answered prayer | Kristi's Morning Devotional

Here we are, the day before Christmas. So much has transpired this year and it may be that you feel like sitting down and having a good cry. It’s ok.

“You have kept record of my days of wandering. You have stored my tears in your bottle
and counted each of them. ⁹When I pray, Lord God, my enemies will retreat, because I know for certain that you are with me.” Psalm 56:8-9 CEV

Our Father has saved each tear we have cried. He knows our heart ache and has been there to give us strength, comfort and victory.

Yesterday we arrived at our campsite and it is so peaceful here. I’ve placed a few Christmas decorations on the shelves and little tables to make it festive and still keep it functionable. One daughter and son-in-law are here too and their trailer looks like a Christmas village. So cute.

After we were set up we walked to their site and a wave of sadness washed over me. I began to cry and that’s when the verse above came to mind. Each tear that I wiped from my cheeks were being kept by my Father. He was with me and I could feel His embrace.

Kept in a bottle. He cares!

He cares about you and for you.

“Hannah was brokenhearted and was crying as she prayed,…”But I do feel miserable and terribly upset. I’ve been praying all this time, telling the Lord about my problems.” ¹⁷Eli replied, “You may go home now and stop worrying. I’m sure the God of Israel will answer your prayer.” I Samuel 1:9-17 CEV

This is the account of a wife who couldn’t have children. She was heart broken and she poured out her sorrow to the Lord in prayer. Eli, the priest, saw her and was going to reprimand her because he thought she was drunk but when he heard her story he spoke words of comfort; hope for her soul that God would answer her prayer.

When we come to the Father with our heart’s deepest needs He gives us comfort and peace.

“Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God. ⁷Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand. And this peace will control the way you think and feel.” Philippians 4:6-7 CEV

He counts and bottles our tears. He takes our worry and replaces it with peace and our hearts are filled with gratitude for His loving kindness.

May I encourage you today. Give your disappointments and heartaches to the Lord and let Him replace them with joy and peace.

“May you have loving-favor and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:2 NLV

Have you ever gotten stuck in one of those phone trees – you know the ones, press 1 for billing, press 2 to change your address, press 3 for something else, press 5 for none of the above. They never give you the number to press to get a live person to talk too and then when you’ve been holding for 20-30 minutes you errantly get disconnected and have to call back and start the process over. Has to be one of the most frustrating things ever!

Or what about the GPS that you are depending on to help you navigate an unknown city. Turn here, turn there, recalculating, recalculating, recalculating!

The two verses that we are looking at this morning come from the book of Jeremiah. This book is a history of the Israelites being carried off as prisoners of the king of Babylon, their repentance while in captivity and their return to their Promised Land of Israel.

So what’s that got to with us? All Scripture is truly a letter to us from God. We can learn from what others did wrong to avoid the same pitfalls and failures that they experienced. As we look at these two verses this morning we will see that no matter how far the people of Israel went in their rebellion to God he was always reaching out to them in love.

“0 After Babylonia has been the strongest nation for seventy years, I will be kind and bring you back to Jerusalem, just as I have promised. 11 I will bless you with a future filled with hope—a future of success, not of suffering. 12 You will turn back to me and ask for help, and I will answer your prayers. 13 You will worship me with all your heart, and I will be with you” Jeremiah 29:10-13 CEV

We can learn from the Israelites. God always had a plan for them to be a great nation, His people. He had promised to protect, provide and give them victory but they became distracted and disobedient when they began to worship the false gods of the nations around them. They forgot and then ignored the plan that God had set for them.

Do you remember the very first of the 10 commandments?

“Do not worship any god except me. 4 Do not make idols that look like anything in the sky or on earth or in the ocean under the earth. 5 Don’t bow down and worship idols. I am the Lord your God, and I demand all your love. If you reject me, I will punish your families for three or four generations. 6 But if you love me and obey my laws, I will be kind to your families for thousands of generations.” Exodus 20:3-4 CEV

God’s command to worship only Him was a command for their own good and protection. He knew that if they followed other gods if would be detrimental and He didn’t want to see His people destroyed or depraved as other nations were. But God didn’t want puppets serving Him; He wanted them to serve Him out of love and not because they had no choice. God gave them a free will – the right to choose. Theirs was a bad choice and it led to their captivity.

We have a choice too. It’s important that we make the right ones, when we do we live this life that Lord reminded the people about. It is a life with a future filled with hope and blessing, a future of success and not suffering. God was reminding the Israelites and us that His plan for us is good and if we ask for help He is there to answer.

We don’t need a GPS to follow the plan God has for us we just need to call out to Him and he will direct our path.

“‘Call to Me, and I will answer you. And I will show you great and wonderful things which you do not know.’” Jeremiah 33:3 NLV

When we call out to God we don’t have to go through press 1 for this, press 5 for that and we never get stuck on hold or go to voicemail. We are instantly connected to our loving, heavenly Father. He is always there and will provide the help we need. (Remember yesterday’s verse)

Rest assured God is always there and waiting for us to call.

Tag: answered prayer

Kept in a Bottle

No GPS or Voicemail