Seek help from the Lord
Day eleven of a month for prayer and fasting and calling out to God
Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah. The people of Judah came together to seek help from the Lord; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him.
Then Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem at the temple of the Lord in the front of the new courtyard and said:
“Lord, the God of our ancestors, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you. Our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? They have lived in it and have built in it a sanctuary for your Name, saying, ‘If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us.’
2 Chronicles 20:3-9
This month - June 2025 - some of us have resolved to seek help from the Lord, the God who created each one of us, who made the heavens and Earth, and why wouldn’t we? When calamity comes upon us, who else can we turn to? So many of us have been ignored when we have asked people around us for help. It has led some of us to give up on family, on friends, on colleagues, politicians, journalists. If the people we thought we could trust cannot be trusted, who can we turn to for help:
I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
Psalm 121:1-2
And this month, some of us are fasting on chosen days, choosing to humble ourselves before God. This is not because we are bargaining with God - look at me, I’m fasting! Answer me! No. It is because when we fast, we are reminded of our weakness. Hunger pangs stab at our stomach, reminding us that we need to eat. And who provides the food that we eat? Ultimately, everything is provided by God. This bountiful world which could provide for every empty stomach if we could share. Others have noted that trans and gender identities have taken root almost entirely in the prosperous and rich West. Where people fast because they had no food to begin with, trans identity is a luxury they have no need for. Oh that our children would see this, would understand how desperate so much of the world is for the food we normally take for granted. That instead of obsessing over their identity, they might notice those who are hungry every day, and turn their attention to helping them.
We do not have a temple to stand in front of, instead, we are the temple, those of us who have accepted Jesus into our heart, and we have a greater promise than Israel did - if the Lord promised to hear from heaven those who cried out to him before the temple in Jerusalem, how much more will Jesus hear our cry when he lives in our heart!
Our Father in heaven, you who hear from heaven when we cry out to you, the Father of Jesus who promised that he would come into our heart if we would open the door to him, hear the cry of our hearts! Rescue our children. Stop them in their tracks. Lead them off the road of destruction. Call them, you know what each of our children needs to hear. You alone have the power to save our children. May we trust in you. May we accept your will in this situation. You alone know which of of our children will be saved - not because you lack the power to save - instead because you have given our children the same free will you gave to us. Have mercy on them, Father, so many of our children have been deceived. Open their eyes, set them free from evil influence. And work in us. I know I need your good influence in my life, in my heart. Create in me a clean heart, and renew your spirit within me. Amen
Read yesterday’s post: https://goal31.substack.com/p/his-heart-his-harvest
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