Help from Heaven

Into my head comes a song I learned at church as a child. It is called “My God Loves Me” and I wonder if there is someone reading this who really needs to soak I these words today:

My God loves me.
His love will never end.
He rests within my heart
for my God loves me.
His gentle hand
he stretches over me.
Though storm-clouds threaten the day
he will set me free.

He comes to me
in sharing bread and wine.
He brings me life that will reach
past the end of time.

My God loves me,
his faithful love endures.
And I will live like a child
held in love secure.

The joys of love
as offerings now we bring.
The pains of love will be lost
in the praise we sing.

 
One of the wonderful things about listening to and singing songs of worship is the affirmation it brings to us. I truly hope that as you read the words of this song you will know the truth it contains. God loves you! 

Sometimes we have doubts and failures and times when it feels like life is terrible and “what’s the point?” Welcome to the human condition! But, still, God loves you.

In those dark times, cling to the knowledge of God’s love and cry out to God to deliver you from the despair and doubt that you are wrestling with.

King David, in fear for his life, wrote these words (in Psalm 57):
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy!
I look to you for protection.
I will hide beneath the shadow of your wings
until the danger passes by.
I cry out to God Most High,
who will fulfil his purpose for me.
He will send help from heaven to rescue me,
disgracing those who hound me.
 
Maybe today it feels like you, or someone you know, needs “help from heaven” to rescue them. Are you—will you—pray for them? Prayer is such a powerful thing. It can certainly change the person doing the praying, but I am convinced it does more than that. I am convinced that God, if he chooses, can intervene directly in response to faithful prayer. It seems that Jesus did too!

In my own dark times, I often think of the apostle Simon Peter and his denying three times that he even knew Jesus—as Jesus had foretold. How desperate Simon Peter must have felt when, despite his protestations, he found himself doing just that after Jesus was arrested. How deeply sad and distressed he must have been when Jesus looked directly at him as the cock crowed after the third denial! And yet, when Jesus told Simon Peter about what would happen, he had also said this (italics mine):

“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

When Simon Peter failed, Jesus’ love for him did not. Jesus prayed for him and from the depths of failure, Peter rose in faith to become more than he could ever have imagined.  Let’s pray!