Living in the Shadow of His Hand

Genuine Prayer from a Contrite Heart

 

“For this is what the high and exalted One says, He who lives forever, whose name is holy:
“I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.” – Psalms 57:15

Growing up there were many powerful Saints in my life, and I thank God for every one.  Some I thank God for because they were role models to follow.  Others gave me an example of what not to do.  One such example was an elderly gentleman who when asked to pray, would recite the same words every time, word for word.  As I grew older, I saw this was not from his heart, but from his head.  This wasn’t a conversation with God, but a recital to God.

My grandmother, on the other hand, would pray in her bed every night.  When I spent the night I would sleep in the bedroom behind hers and hear every word.  I waited anxiously some nights to hear her say, “Father God…”  Her prayers were often interrupted with periods of silence when I know she was letting Him talk to her in return.  And there were times when the words would sound broken and she spoke them through tears.  She didn’t just pray, she talked to God.  Were her prayers effective?  He healed her of cancer twice.  And the third time He gave her comfort and joy in knowing first hand that she would soon see the love of her heart.

Intimacy with God comes from a contrite spirit.  He desires to see us be genuine in our conversations with Him – broken, wounded, crying out in tears, expressing our pain and our inner needs in desperation.   He desires to see us humbled in His sight when we pray to where even praises are spoken through tears of gratefulness. 

We often hear people say, “I’ve prayed and prayed and I just don’t feel like God is listening.”  Either this comes from missing step one, Salvation, or the heart is not yet genuine and intimate with God. 

1 Peter 3:12 says “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer”.  Righteousness comes through salvation.  Until we are saved, the only prayer God can hear is the one of salvation. Habakkuk 1:13 says that He cannot look upon sin.  We need that covering of Jesus’ blood to make us sin free.  James 5:16 says “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”  It is not our own righteousness that makes prayer affective. We have no righteousness outside of what Jesus gives us.  But because His righteousness covers us, our prayers can be affective, and accomplish many things.

Psalms 57:15 tells us that God not only lives in Heaven, but with those that are broken and lowly in spirit, and He seeks to revive their hearts.  In a large family, a mother can always hear the child that is crying out above the chatter of the others.  God’s ears are tuned even more so through His love for His children.  He will hear us when we cry out. 

Don’t just pray - cry out.  Have no fear in allowing yourself to be broken for God is faithful to revive you.

“Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool.
Where is the house that you will build Me?
And where is the place of My rest?
For all those things My hand has made, and all those things exist,” Says the Lord.
“But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit,
And who trembles at My word.” – Isaiah 66:1-2