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Call Upon the Lord

LH Seed 150

//Lynette Hagin

"The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles."
—Psalm 34:17 (NKJV)

It's so wonderful to be able to call upon the Lord in prayer! It's so great to be able to come boldly into His presence! There's nothing like being in the presence of the Lord—praising Him, worshipping Him, and seeking His face. Sometimes we don't find out how desperately we need God's peace until we get into His presence!

When we say, "Heavenly Father, I just want to come into the throne room and fellowship with You," it floods our hearts with peace. There is so much our Heavenly Father wants to tell us, but we have to take the time to commune with Him. And the more we commune with Him, the more we will experience His peace.

When I began thinking about seeking the Lord in prayer, He quickened to me a verse from the Book of Psalms.

PSALM 34:10
10 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.

Are you "wanting" or lacking some good things in your life? Are you lacking peace? If you are, let me ask you this: have you been seeking the Lord?

Verse 15 in this same chapter says, "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry." I'm so thankful that His eyes are upon us and He hears us! But is there anything we have to do for His ears to be open to our cries? Let's look at the two verses before this.

PSALM 34:13–14
13 Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.
14 Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.

If we want God to hear and answer our prayers, and if we want to have His peace in our hearts, we must keep our lips from guile. It's so important to keep our lips from saying the wrong things—from saying hurtful words and spreading gossip.

Verse 17 goes on to say, "The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles." Troubles may come to all of us, but this verse says that the Lord hears our cry and delivers us. Does He deliver us out of some of our troubles? No! He delivers us out of them all!

You might say, "I've been living right. I've kept my lips from speaking guile. But when I've cried out to the Lord, He doesn't seem to hear me." Or you may be thinking, "So-and-so isn't living right, but everything he prays about comes to pass. What's wrong, Lord?

God doesn't mind if we express our true feelings to Him. He doesn't get upset if we ask Him questions. There's a big difference between asking God our honest questions and getting into the arena of questioning the Lord. Psalm 37 tells us what to do when we have those kinds of questions.

If you have been praying diligently and earnestly about something, and yet the answers haven't come, I believe the Lord is saying to you through these verses, "Rest in Me and I will bring it to pass."

In other words, don't worry or fret about that situation any longer. Just rest in Him. Hebrews 4:3 says, "We which have believed do enter into REST." When we rest, we're at peace, aren't we? Let's look at a few more verses from Hebrews chapter 4.

HEBREWS 4:14–16
14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; [Jesus knows how we feel!] but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

Verse 16 is the one I want to emphasize here.
16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.


 

God is our Helper.
All we have to do is call upon Him
and He promises to be there to help us—to meet each and every need.

We can come boldly to the throne of God, and as we do, our Father will hear our prayers and answer us. Hebrews 13:6 says, "We may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me." The Message Bible puts it this way: "God is there, ready to help; I'm fearless no matter what. Who or what can get to me?"

God is our Helper. All we have to do is call upon Him and He promises to be there to help us—to meet each and every need.

The more you call upon the Lord in prayer, the more you will walk in His peace, knowing that your Heavenly Father is listening for your cry. He is watching over you. And He is going to carry you through!

Just as we pick up our children and carry them, your Heavenly Father is right there, waiting to carry you. As you learn to rely on Him, you can rest in His peace and joy. You can relax in the arms of our Lord Jesus Christ and let Him carry you through all the rough waters of life!

When we call upon the Lord, He will refresh and restore our souls. He will heal our scars. He will erase the hurtful memories that plague us. And He will heal our emotions so they won't be a hindrance or a stumbling block that can rob us of our peace. We'll find out that it is so wonderful to call upon the Lord!