The Mental Battle
Is Anyone Listening?
God, listen! Listen to my prayer, listen to the pain in my cries. Don’t turn your back to me just when I need you so desperately. Pay attention! This is a cry for help and hurry, this can’t wait! I’m wasting away to nothing. I’m burning up with fever. I’m a ghost of my former self, and half-consumed already by terminal illness. My jaws ache from gritting my teeth. I’m nothing but skin and bones.
Does this sound like you? It really was exactly how I was feeling, but I didn’t write this. It is Psalm 103:1-5. Isn’t it amazing how this was written so long ago and it still rings true today? I prayed these words and many more like them during the cancer battle.
I don’t claim to really understand how prayer works, but I knew that calling to the God who created it all was the only way to find help. (Psalm 121:2 My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.) Just as a baby looks to his parent to feed him, I called to my maker to feed my soul. I don’t know if prayer changes God’s mind or just changes our attitude and focus. The answer may not always be “yes,” but I do know that prayers always get answered. Sometimes the answer is an immediate “yes.” Sometimes the answer is to wait. (And, it may not be just a minute you have to wait.) At other times the answer is “no.” I can’t predict the answer, but I’m not going to stop asking.
I try to remind myself that God is sovereign and He knows what is best (Genesis 22:13, 16:13, Psalm 100:1) and I am promised that “He won’t dismiss our prayer”. (Psalm 102:17)
So, keep on crying out to your maker. I pray he will send you peace and healing!
Psalm 102:1, 2 Hear my prayer, O Lord. Let my cry for help come to you. Do not hide your face from me when I am in distress. Turn your ear to me when I call, answer me quickly.
Nehemiah 1:6 Lord, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night.
Psalm 4:3 The Lord will hear when I call to him.
James 5:15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well: the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.
Romans 12:2 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Psalm 116:1-2 I love the Lord, for he has heard my voice, he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.
Psalm 138:3 When I called, you answered.
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