By Mike Keith

New Hope Community Church

Very recently I sat and listened to the story of a young lady who had been the recipient of some very hurtful things from someone who was in a position to inflict great damage. Devastated, she spent two days in great emotional turmoil, struggling to put her broken heart back together and move forward. But try as she might, brokenness and heaviness continued to fetter her heart.

It was at this desperate moment that she cried out to God, asking his forgiveness for neglecting him in her life, and pleading with him for help in her present hour of need. As she cried and prayed herself to sleep, she ended the day with an oppressive sense of heaviness and despair – a darkness that would not seem to lift.

She continued her story: “The next morning I awoke and things seemed different!” She testified to an unexplainable joy of heart, a new sense of hope. The darkness had passed, and light shone in her spirit once again, like a bright and beautiful sunny morning that follows a dark and gloomy night.

What made the difference? Do we call this “coincidence” or “superstition” that a prayer could bring deliverance? To be sure, it is not the prayer in and of itself that changes anything, but rather the one to whom the prayer is offered. King David of old knew this well. He was a man who experienced many trials and afflictions delivered by the hands of others, even by those who had at one time loved him. He wrote of this in Psalm 3:1,2: “O Lord, how my adversaries have increased! Many are rising up against me. Many are saying of my soul, ‘There is no deliverance for him in God.’”

One can sense the agony and despair in the writings of David. But let us read on in vs 3-5: “But You, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the One who lifts my head.

I was crying to the Lord with my voice, and He answered me from His holy mountain.

I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustains me.”

And so it is true. At our point of emotional exhaustion and despair, there is one who has the ability to massage our aching heart and bring relief and comfort. It is the same one who we just celebrated conquering the grave, having sacrificed himself as an offering for the sin of the world. It is Jesus Christ, the son of God.

Do you know him? Not do you just know about him, but do you know him personally? He cares for you, and he desires to be the “One Who lifts your head” as he was for the young lady, and as he was for King David.