Good morning all!

Father, I pray when we face difficulty or troubles in life that we would call on You first. Remind us Lord that You are always the answer, a sure thing, a friend in time of need. And when life feels hard, help us to reach out to You and grab Your hand and not let go, Amen.

Isaiah 59

1 Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
Look, no matter what you’re up against the Lord’s hand can reach you and no matter how difficult you think it is to hear God will listen.

2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid [his] face from you, that he will not hear.
But your sin has separated you from God and they have hid His presence from you.

3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
You have spoken things under your breath and have thought the worst of this He knows you’re guilty.

4 None calleth for justice, nor [any] pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
None calls for justice or desires to hear truth instead they choose to make assumptions, their conception is wrong, and it produces pain.

Bottom line

When Adam and Eve were in trouble, what was the first thing they did? HID from God. I remember when I was little my brother’s and I were playing dodgeball in the house…you read that right, didn’t end well…the ball ricocheted off my brother and hit the light fixture above and it came crashing down. You know what we did? We hid the broken fixture under the bed, we were children, we were immature, we were scared. I hope you can see God is encouraging us to call on Him NOT when everything is great but when we’re in trouble, when we break things.

[Psa 46:1 KJV] God [is] our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. How present is God in our time of trouble? VERY!!! God removes all doubt where He stands when we face trouble in life, He is very PRESENT…He’s right there and He sees and hears all. You know whose hand is short? OURS, we’re short on faith and we don’t call on Him we try and handle THINGS ourselves, we might even be scared. Maybe we think the trouble we’re experiencing is beyond God or perhaps we just don’t want to include Him because we’re scared. But what if God truly is merciful and what if He’s truly NOT judgmental, what if He truly is our best friend and willing to listen and truly help? A true friend doesn’t always tell you what you want to hear but they should be there for you and help you and NOT give up on you. Would God give up? He can’t it’s NOT in His nature; God truly is a faithful friend and will always be there when we call on Him because He has our best interest at heart. Instead, we speak lies and mutter under our breath, what might we mutter? Hmm…He can’t help, He won’t help, He’s upset with me or worse He don’t care…all LIES!!!

[Mat 11:28 BBE] Come to me, all you who are troubled and weighted down with care, and I will give you rest. What is the prerequisite when we need help? COME!!! Who can come? ALL!!! Seems like God has made this extremely easy for us, and what is the result of us taking our troubles to Him? He will GIVE you rest NOT you have to earn it, work for it, nope He gives it. Verse 4 says NONE call for justice from God, why? Is it possible we think He’s gonna yell at us like our mom for breaking the light? God knows we don’t see life circumstances the way He does, this is why we need His word, His revelation, His spirit. When we ask God for justice what do you suppose we get in return?

[Psa 89:14 NIV] Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; love and faithfulness go before you. Justice is God’s foundation, it’s sure and right. He then tells us what’s coming as a result of His foundation. Love and faithfulness…because He loves us, He will show up and help us, that is God’s justice NOT a beatdown. Seriously, what would happen if your kid called you in trouble? What’s the first thing you do? Hang up on them? Discipline them? My questions are usually, are you okay and where are you? Why? A little thing called LOVE. And when we don’t call on God, we conceive pain…it’s called worry and then we birth to iniquity…it’s called being stressed out. Maybe that’s why God wants us to reach out to Him first, then we can avoid being worried and stressed out. Why worry?

[Phl 4:6 NLT] Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. Remember the Lauryn Hill song, “everything is everything…change it comes eventually” all we have to do is pray and thank Him.

Point to Ponder

Do you worship God?

[Mat 15:25 KJV] Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. Not sure what you do to worship God today but make sure you include asking Him for help when you’re in trouble…true worship.

Let’s all look for His help, In Him Phil

Faith – Family – Friends