and my children's children, that they might hunger and thirst for the living words of God. What blessing could be more important than to desire God's highest and best ?  The blessings come from having His Word dwelling richly within our hearts. 


 Sometimes we say, as if in despair, that the "only thing we can do is pray." How can we say that when prayer is our secret weapon, our greatest weapon, the only offensive weapon in the spiritual armor? If it does not represent much on our part, then why did the Lord allow the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18:6?  The story of bothering an unjust judge who finally relents reminds us to never give up in prayer, no matter how hopeless it seems.

Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart,

 I will pray and expect to see answers coming. How futile it is to stew and worry when it accomplishes nothing. The enemy doesn't want us to pray, he wants us to throw up our hands in despair. Meanwhile, the world grows darker and more defiled, like in the days of Noah.

It is an exciting time to be alive. It is a dangerous time to be alive.  The enemy is on the prowl for anyone he can catch off guard. All we need do is give a little inch, and the enemy comes in like a flood, taking a mile. Anxiety does nothing to quell it, but persistent, believing prayer can. Our families are worth fighting for!

When I pray lately,  I might say to God, "Here I am again, Lord. Just like that persistent widow who did not stop bothering the unjust judge until he gave her justice from her enemy. But You are not unjust, You are righteous and want me to come to You. I am putting _______ before you. I am waiting to see You get  glory from this situation. I know it will be a great testimony when the answer does finally come. Cover my children and grandchildren with the precious blood of Christ and grant them repentance in any area where they may need it. Amen."

The fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.(James 5:16) 


 Many are enduring extreme difficulties. We must not faint nor lose heart. Jesus is coming back  soon, and the night is always darkest before the dawn. I can almost see His rays of sunshine breaking in on this dark old world.

God will not fit into our box...

"If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." John 7:37-38

I was reminded at church today that God will not be limited by our puny human plans, or our human preconceptions. Often times when I pray, I think I know how God will answer the prayer, as if I have the omniscience of God. But He reminds me that His ways are so much higher than my ways, and His thoughts so much higher than my thoughts. (Isaiah 55:9)

I have been praying about a certain situation for quite a while now and told God that I believed He could answer exceeding abundantly beyond what I could ask or think. (Eph. 3:20) Well, He did that today, in a way I never would have dreamed. He broke down barriers. All in a way that was way beyond my own human understanding. How great is my God.

Sometimes we don't see the fruit of our prayers for years, but when I see an answer like I saw today, it encourages me to keep on praying for others that have gone on for years. Situations that seem impossible from a human standpoint are nothing to God. I love it when God told Abraham, "Is anything too hard for the LORD?" (Genesis 18:14) about Sarah bearing a son in her old age. He says it also to us, whatever situation we are in. Or what does God say through Isaiah?

"Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall; But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."
Isaiah 40:28-31

My hope cannot be in myself or my ability to affect anything, but when I put my hope in the Lord, I will never be disappointed. I still have situations that seem impossible, by human standards, for "fixing." And every time I try to "fix" them myself, they only get worse. But in prayer, I leave them at the foot of His cross, and trust that He hears. Micah promises:

"Therefore I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me." (Micah 6:7)

So, even if our situation seems impossible, if God is in it, He can move mountains, and He is glorified when we believe that He can do above and beyond what we could ask or think. Our prayer is for His will, not ours, to be done. We must not faint,but keep on believing until we see our mountains moved! "And let us not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." Galatians 6:9no