You Are Not Alone

One of the thoughts for this week was found in Psalm 69:13, 18 …”My prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love, answer me … Draw near to me, redeem me, set me free”. Have you ever prayed something like that to God? I have … more often than I’d like to count. No, I don’t sound like that when I pray. My prayers are tend to be more in the form of questions … such as “Why am I going through this”? Or “when will this end”? Or “Ok … I get it. Lesson learned. Can we move on”? Honestly, I’ve found myself praying those exact prayers this week.

The lesson I learned through this reading addresses grief, sadness and often isolation. David is writing to God and he is tired and alone. As the leader, his kingdom is a mess. Partly because of David’s own decisions but also because of his people and the choices they are making. He is in great emotional distress. David looks to God and asks God for an answer. David is essentially putting to ball back in God’s court. He is acknowledging that it is not acceptable for David to act like a child and demand that something be done … right now. I know myself and I wouldn’t be so patient. I would probably ask God to send a few lightning bolts down to shake things up a bit. Ok, maybe that isn’t the right approach, but sometimes it makes you feel better. :)

Instead of stomping his foot (I’m sure he has tried that before and saw he didn’t get positive results), David asks God to do something at an “acceptable time”. David is asking to be heard. He is asking not to be dismissed. He desperately wants God to surround him during his time of sadness and to fix whatever is broken inside of David. Note that David is not asking for God to “zap” the other people. Instead David is asking to be drawn close to God, redeemed and then set free.

I don’t like to be sad. I don’t like to feel isolated or alone. Sometimes it happens because of the choices I’ve made and sometimes it is because God is trying to teach me something. Much like my post last week, when God is trying to teach me something, I know that there is a “change” involved. Almost always, it is a change that needs to happen inside of me. So after a week of asking God if we can “move on”, I’m learning that sometimes God’s answer is “not yet … wait”. While I may not like the answer, I know He isn’t going anyway and that I’m not alone. God promised to never leave me and I’m holding Him to His promise.

So if you’d had a bad week or you are in the middle of some kind of emotional, financial, physical or relationship distress, look around you. You are not alone. Ask God to draw you near Him. I promise, you will find peace.