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The Devo:

Unanswered Not Unheard

Psalm 18:6 In my distress I called upon the Lord, to my God I cried for help. From His temple He heard my voice and my cry to Him reached His ears.”

Have you ever been so full of disappointment and been so heartbroken that you can't even settle yourself to pray. The emotions of what you are walking through in the moment are overwhelming and overshadowing every other thing in your life.

Trust me you're not alone, every believer has had pain and disappointment, we've prayed for healing and watched our loved one die instead, we prayed for restoration of a marriage only to get divorced, we prayed for that promotion at work only to be laid off. These are the types of things that can shake us to the core, the very things that the enemy would want to use to cause us to run away from God and stop praying, throwing our hands up in the air saying,“what difference does it make”.

One of the biggest challenges we will face in our Christian walk is holding on to hope and being persistent in prayer when we are hurting. True prayer does not mean pretending everything is OK, it means bringing your heart as it is before the Lord. It is telling the Lord exactly how you feel.

It is not faithlessness, it’s intimacy.

It is laying bare the pain and disappointment before Him and allowing Him into the deepest places inside of you. One of my favorite stories in the bible is found in 1 Samuel 1:13, “Hannah was praying in her heart silently. Her lips moved but no sound was heard”. Eli jumped to the conclusion that she was drunk and told her to sober up. She replied to Eli in verse 16 saying “Don't for a minute think I'm a bad woman. It's because I'm so desperately unhappy and in such pain that I've stayed here so long”. Another version says, “I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief”.

The Lord is well able to handle your pain, your disappointment and your heartache. There is not a better place to take all of it, than to the Lord in prayer. I remember the first months after my husband died, and I was experiencing grief unlike any I had known. I had lost my dad years before, but it did not compare to what I was experiencing with losing my husband. I was also watching my son, who was just tuning 12 years old suffer the loss of his dad.

There are no words for that level of pain and anguish. I clearly recall, sitting one morning and saying “Lord, I don’t understand, I don’t think I am going to make it. I can’t do this. I have so many questions”. For weeks I did not pray anything specific, I did not pray for anyone of the many needs in the lives of the people I loved, I was too filled with grief and anguish, much like Hannah.

It was in these initial months when I sat before Him in my overwhelming grief, that slowly and surely His presence began to surround me. There were times it was like I felt His comfort, like being totally emersed and surrounded by warmth and light and love.

In the height of my grief and with a long list of unanswered questions, I began to recite what I knew to be true about my God.

I reminded myself of all the ways He has been what a needed over the many years I had walked with him. He was my provider, my sustainer, my strength, my helper and many other things. In my season of grief, He heard my anguish and heartache and revealed Himself as my Comforter and in that season, He revealed the Father to me in a way I had never known. Dear friend, you can trust God even when you don’t understand, when the pain is unbearable, when you are filled with disappointment. Don’t run from Him because you are hurting, run into Him with all of it, and see what He does.

Declaration:  Take a minute a decare who you know God to be from the list below or from your own thoughts. 

The LORD is the strength of my life. (Psalm 27:1) He is my peace. (Eph 2:14), my exceeding Joy! (Psalm 43:4).

He is the LORD who heals me. (Exodus 15:26), my ROCK. (Psalm 18:2) and my LIGHT. (Psalm 27:1)

GREATER is He that is in me than he that is in the world. 1 John 4:4

The LORD is my provider! (Genesis 22:14), my delilverer! and my shield (Psalm 18:2).

He will never leave me nor forsake me. The LORD is my helper. (Hebrews 13:5-6)

The LORD is my victory! (Exodus 17:15)

Let's light up our world : Digital Postcards

Note: It's easiest to do this part from your phone if you are going to use texting or social media to send it. If you are using a computer it is best to email or telegram the postcard.

1. Pick one of the Postcards. 2. Ask Holy Spirit who this is for? 3. Look at the card and ask Holy Spirit for a word of encouragement for them.  4. Send the postcard with the word of encouragement.

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