The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears
The prayer I prayed most this year is adapted from Psalm 25:22 : “Deliver the Mendes family from all our troubles.” I even wrote a reading plan about it on the YouVersion Bible App, called Pray, Lament, Worship and Repent with Psalm 25 !
And though this year was definitely not without its troubles, in one very unique and unexpected way, God answered this prayer for one of our family members: our son Zac. Because, although his passing away falls under the category of “troubles” for Jenny and me, Zac himself is now free from all the relentless and severe suffering his medical condition inflicted on him. He was freed from all his earthly troubles the moment he went to be with Jesus.
In my favourite daily devotional–The Bible in One Year by Nicky and Pippa Gumbel –Nicky Gumbel describes how he writes down his troubles in the margins of his Bible next to Psalm 34:15-17:
The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their cry […] The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, And delivers them out of all their troubles. – Psalms 34:15-17 NKJV
Then every year, when he reaches that passage, he looks back over the years and their various troubles and sees how God has delivered him. It encourages him to cry out again.
So, on this second day of contemplations, I want you to ask yourself this: What (or who) did I pray for the most often (or, the most urgently) during this past year?
Our prayer life reveals a great deal about what truly matters to us. You may have a prayer journal you can read through, or look back through old notes or text messages. What have you been praying for this year?
Have you seen any answers to those prayers? Maybe in unexpected ways?
