Irvin Wasswa- Tylertown Campus Pastor LHBC
Psalm 13:1-6
1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.
5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
6 I will sing to the Lord,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.
How long Lord? Will you forget me forever? Have you ever been in a season where you have felt that reality in your own life? Perhaps you have been seeking God, asking Him to answer prayers in your life for a long time and you have heard nothing. Maybe it is this crazy season with COVID-19 that has caused you and your family loss (income, loved ones) and you are shouting to God but it doesn’t seem as though He cares. King David the Psalmist understands being in a season of desperation and expresses such in this Psalm.
In the first few verses, David expresses his discontentment with the Lord for not hearing him. He has been crying out to the Lord to answer him and take care of a dire situation in his life. He wondered where God was in the situation. He wondered why God hadn’t intervened yet in his dire situation. In moments like these, we begin to feel like David in that it seems as though God has forgotten us. Here is the truth though: He has not forgotten you. Listen, the God of the Universe is not deaf, dormant or dead. He is alive and well, and He hears our requests and cries to Him and He answers them. So be encouraged! You can go to the Lord in prayer because He does hear and does answer!
However if we are not careful, here is where we may get tripped up. If you are like me, you can get to a place where you begin to see God as more of a genie in a bottle than the great I AM. What do I mean by that? When you go to the Lord in prayer, you desire Him to answer your wishes and demands immediately instead of trusting in Him and His plan in prayer. Remember He is God and we are not and His timing is always perfect. He knows our every need, what’s best for us and will look to meet those needs in His time. In a world of instant gratification, it’s so easy to lift up a prayer once, wait five minutes and if God has not answered it in the way we want, then we think He has forgotten us. That is not the case at all! Perhaps in this waiting season, the Lord is wanting to stretch you so your faith in Him can grow. Perhaps in the season of uncertainty, God is wanting you to pause, look up and watch Him work a miracle in you and your family’s life. He is working in our waiting, and His plan for us is greater than we could ever imagine!
Because we know that God does love and care enough about us to hear our prayers and that He will respond, our response as His children ought to be like King David’s in vs. 5-6: –RESOLVE TO TRUST THE LORD.
-REJOICE IN THE LORD.
When David cried out to the Lord in prayer, at that moment God didn’t take away His circumstance but David chose to make the decision to trust in the Lord and rejoice in Him. He was able to do these things because he remembered the faithfulness of God. He saw God work wonders in his life before and because God is the same yesterday, today and forever he believed God would move again and take care of Him. Same truth applies to us today! Resolve to trust in the Lord in spite of the uncertainty you may be facing with this COVID-19 crisis. Choose to rejoice in the Lord in the midst of your waiting because the Lord has not forgotten you. Romans 8 tells us that the Lord is for us! He’s got you!
Listen friend, keep on praying. Keep on seeking His face in these times, trusting that He hears you and rejoicing in the fact that He loves you and will respond. For He has not forgotten you. Reminds me of the chorus of a song that I heard one time:
“Your plans are still to prosper,
You have not forgotten us,
Your with us in the fire and the flood,
You are faithful forever, perfect in love
You are sovereign over us”
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for your love for me in every season of life. Thank you that even in the most dire of seasons, You are still God and are still good. Help me today to remember the truth that You have not forgotten me. You do hear my prayers and you do see my needs and look to respond to them. Help me to choose to trust in You and to learn what you may be trying to teach me in the seasons of waiting and uncertainty. Help me to choose to rejoice in You knowing that You are in control. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
SONG OF WORSHIP FOR TODAY: SOVEREIGN OVER US- SHANE AND SHANE
MEMORY VERSE OF THE WEEK:
Hosea 10:12
Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.