Thursday, December 9, 2010
Looking Up to Heaven
"He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him."
—Psalm 91:15
A hardened old sea captain who was quite vocal about his atheism was swept overboard one night during a storm. His men actually heard him crying out to God for help, so after they rescued him, they asked him about it.
The captain answered, "Well, if there isn't a God, there ought to be at times like this."
The good news is that even when we have messed things up, if we call out to God, He will hear us. How easily God could tell us, "That is your problem. You deal with it." But when people cry out to Him, He is always ready to answer. God says, "He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him" (Psalm 91:15).
As Thomas Watson said, "When God lays men on their backs, then they look up to heaven."
I received a letter from someone who found herself in the midst of one of life's great storms. She felt so much despair that she was ready to take her life. But then her eight-year-old daughter asked if they could attend a Harvest Crusade, and this woman reluctantly went. When the invitation was given, she walked forward with her daughter, who wanted to commit her life to Christ. She wrote, "I went there, and I fell to my knees and I felt His love. I knew He loves me and had forgiven me." She needed God's help, and He responded to her.
When the disciples cried out to God in the midst of a storm, the Bible tells us that Jesus "arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm" (Matthew 8:26). Jesus responds to us when we call out to Him.
Copyright © 2010 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
For more relevant and biblical teaching from Pastor Greg Laurie, go to www.harvest.org
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