S214P8 – The cry in faith: a remembrance of answers

Psa. 22:22-24

I will declare your name to my people; in the assembly I will praise you. You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel! For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.

The human mind can be incredibly brilliant.  It also can be unbelievably unreliable.  Forgetfulness impacts us in different ways.  Over time, information and events which once were at the forefront of our minds slowly fade away.  I can remember speaking to certain people about prayers I have offered to God that remain unanswered for long periods of time.  Usually, those conversations turned to questions about how God operates and how prayer works.  I have been reminded in some of those conversations that God has delivered me from very similar circumstances in the past.  The problem is that I have forgotten some of those answered prayers.  It takes someone else to remind me that God already has shown his faithfulness in that area.

David’s prayer might seem schizophrenic, but there is a purpose to his transition.  As he is speaking of the threats against him and asking God to deliver him, he switches gears and starts speaking of how he will tell others of God’s faithfulness.  God has not yet answered his prayers and delivered him, but David remembers God delivering others the same way he is requesting.  This is not even about David proclaiming how God delivered him in the past.  Whether the saved child is David or anyone else who has loved the Lord, he knows that God has come through time and again in this very situation.  These are not cries that will go unanswered.  He is already preparing to celebrate his deliverance publicly because the God he serves is one who delivers.

Sometimes after praying for something I think about how awesome it will be to see how God answers that prayer.  David is doing something similar here, except he is thinking about how awesome it will be to talk about how God answered that prayer because God will answer that prayer.  A big part of our faith is being reminded of the character of God through his words and actions.  The Holy Spirit reminds us of the scriptures, and He will remind us of God’s faithfulness.  When we pray for help, we can draw on those reminders to confess that God has moved before and certainly will move again.  Father, inject our prayers with reminders of how You already have been faithful to answer the cries of your children.