HE
HEARS AND HE CARES
BREAD
12 “Let the beloved of the LORD
rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the LORD loves rests between his shoulders.”
Deuteronomy 33:12 (NIV)
13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain,
or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name,
will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked
ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal
their land. 15 Now my eyes will be
open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.” 2
Chronicles 7:13-15 (NIV)
20 They were helped
in fighting them, and God handed the Hagrites and all their allies over to
them, because they cried out to him during the battle. He answered their
prayers, because they trusted in him. 1 Chronicles 5:20 (NIV)
17 Unless
the LORD had given me help, I
would soon have dwelt in the silence of death. 18 When
I said, “My foot is slipping,” your love, O LORD,
supported me. 19 When anxiety
was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul. Psalm 94:17-19
(NIV)
22 Cast
your cares on the LORD and he will
sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall. Psalm 55:22 (NIV)
7 The
LORD is good, a refuge in times of
trouble. He cares for those who trust in him. Nahum 1:7 (NIV)
9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be
given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
10 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to
him who knocks, the door will be opened.” Luke 11:9-10 (NIV)
7 Cast
all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1
Peter 5:7 (NIV)
6 Do
not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And
the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts
and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians
4:6-7 (NIV)
14 This
is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according
to his will, he hears us. 15 And if
we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked
of him. 1 John 5:14-15 (NIV)
3 Another
angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much
incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar
before the throne.
4 The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand. Revelation 8:3-4 (NIV)
4 The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand. Revelation 8:3-4 (NIV)
“It is natural for us to wish and to
plan, and it is merciful of the Lord to disappoint our plans and to cross our
wishes. For we cannot be safe or happy
until we are weaned from our own wills and made simply desirous of being
directed by His guidance. Although we
understand this we seldom learn to put it into practice without being trained
for a while in the school of disappointment.
The schemes we form look so plausible and convenient that when they are
broken we are ready to say, ‘What a pity!’
We try again, and with no better success; we are grieved, and perhaps
angry, and plan another, and so on; eventually, in the course of time,
experience and observation begin to convince us that we are no more able than
we are worthy to choose correctly for ourselves. The Lord’s invitation to cast our cares upon
Him, and His promise to take care of us, appear valuable; and when we have done
planning, His plan in our favor gradually opens, and He does more and better
for us than we could either ask or think.
I can hardly recollect a single plan of mine, which if it had taken
place in the time and the way I wanted would, humanly speaking, have proved my
ruin; or at least would have deprived me of the greater good the Lord had
designed for me. We judge things by their
present appearance; but the Lord sees them in their consequences. If we could do the same we would be perfectly
of His mind; but since we can’t, it is an unspeakable mercy that He will manage
for us, whether we are pleased with His management or not; and it is regarded
as one of His heaviest judgments when He gives any person up to the way of
their own hearts, and to walk according to their own wisdom.” John
Newton
“The
fact of Jesus’ coming is the final and unanswerable proof that God cares.” William
Barclay
“Grace is
love that cares and stoops and rescues.”
John R W. Stott
“He was the most
balanced and perhaps the most beloved being ever to enter the society of
men. Though born amid most disgusting
surroundings, the member of a modest working family, He bore Himself always
with great dignity and assurance. Though
He enjoyed no special advantages as a child, either in education or employment,
His entire philosophy and outlook on life were the highest standards of human
conduct ever set before mankind. Though
He had no vast economic assets, political power or military might, no other
person ever made such an enormous impact on the world’s history. Because of Him……..people have come into a
life of decency and honor and noble conduct………He came to set men free from
their own sins, their own selves, their own fears. Those so liberated loved Him with fierce
loyalty. It is this One who insists that
He was the Good Shepherd, the understanding Shepherd, the concerned Shepherd
who cares enough to seek out and save and restore lost men and women.” Phillip
Keller
“Inauspiciously, a
prayer meeting in Antioch in Acts 13:1-3 became one of the most important
moments in the history of the world. With their prayers and fasting, the church
leaders said, God, we want your provision, not our small plans. We want your
abundance, not our small-mindedness. We want more than we know how to ask, more
than we can think, more than we could expect, more than we can dream. We want
you, God. We’re not satisfied with abilities and experience and what we can
plan on our own and do apart from you. We want you and your leading. We don’t
want to lean on our own understanding.” David Mathis
“Groanings which cannot be uttered are often prayers which
cannot be refused.” Charles
H. Spurgeon
“My life is but a weaving between my God
and me. I cannot choose the colors He
weaveth steadily. Oft’ times He weaveth
sorrow; and I in foolish pride forget He sees the upper and I the
underside. Not ‘til the loom is silent
and the shuttles cease to fly will God unroll the canvas and reveal the reason
why. The dark threads are as needful in
the weaver’s skillful hand as the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He
has planned. He knows, He loves, He
cares; Nothing this truth can dim. He
gives the very best to those who leave the choice to Him.” Corrie ten Boom
“Wait upon Me. Let your life be
as a deep, quiet pool. Let your heart
rest in My hand as a bird in a nest. Let
your eyes be still. Let your hands be
free. For then I shall fill all your
vision, and then I shall take your hands into Mine and My power shall flow
forth into you….Only be still before Me.
Never let the toils and cares of the day rob you of this sweet
fellowship with Me….I am actively engaged in working for you in ways you cannot
see, to make your path clear, and to bring about things you could never
accomplish, and which would otherwise absorb your energies and wear out your
patience….O Lord, what shame that You should need to beg us thus! Better that others might find us unavailable
because of our occupation with You, rather than for us to be so slow to come,
so dull to hear, so cold of heart, so indolent of soul….Grant this one prayer
more, O Lord, that You would give us all that is lacking in us; intensify our
hunger and fire our devotion; take the indifference from our spirits; and have
within us Your wonderful way and perfect will, O God, we pray. Amen.”
Frances J. Roberts
“Keep bringing your prayers to God. If you think your
request is legitimate, keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. God wants to
teach us through persistent praying to wait on Him and to watch. While we're
praying and waiting for God to answer our prayers, do you know what He's
doing? He's working on us, conforming us more and more to the image of Christ.
And when we're ready, the answer will surely come.” David
Jeremiah
“Walk on the path of integrity with confidence, and show that you are
invincibly strong in the strength that confidence in God alone confers. In this
way you will be delivered from anxious care; you will be untroubled by evil
tidings, and your heart will be fixed, trusting in the Lord. How pleasant to
float along on the stream of providence! There is no more blessed way of living
than a life of dependence upon a covenant-keeping God. We do not need to worry
because He cares for us; we do not need to carry burdens because He invites us
to cast them upon Him.” Charles H. Spurgeon
HEART SAVOR
·
God both
hears our prayers and cares.
·
What He
allows in our lives is used to conform us into the image of His precious Son –
and that my dear friends is the most excellent way for our life.
·
Cease
anxiety and “pray without ceasing”.
