This post is part of a 40-Day Prayer Journey through the season of Lent. Click here to learn more.
“Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me” (Psalm 50:15).
What do you consider “the day of trouble”?
How bad do things have to get before you fall to your knees and ask God for help and deliverance from your problems?
In another post on this very same verse, I mentioned that going to God is often my last resort.
God wants to be our first choice when seeking comfort, help, and aid from our troubles. He wants us to call on him every day, even if we called on him for help about that very same thing the day before—or even earlier that day.
Why? Because God is our heavenly Father through faith in our Savior Jesus. He loves us dearly and delights in answering our prayers in the way he knows best.
Now, as I write this post, I think of my one-year-old daughter.
Whenever she needs help, she’ll raise her hands above her head. She could need my wife or me to help her tear apart her Velcro play food, or she could need help getting up on the couch. It doesn’t matter to her if she’s asked for help with that thing a hundred times or even a thousand times beforehand; each time, she raises her hands asking for help and she knows without a doubt that she’ll get it from us.
Why? Because we’re her parents. She’s our daughter and we love her very much. We want to help her—whether that’s doing something for her or helping her see how she can do it on her own.
Dear Christian, you’re God’s dearly loved child. He wants to help you in all of your troubles.
First and foremost, God reminds you in his Word and sacraments of what he has already done for you in sending Jesus to rescue you from your sins—something you could not do on your own. Jesus’ perfect life is yours. His righteousness is yours. Forgiveness and life eternal are yours.
God wants you to call on him in your troubles, whatever they may be. He wants you to pray to him. He promises to hear and answer your prayers in the way he knows is best for you.
What will God’s deliverance look like? Only he knows for sure.
He might answer your prayer in the way that you hope, delivering you from the specific trouble you’re praying about. Or, in his infinite wisdom, his response might be similar to what he reminded the apostle Paul of when he was asking for relief:
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
No matter the troubles you’re facing today, call on your heavenly Father, knowing that he will hear and answer you. Focus on his love for you. Focus on what he has done for you through your Savior Jesus.
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Alex Brown is the marketing and content copywriter at Northwestern Publishing House. He has his Master of Divinity degree from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and enjoys reading, writing, and spending time in God’s creation.
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