Month: February 2024

Seaside Prayers

Excerpt from The Red Sea Rules: 10 God-Given Strategies for Difficult Times by Robert J. Morgan

Some situations have offered me just two options—I could either panic or pray. My tendency is to panic, like the Israelites by the Red Sea or the disciples on the Sea of Galilee. I’ve had my share of hyperventilating, heart-racing panic attacks. But the Lord has spent years trying to show me that prayer is the means by which I can, if I choose, stay even-tempered, self-possessed, cool-headed, and strong-spirited, even in a crisis.

When we can’t press forward, move sideward, or step backward, it’s time to look upward and to ask God to make a way. In a time of uncertainty, the patriarch Jacob said, “Let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone” (Gen. 35:3).

Referring to his days as a fugitive, David wrote, “In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried out to my God. He heard my voice from His temple” (2 Sam. 22:7). The writer of Psalm 107 declared,

They cry out to the LORD in their trouble, And He brings them out of their distresses.
He calms the storm,
So that its waves are still. (vv. 28–29)

That’s just what happened as the Israelites cried out to God at the Red Sea, except there the waves became trembling walls of water, held back by invisible dams.

I’m not talking now about our regular, daily quiet-time prayer habits, important as they are; I’m talking about crisis-time prayers. Prayers of importunity and intensity. Prayers during life-threatening or soul-shattering events. “This kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting” (Matt. 17:21). “Pray hard and long,” Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:18 (The Message). The Israelites were in crisis in Exodus 14, and their seaside cry was

  • urgent,
  • united,
  • unfeigned,
  • but unbelieving.

The urgency of their prayer was obvious, evidenced by the verb cried. I had a friend in college who gave me a little booklet her father, Cameron Thompson, had written, titled Master Secrets of Prayer. My copy is now underlined and tattered, but I still treasure it and have these words underlined:

There comes a time, in spite of our soft, modern ways, when we must be desperate in prayer, when we must wrestle, when we must be outspoken, shameless and importunate. Many of the prayers recorded in Scripture are “cries,” and the Hebrew and Greek words are very strong. Despite opinions to the contrary, the Bible recognizes such a thing as storming heaven—“praying through.” The fervent prayer of a righteous man is mighty in its working.

I remember such times in my own life—when my father suffered a heart attack, when a job possibility blew up in my face, when a friend was overdosing on cocaine, when my child got involved in the wrong crowd. There was little I could do except plead with God. Sometimes these prayers are prolonged. Twice in my life I’ve spent the entire night in prayer.

Other times, however, my prayers are quite short. I’ve recently learned a new prayer technique from the writings of missionary Amy Carmichael. She learned it from the famous Bible teacher Dr. F. B. Meyer, who once told her that as a young man he had been irritable and hot-tempered. An older gentleman advised him to look up at the moment of temptation and say, “Thy sweetness, Lord.”

Amy Carmichael developed many variations of that prayer. When meeting someone she didn’t like, she would silently pray, “Thy love, Lord.” In a crisis, she’d whisper, “Thy help, Lord,” or “Thy wisdom, Lord.”

Sometimes when I’m worried, I just lift my heart to heaven and say, “Lord . . . ,” followed by the name of one for whom I’m concerned.

Looking back over the years, I’ve never faced a crisis in which, in response to earnest prayer, whether prolonged or instant, God didn’t make a way. James 5:16 tells us: “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results” (NLT). That’s the great secret of those who put their hands in the hand of the One who can part the seas. United

Morgan, Robert J. . The Red Sea Rules: 10 God-Given Strategies for Difficult Times (pp. 40-44). HarperCollins Christian Publishing.

HEBREWS 6:9-20 When Dealing with Doubts… Remember

Doubts are question marks that often punctuate what should be clear statements of theological fact or unquestioned imperatives of moral truth. For those who are immature in their faith or who have grown sluggish in responding to spiritual things, doubts can drive them into despair. But they don’t need to! For those who are willing to remember the character and promises of God, doubts can serve as mere ellipses . . . pauses in the walk of faith that serve to turn our attention heavenward toward God, who alone is able to give us hope in the midst of despair, assurance in the midst of uncertainty, and confidence in the midst of questioning.

What do we do when the storm clouds roll in and cast shadows of doubt over the landscape of our lives? When on stormy seas, the tendency is to focus on the wind and the waves rather than on the Lord. That was Peter’s problem when the Lord had called him to walk with Him on the turbulent water. When Peter took his eyes off Jesus —the Forerunner and Anchor in the midst of the churning sea —he began to sink in fear (Matt. 14:27-31).

Amid the storms of our own lives, God gives us an anchor for the soul (Heb. 6:19). When doubt says, “Only a fool would believe these things,” remember: “It is impossible for God to lie” (6:18). When doubt tells you, “God has abandoned me,” remember “the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath” (6:17). Even though the circumstances around you may continue to pummel you with painful blows, you can have a quiet confidence that God has a purpose, that He’s in control, and that your soul is anchored firmly in the heavenly realm.

Excerpt From
Insights on Hebrews (Swindoll’s Living Insights New Testament Commentary Book 12)
Charles R. Swindoll