Is God Trying to Tell Me Something??

I received two devotionals via email today that were very similar, and it made me wonder if God was trying to tell me something. Here is the first devotional I read from my Proverbs 31 (http://proverbs31.gospelcom.net/) email:

Have you ever grown frustrated with God over situations in your life? Have you gone to Him and poured out those feelings in prayer?

If so, you’ll be able to relate to the prophet Habakkuk, who lived roughly 600 years before Christ. His book of the Bible begins with this complaint: “How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save me. Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong?” (Hab.1:2-3, NIV).

God answered Habakkuk by telling him to be patient and to watch, that He will do amazing things and usher in justice – but only in His timing.

Passionate, honest, gut-level prayers have been recorded through out the Bible. Habakkuk wasn’t the only one to complain. Moses, Gideon, and Elijah all questioned God. Job even cursed the day God made him and said, “I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.” (Job 10:1, NIV).

In his anguish, Job accused God of afflicting people for no reason (Job 9:17), overwhelming them with misery (Job 9:18), and not caring about injustice (Job 9:22, 24). Job even wondered if maybe God was laughing at the pain of the innocent (Job 9:22). None of these accusations are accurate – far from it – but we can sometimes feel that way in times of severe suffering or testing. God knows our deepest thoughts and feelings, so it’s futile to think we can hide them from Him. Better to come clean with how we really feel, get it off our chest in prayer, and hopefully clear the way to hear and receive God’s reply or comfort.

I’ve complained to God in the past for allowing my loved ones to die or fall deep into sin, for allowing valuable things to be stolen from me, for allowing my reputation to be unfairly tarnished, for allowing physical suffering in my body, or for not allowing what I felt I deserved. My goal is to be a woman of faith who can take such things in stride with Him. But when I’m losing that stride, I’ve found the best thing I can do is honestly take these feelings to God where they can be traded for His perspective and His comforting assurance.

Though God does not always change my circumstances the way I want Him to, He can and does change my perspective on those circumstances – enabling me to endure them.

God listens when we complain about injustice. He understands when we feel shortchanged or opposed. Read through the gospel accounts of Jesus’ life and you’ll be reminded of just how much Jesus can relate to undeserved opposition!

Be honest before God in prayer today. While maintaining a holy respect for Him and thanksgiving for His saving grace, pour out the good, the bad and the ugly of your feelings. As Habakkuk, Job and others discovered, God can handle our intense emotions and questions. He may not explain Himself fully to us – perhaps because we can’t fully understand – but He will flood us with His love when we come humbly and honestly before Him and pour out our heart.


After reading that devotional, I opened up my daily devotional from Way FM (http://waym.wayfm.com/):

I don't even have the words to pray.

Have you ever sat down to pray, and didn’t know what to say? How do you pray when you’re angry with God? When circumstances are so out of control that you don’t even know what to ask for? Thankfully, God has given us the gift of His Holy Spirit.When we don’t know what to pray for, the Spirit will speak to God for us. God knows our hearts and minds, and exactly what we are going through. So even if you sit in silence and throw your hands in the air because you don’t know what to do, or if you just cry or scream, God hears you. He understands and knows exactly what you need.

Romans 8:26-27
And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers harmony with God’s own will.

I don't know about you, but I found these two devotionals to be very similar. They both talked about crying out to God and being angry or not even knowing what to say or how to pray. For me personally, I THINK everything is A-OK in my little part of the world right now, but I do think a lot these days about the "bigger picture" of all the craziness going on in the world around me. There are times when I am at a loss for words when I try to pray to God about our current world situation. It just seems like there is SO MUCH to pray for that I don't even know how or where to begin. There are things that can make me sad, angry, and bitter if I let them, but I have to CHOOSE daily to hand things over to God because HE IS IN CHARGE. HE KNOWS what is happening in our world today. HE KNOWS how depserate people are all over the world. HE KNOWS the hell that people live in on a daily basis. I may not know how to pray about such things, but I can rest assured that GOD CARES and that despite everything HE IS IN CONTROL.