Praying For Rescue

“During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.” (Exodus 2:23–25 ESV)

If you’ve read here for any length of time, you will know that I openly admit a have a problem with prayer.

There seems to be such a small correlation between prayers prayed and answers received that the process becomes an exercise in futility.

That sounds blasphemous, but it’s a reality for a lot of us.

We need encouragement to keep asking, seeking, and knocking and I’m going to offer a bit from this passage.

First of all, thank God that your futility hasn’t lasted 400 years as it had for the children of Israel.

A lot of Hebrew slaves had died with a prayer for deliverance on their lips.

Suddenly, God decided to act and this passage tells us something about the way He acted that might encourage us today.

The passage tells us that in four words…He heard, He remembered, He saw, and He knew.

First, he heard.

He heard their groanings and probably some bitter complaints that He wasn’t listening at all…he heard their cries for help, for rescue.

He hears yours as well.

Then He remembered  His covenant with their fathers…the promises that He had made to His people.

We need to remember that all of the promises of God are “yes and amen” in Christ and pray those promises back to God.

He saw…He ‘s aware of where you’re at and what you’re going through…your suffering is not outside of His notice.

He knew…a better translation would be He was concerned…you matter to Him.

The result of God hearing, remembering,seeing, and knowing was that He acted…He sent a deliverer to rescue His people.

He sent one to deliver us, the Lord Jesus Christ and you have been and will be delivered as well.

Keep praying, my friends…