Welcome back again to another podcast of Struggling Well. We're glad you've joined us again this week. And I And just in my own life and in talking to other people, there are times when we wonder whether God is listening.
We wonder if he hears us in the midst of our struggles. And I'll just speak for myself. I've never heard the audible voice of God, but I do believe he hears me. sometimes that's just because of what I believe he says in his word. That's true. But recently through a another podcast I listen to, which is Lectio 365. It's a devotional out of England. they had a verse that began their particular podcast from the Psalms that I found to be fascinating and a reassurance of not just the fact that God listens, but the intensity with which he listens. And I think Suzi is going to read it from the NLT this morning to give us
eventually I will.
Yeah. Well, you always are going to do it in your own time.
Oh, I thought you were going to say in my own way because I'm I mean so mission my faces in the dictionary next to that word as you know
as I know.
Amen sister. as a result of Jimmy sharing that passage with me in the last probably week the Lord has kind of taken me on a little journey through scripture and I'm going to start in a different place because I think we'll get to the Psalms but I'm going to start you in this place because this is where it has kind of gelled for me in my mind and that is in what I think is outside of Revelation. another very difficult book which is Hebrews. And the reason why I'm going here is because that the verse that we want to share with you in Psalm 11:16 is a great verse, but I think we have to have the context of who God is for that verse to be as powerful as it's been in my life. So, I'm going to read to you Hebrews 1-4. And this is from the NLT. And this is what it says. Long ago, God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets and now in these final days, He has spoken to us through his son. Now where it becomes foundational is here. God promised everything to the son as an inheritance and through the sun he created the universe. The sun radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command. So for me in this journey through scripture in the last couple of weeks knowing who God the father is how he spoke and I mean constantly speaking to us and we always think he's being silent but he's not and then in these days he speaks in the days of writing he's he spoke through his son and he speaks through his son and through his word now so that's really important to lay out as the baseline for me because then when I go to Psalm 116 it puts in perspective this God who created who radiates the exact nature of Jesus radiates the exact nature of the father. Then he says this in Psalm 116. This is David speaking. I think it's David. I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy because he bends down to listen. I will pray as long as I have breath. Now the writers of the Old Testament had so much biblical knowledge Old Testament knowledge that had been inspired by the spirit of God and as it was happening these were things that God was going to record later on as Moses wrote so much etc. But what hit me is if I don't understand who God is then a verse like this in 116 verses 1 and two will just become a really sweet verse
but the fact that the God who sent who spoke through many many ways and then spoke through his son and then spoke through his speaks through his inspired word that God ah this blows my heart away not just my mind but my heart that God bends down to speak to me the holy God bends down and I realized too that in order for him to bend down and metaphorically or what whatever to bend down I have to be still enough for him to
Yeah. And to me I it's a great description Suzi and it's a picture to me of just the active nature of God's involvement in my life. It's not just that I'm praying to an unseen unknown God. Well, unknown in the sense that I can't see him, but that there's this sense in which the Lord is bending down to listen. There's an active nature to it.
And we've said this, there's 66 books in the Bible, but it's really just one story that God's telling through the ages. And I love later in the New Testament in Romans where Paul says this, "For whatever was written in the former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope."
So, so all the Old Testament you while everything pointed to Jesus in the Old Testament, the prophets, the law, everything pointed towards Jesus. And but there was a purpose behind it. So I go back and I read the Psalms and I could go, "Well, they were written thousands of years ago. My culture looks different than the culture of Israel in the day. what good is it? Well, Paul tells us it was there written for our instruction so that we would have endurance, which means we would stick with it, and encouragement and have hope.
So, there is a tie-in between the two things. And you did a great job of bringing those two together today.
You know, I don't we of course have no idea who listens to us and we don't know where you're at, where your struggles are. are where your joys are. But I want to leave you with this. Know who God is. Understand who you're talking about when you're praying and when you're talking about God or you're wondering where he is. The way to figure that out is to be in his word and to know him. So when I read in Hebrews that who Jesus is the exact radiant exact nature of God and then Jimmy, your part in Romans there were all of it is for our growth, edification, all of it. So when you're feeling I'm saying all that because when you're feeling like God, where are you? Why don't you answer? Go back to who he is.
Let that be what speaks to you, not your situation. And those things are big, but this what has to speak to our hearts and give us anchor points is the word of God and who God is.
Yeah. And again, I love the 116th Psalm in that verse, too, because it's a picture to me of a God who's actively involved in going in knowing what's going on in my life and is concerned for it and is with me in the midst of my struggle.
Well, we're so grateful that you listen to us. those of you that tune in, we're really thankful for that. We don't take it lightly. It's a very huge responsibility for us to rightly divide the word. We don't want to tell people things that aren't true, but we can stand with confidence on the word of God and who God is. So, thank you so much for listening.
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