Christ Jesus said in the gospel said that we should ask and we shall receive. This scripture is often underrated by Christians. This is because they do not know the extent to which they can ask. The bible said “ask”, it did not limit what we should ask. It basically said we should ask, there was no condition given. This means therefore, that we can ask anything of God and it will be given to us if it is in accordance with his will.
Our Lord taught us to call out to him in time of distress. We, as Christians should not hesitate to do such. Now we must understand that to cry out to the Lord, we must not necessarily be in distress. We can cry out to him out of joy.
Now as believers, we must take note of certain things before we cry out to the Lord. When a person decides to cry out to the Lord in terms of distress, it should be noted that many a time, the individual is usually at their limit and they are truly desperate and hence they seek to call out to their Lord as a last resort. This often happens when people have tried everything humanly possible and due to the fact that they fail, they result to such as an- act of desperation and total commitment.
Now basically this kind of cry to the Lord has a couple of characteristics, this is because in such cases the person chose to ignore calling out to God beforehand.
Humble and Contrite Heart
For people who tend to find it difficult to talk to God, this particular attribute is peculiar to them because most times, they are at their last straw and do not want to admit that they need God’s help, especially for proud people. So when such people cry out, it can be seen that they actually are at their limit and need God to take control. The Psalmist lets us understand that a humble and contrite heart, the Lord will not despise (Psalm 51:19)
A Cry for Mercy
This is often the case of someone who has offended God in ways that he believes are unforgiveable. For such an individual, he/she, often times, find it hard to forgive their selves. The cry they give, in such a case, is one of true contrition. The weight of the guilt would have weighed down on them so heavily that they decide to cry out to the Lord. An example can be seen in the book of Lamentations 3:22-23
Desperation
This last point can be likened to the first as they are almost similar, while this one is of someone that readily admits he is in need of God’s help, the former is likened to a person who has been broken by his situation. An example of this can be seen in the book of Psalms, where the psalmist talks about him calling out to the Lord in his time of distress. (Psalm 18:6)
Now in all of these cases, God has always given an answer to his people, sometimes not in the way they desired and other times not immediately, and some other times, he did not give an answer in the manner the person required, but one thing is certain, when we cry to the Lord, he hears us and answers us.
So my dear brethren of the #steemchurch, in whatever situation you find yourself, either one of joy or tribulation, take out the time to cry out to the Lord. Let us not be proud or unwilling to bring our joys and sorrows to the Lord, for he listens to both and answers us according to his plan for us.
Thanks for reading and God bless.