He's Listening! He's Really Listening!

As part of my personal journey during Lent, I went to my bookshelves and pulled down a book I've owned for years but never carefully read. (I have thousands of books that would fall into this category.) The book God led me to is: SEASONS OF PRAYER: Rediscovering Classics Prayers Through the Christian Calendar by Donna Fletcher Crow (Beacon Hill Press, 2000).

Today the chapter I read "The Dark Night of the Soul: Good Friday" resonated deeply. But it is this particular story which Donna tells that so many of us can identify with. Donna is asking her friend, Saundra, who has nine children: What do you do when your baby won't sleep through the night? Saundra's response was:

"I get up with them. You know, you don't really lose that much sleep and sometimes that's the only time I have in the whole day to be alone with that baby and cuddle it. But you can spoil them. I did that with Travis. He was getting me up at 5:30 every morning for a playtime. It was my fault, but he had to suffer for it when it came time that we had to cry it out.

"I lay in the next room listening to him and cried right along with him. But you know, the Lord showed me something really special--Travis didn't know I was in the next room suffering with him, but I was.

“Sometimes I don't know where God is when I have a problem, but He's right in the next room crying with me."

And so must God the Father have cried when His Son was alone on the Cross, abandoned to our sins. But God was faithful.

Easter morning followed Good Friday. Morning sunrise follows the dark of midnight. Springtime flowers burst forth after the coldest winter. God is always faithful. No matter what despair we may experience, we can rely on God's faithfulness (pages 67-68).

And once again God pointed me to His confirmation of this truth in Psalm 22:24-27 New Living Translation):

For he has not ignored the suffering of the needy.
He has not turned and walked away.
He has listened to their cries for help.

The poor will eat and be satisfied.
All who seek the LORD will praise him.
Their hearts will rejoice with everlasting joy.
The whole earth will acknowledge the LORD and return to him.
People from every nation will bow down before him.
For the LORD is king!
He rules all the nations.

“Thank you, Jesus, that you haven’t left us to cry alone. That you do bring deliverance to which we can give public testimony. God, thank you that you come to us in the quiet moments when we are hurting. Because of your compassionate faithfulness, we are assured that you are listening and will come to our rescue."