God hears your cries, a Bible Study
Main Verse Isaiah 38:2-6
Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, “Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city”.
Supporting verse: Psalms 40:1 Psalms 34:15 Romans 8:26-28
Today’s themes: sorrow, pain, illness, trust, faith, healing, waiting, and redemption
Key points:
➔ Trust in the Lord, Trust in God, and God’s glory will be made known
through his actions.
➔ He is the author and giver of second chances, only if we seek his face, and pray
to him, and ask him for help, and he will give ear to our teary eyes and
painful groans and be willing to save us!
Hezekiah, king of Judah, became ill on the verge of death. He felt fearful of death, despair, impending doom, and grief in his circumstances. Weeping bitterly, he mustered up faith to cry out and pray to God for healing and redemption.
Think of the times you felt you served God, loved him, remained faithful, and something unfortunate was still affecting you. As someone who struggles with chronic illness/ disability, I have suffered with my health, physical and mental, as long as I can remember. I know and understand the distress Hezekiah was in. This passage of God-healing Hezekiah leaves me with mixed emotions. I find peace in death because I find rest in Jesus Christ, him being my savior, healer, and redeemer, so I rest assured that earthly suffering is temporary. On the other side, I thank God for continuous healing and saving, which is the reason I’m still here despite being in constant discomfort and pain. Hezekiah prayed for healing, restoration, and deliverance from the Assyrian king, which God had promised him through the prophet Isaiah. God saw Hezekiah’s tears and heard his cries, promised deliverance from the Assyrians, and added 15 more years to Hezekiah’s life.
Now this is a reminder for even myself that our cries are never unheard by God, even if we can’t see God’s hand at work yet, or we’re still in the same situation we’ve been in for years. God remains faithful and oversees all things; he is omnipresent. We only live in the present, so even for me, there have been times I prayed and prayed for something to give, whether it was my health or any other circumstance, and it felt like I was lost, blindsided, and couldn’t hear God, but he could hear me. This is also teaching us to be still; stillness is essential for us to be able to receive God’s goodness. Whether it’s his guidance, wisdom, healing, or peace. We won’t have any of it if we don’t slow down. He sees and hears our cries and is working in our situation even when we don’t see it, because we’re cluttered mentally and physically with our current situation. Don’t let spiritual blindness block your stillness, which can then hinder your blessings. Remain faithful, reading scripture, and spending time in community and prayer no matter how ugly or uncomfortable it gets, for we walk by faith, not by sight, our human eyes aren’t equipped to see and know all things, even if God will come to our aid our teary eyes eventually blurring our vision preventing us from seeing the blessings around us. Everything works the way it does for a reason, even if we still don’t understand that reason, we have to trust in the infinite wisdom that God has. He is all-knowing and wise, he is a wonderful counselor, and will see us through! Pray, none of your prayers are wasted or sound silly, god wants you to talk to him, and commune with him. God hates to see his children cry and weep beside us, but this is for the greater glory in the end. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Holy Spirit.