‘Call to Me, and I will answer you,

and show you great and mighty things,

which you do not know.’

Jeremiah 33:3

When my heart is aching, my soul is quaking

knees buckling to the floor

tears are falling, life is stalling

there’s no fight within anymore

 

Only one way to go, one person I know

who can save me from this pit

darkness will flee, enemies defeat

when I call on the name of my Lord.

 

My Redeemer, my Savior,

my Righteous Right Hand

my Shelter, my Comfort

in Him alone I will stand.

 

When depression persists, heartache insists

and I know I can’t take anymore

I will call upon Him, in prayer I’ll depend

on His help to make my way sure.

 

~Marcie Bridges
©16 September 2019

 

What would you do if you were taken from your home, forced to live in a strange land under a tyrannical king and treated horribly for years on end? That would be quite the oppressive situation, wouldn’t it?

 

In the days of the prophet, Jeremiah, Israel had been taken captive. They no longer lived in their promised land. Jerusalem had been completely destroyed along with the temple. You might be familiar with some of King Nebuchadnezzar’s antics if you know the stories of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

 

And while I don’t have the space or time here to go into their whole ordeal as captives in a strange land, I would like to point you to their triumph of being returned to their promised land.

 

It did happen but it took 70 years before they got to be free again. 70 years! That’s a lot of waiting, worrying, wondering (and wandering), and whining before winning.

 

Jeremiah 33:3 promises if we call upon the Lord, He will answer our prayers and do mighty things for us.

 

Israel may have been in captivity, but at the time of writing this part of his book, Jeremiah was in jail. Instead of lamenting his circumstance, just like Paul and Silas, he found comfort in his God.

 

God told him that if Israel would call upon Him, He would answer their prayers. Even the things that they didn’t quite know how to pray for, He would hear it and would answer them through His mighty hand.

While we may not be in quite the captive state they were in, we are still captive to our own idols and sins. We allow the enemy to swoop in and cause divisiveness and division in our lives. Which, of course, brings doubt and depression, amongst many other problems.

 

The good news is, the same promise Jeremiah and the Israelites were given, is given to us too. God has provided a Comforter for us through His Holy Spirit. Someone we can go to when we are at our lowest. And when we are crying out for help, God is there to hear our cry and to help us.

 

I don’t know what is holding you captive right now—anxiety, fear, unbelief, sin, depression, etc— but I do know, if you surrender your life to the Lord, call upon Him in your times of distress, He will hear your heart and bring good things to you. We may have to wait for awhile (hopefully not 70 years!) before getting to the good, but during that wait God will provide comfort and peace to our soul so we can wait patiently on Him.

 

From My Heart to Yours,
Marcie

 

 

For more information on the Babylonian Exile you can read it here: https://www.gotquestions.org/Babylonian-captivity-exile.html

 

All pictures courtesy of www.pixabay.com