Come and hear, all you who fear God,
And I will declare what He has done for my soul.
17 I cried to Him with my mouth,
And He was extolled with my tongue.
18 If I regard iniquity in my heart,
The Lord will not hear.
19 But certainly God has heard me;
He has attended to the voice of my prayer.
20 Blessed be God,
Who has not turned away my prayer,
Nor His mercy from me!
Who has not turned away my prayer,
Nor His mercy from me!
It is important that we praise God with our testimony of what He has done for us in our lives. "I will declare what He has done for my soul." Elsewhere in scripture it says that God will not hear prayer if we are living in rebellion and sin. This doesn't mean that we must be or even can be perfect, but it does mean that if we are living predominantly lives dedicated to ourselves, our sins, and the world's ways, God will not hear our prayers, but if we turn to Him in true repentance and surrender, He hears our pleas for help and rescues us from ourselves. How true that has been in my life, when I was living in rebellion and disobedience to the Lord. He is so merciful that He responds to even the most tiny indications of humility and repentance and faith. He responded to my first glimmers of realization of what was wrong with me, that I was not living in a way that was pleasing to God. Once I began to see this in the most simple and rudimentary way, He began pouring His mercy out on me, drawing me nearer to Him, within my heart. Then I began to see more and more of what was not pleasing to Him in my life and heart.
In Genesis 18, Abraham has three visitors, presumably angels, and one of those was even God in human form, since He is referred to as the Lord. (This is what is called by bible scholars a "theophany", an appearance of Jesus in human form, prior to His incarnation on the earth 2000 years ago. These visitors confirm to Abraham and Sarah (they both have had their names changed by God recently) that they will have a son. Abraham is 100 years old and Sarah is 90. Sarah laughs, and God catches her in laughing as well as lying that she didn't laugh. God knows everything! And yet, God is merciful in His righteousness. Abraham pleaded for the city of Sodom, a wicked place that God was going to destroy. He was worried that there were some righteous people there who would die with the wicked. God promised not to destroy it if there were even ten righteous people there. But, in fact, there were not even 10. This is important. God is incredibly merciful, and gives us time to repent of our sins, receive Him, and follow Him. But He cannot ignore sin, and He will destroy the unrighteous, those who reject His salvation. He is holy. This is indication that we serve a wonderful, holy, and good God who does not let sin go unpunished. If He did, He would be like a corrupt judge who lets people off the hook. He is a merciful, good, and righteous judge. Jesus died to pay for our sins. Someone must pay for sin with their own life, their blood. Jesus took our place so that we could live eternally with Him and not have to die. The Father sent His Son, Jesus, to die in our place and rise again, so that we could have life. So amazing and incredible!! What a God we serve!
I want to send out praise to Him like thunder, all over the earth and the heavens! The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. (Psalm 19:1-3)
May God be praised in every humble heart, in every place everywhere! He is risen, and He lives!
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