Hearts, hands and voices reach out to God.
There’s a yearning, a desperate need to be heard.
To have our needs fulfilled.
And so often it feels like we come up empty.
Prayers appear to go unanswered.
Hopes are dashed.
We droop with disappointment and discouragement.
But could it be that we fail to receive because we fail to fully believe He will answer?
Missed careful study of His word to see what He has already said about this issue.
Been impatient, failed to linger in His Presence long enough to hear a response.
Or we’ve already worked out just how the answer will look, and This. Isn’t. It.
And in our haste to have answers, we can so easily forget that God often uses our confusion and pain to rouse us into deeper dependence on Him.
God has already spoken fully through Jesus, the living Word of God Incarnate.
He speaks still in hearts receptive to His voice and surrendered to His will and ways.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” ~ Isaiah 55:9
In pondering this, here are my best ‘five-minute-friday’ thoughts on ‘Reach’:
‘Reaching out’
Sometimes answers to prayer feel out of reach
no matter what we say, think, pray or preach
It feels like something could be missing
or maybe we’re not too good at listening
Failing to heed Your written word
or receive its wisdom seen and heard
Yet, there are many ways in which You reach out
with love and goodness in a whisper, not a shout,
Soft breaths fall as dew in the morning air
as manna drops to feed us, and to share
We are never left empty or alone
because in every heart You make a home
And Your arms were impaled, pierced to a tree
to reach out to all suffering humanity
Revealing Your forgiveness, grace and love
as they poured like wine from heaven above
So as we sit and ponder, rush and hurry,
there is really no need for us to worry
You hear and answer every prayer
with Wait, Yes, No, I am here
©JoyLenton2014
Linking here with Kate for #FMF (as we write freely for five minutes flat, with the joy of abandoning perfection) about ‘Reach’, and with Jennifer as we reach out to encourage one another and #tellhisstory in the process. You are warmly invited and encouraged to join in.
Poetry Joy 