The Power of Crying Out!

THE SINCERE CRY

The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. PS. 145:18

DAVID COULD SAY TO THE LORD, "Attend to my cry; give ear to my prayer which is not from deceitful lips. "Ps. 17:1 His cry was sincere.

What does such a cry represent?

A sincere cry to God, particularly during a time of great need or crisis, often represents many qualities and attitudes that God has promised to honor.

HUMILITY

To cry out with a loud voice for help--with the unleashing of emotion that often comes with it can be a humbling experience. that's why we often resist it. We tend to be proud; we want people to think we're competent and that we've "got it all together." We don't like to admit we have a problem, much less publicly acknowledge our need for outside help to resolve it. But such pride causes God to turn away His face-"God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6

God resists the proud because pride is our attempt to be equal with God, and it's in direct opposition to all He wants to do in and through our lives. Pride is reserving for ourselves the right to make final decisions.

Pride is building our life around ourselves… with the cry of humility, we turn that right over to God with no strings attached.

Pride is believing our accomplishments and successes are due to what we achieve... with the cry of humility, we center our lives around God.

Pride tries to project a polished image of competence and confidence... with the cry of humility, we show our dependence on what God does for us and through us.

The first quality Jesus taught His followers to cultivate was humility---to be "poor in spirit." Mt 5:3 The Greek term He used depicts a roadside beggar earnestly looking to others for daily provisions. It's the quality that won the commendation of Jesus for a tax collector, as with downcast eyes this man beat his breast and cried out, "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" Lk. 18:13

God "does not forget the cry of the humble." Ps. 9:12

One day I was speaking with a teenager who had been entrusted to us from a juvenile court. I urged him to make a commitment to obey a certain command of Scripture. He replied, "No."

I asked him why not, and he gave a good and honest answer: "Because I know I couldn't keep my commitment."

He was right. It's only by abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ and by God's grace and the power of His Spirit that we have the desire or ability to carry out God's will.

In that moment, I remembered God's promise that He resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. So I asked the teenager if he would be willing to find ways each day to humble himself, so that he would not resist God's grace to carry out the commitment to obey Him.

He was willing. In fact, we both got on our knees and told God that each day we would look for ways to humble ourselves before Him.

Since that day, I’ve begun each day getting on my face before God and acknowledging my total unworthiness and inability to do anything for Him. Then I ask him to work in and through me.

"Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God," Scripture says, "that he may exalt you in due time." 1 Peter 5:6 I have learned by painful experience that if I do not humble myself, God has many others who will "volunteer" to do it for me.

ACKNOWLEDGED WEAKNESS

A sincere cry to God is an open declaration that we're incapable of dealing with a particular situation, and that we're in desperate need of His help. To cry out is to expressly acknowledge that the problem I'm facing is greater than the wisdom, ability, or strength I possess. God delights to show His strength when we acknowledge such weakness.

An impossible crisis is often necessary to bring us to the end of our self-confidence and self-effort. As long as we struggle to solve our problems ourselves, the Lord stands by and waits, just as someone who wants to rescue a drowning person is instructed to wait until that person stops struggling, and only then is the rescuer able to pull him to shore. God allows times of crisis into our lives to remind us of our human weakness and His divine power. He wants us to cry out to Him for His supernatural work.

The more things look hopeless, the greater the possibility of God's intervention in answer to our cry; because He gets greater glory. Again and again in Scripture, the miracles of God occur in circumstances of human hopelessness.

Oh that evening when the wind and the waves so terrified the disciples in their boat, it's amazing that Jesus didn't rise up on His own and calm the storm at once, but instead waited until the disciples cried out for help. This is the Lord's pattern and program to keep us in close fellowship with Him and His power. He knows we don't do well with ease and prosperity. We try to become independent and live as if we don't need God.

He may allow us to keep indulging in such self-delusions and may even give us the desires of our hearts-though with "leanness" to our souls as well. But eventually we face a crisis that we recognize is clearly beyond our ability to handle. Though Satan will try to use such a situation to make us angry and bitter, God designs these "storms" to bring us back to fellowship with Him. These demanding and discouraging circumstances actually show us God's power and love as He waits for us to cry out to Him.

from The Power of Crying Out: When Prayer Becomes Mighty by Bill Gothard