Getting the Promise

Getting the Promise

 

Crying for attention?

Nothing in life matters

to a child who wants its father or mother!

 Jeremiah was confined under guards.

He was living in a time

when great hardships were on the people.

The Word of the Lord came to him…

a word of hope.

The first thing we see about this word

is God defines Himself as the creator of the earth.

When it seems like God has abandoned us

and we question His very existence…

We only need to look at the sky and the trees,

the wonder of all living things around us

and we can’t help but think there must be a creator.

God tells Jeremiah and the people,

 I am that Creator.

God also says that

if we call out to Him,

He will answer

and tell us great and unsearchable things.

Call – get God’s attention!

God is inviting us to get His attention!

God has always wanted to reveal His ways to us…

so why doesn’t He just do it?

Maybe it has more to do with us than Him.

There are times when it seems

we can casually call on God and He is there.

And there are other times

when we seem to be screaming

with fasting and intense prayer!

Maybe it has more to do with our attention than God’s.

It is in those times when God seems so far from me,

that I have to scream all day and night

with intense prayer and fasting,

that I realize how I can not live without Him.

It is not because I can’t fix the broken things in my life.

It’s because life itself has no meaning to me without Him.

It is when everything in life is meaningless

that God gets our full attention.

It is at this time when you think you will die,

and may even hope to,

that you long to hear Him breath. 

When your cry for Him,

becomes more then the cry for things;

you realize you love Him more than life.

In the next devotional,

let’s look for God’s answer

and see if it was worth waiting for.

Check out this Song on Youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbeIEpr4kGg

Scripture Reading

Jeremiah 33:1-4 NIV

33:1 While Jeremiah was still confined in the courtyard of the guard,

the word of the LORD came to him a second time:

2 "This is what the LORD says, he who made the earth,

the LORD who formed it and established it — the LORD is his name:

3'Call to me and I will answer you

and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.'

1 Samuel 1:5-11 NIV

5 But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her,

and the LORD had closed her womb. 6 And because the LORD had closed her womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. 7 This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD,

her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat.

8 Elkanah her husband would say to her, "Hannah, why are you weeping?

Why don't you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don't I mean more to you than ten sons?"

9 Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up.

Now Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the LORD's temple.  

10 In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the LORD.

Numbers 20:15-16 NIV

 16 but when we cried out to the LORD,

he heard our cry and sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt.

1 Samuel 9:16 NIV

I have looked upon my people, for their cry has reached me."

2 Samuel 22:7 NIV

7 In my distress I called to the LORD;

I called out to my God.

From his temple he heard my voice;

my cry came to his ears.

Psalm 3:4 NIV

4 To the LORD I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill.

Psalm 5:2-3 NIV

2 Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray.

3 In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice;

in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.

Psalm 55:17 NIV

17 Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress,

and he hears my voice.