I have a book that was given to me by a dear friend when unknown to him, I was going through a pretty rough time. He told me to read it and then read it again. I have shared this book with many, many people since because it is a very small and short book, but man does it ever hit home at just the right time. It takes lessons from the experience of the Israelites around the Red Sea as the Egyptian soldiers are barreling in on them and they were certain that they were all going to be killed. The subtitle of the book is “The same God who led you in will lead you out.” Just the realization of that subtitle has been a real source of encouragement to me more than once. Do you realize that wherever you find yourself right now, at this very moment, has been ordered by God? He knows exactly where you are at and He knows exactly what your needs are. There is no better place to be than in full view of an all-loving, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-gracious, all-merciful God. Matthew Henry said: “God brings us into straits that He may bring us to our knees.” Are you on your knees yet? If not, God just might take you a little further into the strait.
I am going to share a brief portion of that book with you and it is titled Seaside Prayers. I hope that it is a blessing to you and that it causes you to see your circumstances through the eyes of God.
Some situations have offered me just two options-I could either panic or pray. My tendency is to panic, like the Israelites by the Red Sea or the disciples on the Sea of Galilee. I’ve had my share of hyperventilating, heart-racing panic attacks. But the Lord has spent years trying to show me that prayer is the means by which I can, if I choose, stay even-tempered, self-possessed, cool-headed, and strong spirited, even in crisis.
When we can’t press forward, move sideward, or step backward, it’s time to look upward and to ask God to make a way. In a time of uncertainty, the patriarch Jacob said, “Let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone” (Gen 35:3).
Referring to his days as a fugitive, David wrote, “In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried out to my God. He heard my voice from His temple” (2Sam 22:7). The writer of Psalm 107 declared,
They cry out to the Lord in their trouble,
And He brings them out of their distress.
He calms the storm,
So that its waves are still. (vv.28-29)
That’s just what happened as the Israelites cried out to God at the Red Sea, except there the waves became trembling walls of water, held back by invisible dams.
I’m not talking about our regular, daily quiet-time prayer habits, important as they are; I’m talking about crisis-time prayers. Prayers of importunity and intensity. Prayers during life-threatening, or soul-shattering events…The Israelites were in crisis in Exodus 14, and their seaside cry was urgent, united, unfeigned, but unbelieving.
The urgency of their prayer was obvious, evidenced by the verb cried. I had a friend in college who gave me a little booklet her father Cameron Thompson, had written, titled Master Secrets of Prayer. My copy is now underlined and tattered, but I treasure it and have these words underlined:
There comes a time, in spite of our soft, modern ways, when we must be desperate in prayer, when we must wrestle, when we must be outspoken, shameless and importunate. Many of the prayers recorded in Scripture are “cries,” and the Hebrew and greek words are very strong. Despite opinions to the contrary, the Bible recognizes such a thing as storming heaven-“praying through.” The fervent prayer of a righteous man is mighty in its working.
I remember such times in my own life-when my father suffered a heart attack, when a job possibility blew up in my face, when a friend was overdosing on cocaine, when my child got involved in the wrong crowd. There was little I could do except plead with God. Sometimes these prayers are prolonged. Twice in my life I’ve spent the entire night in prayer.
Other times, however, my prayers are quite short. I’ve recently learned a new prayer technique from the writings of missionary Amy Carmichael. She learned it from the famous Bible teacher Dr. F.B. Meyer, who once told her that as a young man he had been irritable and hot-tempered. An older gentleman advised him to look up at the moment of temptation and say, “Thy sweetness, Lord.”
Amy Carmichael developed many variations of that prayer. When meeting someone she didn’t like, she would silently pray, “The love, Lord.” In crisis, she’d whisper, “Thy help, Lord” or “Thy wisdom, Lord.”
Sometimes when I’m worried, I just lift my heart to heaven and say, “Lord…,” followed by the name of one for whom I’m concerned.
Looking back over the years, I’ve never faced a crisis in which, in response to earnest prayer, whether prolonged or instant, God didn’t make a way. James 5:16 tells us: “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results” (NLT). That’s the great secret of those who put their hands in the hand of the One who can part the seas.
Some of you have been praying for something for a long time. Some of you have been hyperventilating with worry and experiencing many sleepless nights. Some of you are about to give up because you just cannot take it any longer and you just do not know what to do. Have you literally been brought to your knees yet? If not, why not? Why are you so stubborn. Why is it that you spend more time feeling sorry for yourself than you do thanking God for the many blessings that He has already bestowed on you? Matthew Henry said that God has brought you to this point to drive you to your knees, so why not just drop now and cry a little bit. You don’t even have to say anything because God knows the groaning of your heart.
There is an awful lot going on in this world and quite honestly, it is hard to see an end at this time. Could it be that God is looking for His church to get on its knees and cry out to Him? I read an interesting verse in Proverbs 29:2 “When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan.” Based on that verse, who would you say is ruling? NWBC family; let’s pray! Let’s ask God to do a work in each of us first and if it be His will to use us to impact our community, we will praise Him for that. BUT, let’s take care of us first!