We live in a wild and wondrous world. Last Friday night we received 2.6 inches of rain between 11 P.M. and 11:40 P.M at our house. We live on the edge of the Rockies, the high plains. It’s semi-arid here. We receive only 8-15 inches a year normally. But when a storm develops in the mountains and rolls over the front range it is often fierce. We woke to the racket of hail and rain pounding the trees and house with unrelenting fists. Lighting flashed like a million exploding bulbs. Each thunder clap shook the house. I ran through the house checking all windows and doors and gutters, praying our puny home would withstand the massive storm. It did, mostly. Not all storms are physical. And they last longer than forty minutes. We’ve been in just such a storm for the last two years. We’re not built to withstand that kind of pummeling. This is why God invented prayer. Prayer offers us the ear of God and hope in the storms of life.
God of Hope:
A hurricane of hurt and worry rages round us.
Danger and disease, doubt and distrust roars.
We’ve thrown all we have at the waves.
But the storm never abates.
Our lives are swamped, capsized, sunk.
Or we’re hold up in the harbor.
Anchored by fear.
Alone together, reluctantly waiting for heaven.
God with us:
And You’re napping.
How can You sleep?
Don’t You care?
Please wake.
Rise above our storms.
Speak an end to this.
Quiet not only the outer tempest,
But our gale-driven hearts,
Our squalling minds,
And our striven spirits.
We long to hear
Your eternal voice whisper,
“Quiet, be still.”
More prayers for you to send to God: Sunday Psalm: Disarming Fake Hope through the Way, Truth, and Life, Finding Desperate Hope in a 3,000 Year Old Prayer and some thoughts on hope: Two Hopeful Truths about God Healing your Spiritual and Emotional Wounds, How Philip Yancey’s Powerful Memoir, “Where the Light Fell,” Can Give you Honest Hope
I was reminded of the worship song, “Hide Me in Your Holiness”,… which is from Psalm 27:5 ~
Psalm 27:4-6
4 “One thing I have desired of the Lord,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,
And to inquire in His temple.
5 “For in the time of trouble
He shall hide me in His pavilion;
In the secret place of His tabernacle
He shall hide me;
He shall set me high upon a rock.
6 “And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me;
Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle;
I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.”