Help, Lord!

One of my most frequent prayers is ‘Help!’ It is also one of the most common prayers in the Bible.

It is a prayer you can pray every day, in any and every situation. You can cry out to the Lord for help. God’s desire is for you to have a relationship with him that is real and from the heart.

Help in broken relationships - Psalm 88:9b-18

Rejection is always hurtful – especially when it comes from someone you love or someone very close to you. Broken relationships are painful – particularly when we feel we have been ‘dumped’ by a ‘lover’, a ‘neighbor’, or a close friend. The psalmist feels that since ‘lover and neighbor alike dump me; the only friend I have left is Darkness’ (v.18, MSG).

He says, ‘For as long as I remember I’ve been hurting’ (v.15, MSG). The situation seems like one of utter hopelessness: darkness (v.12), feeling rejected by God (v.14), affliction (v.15a), terror, and despair (v.15b). ‘I’m bleeding, black-and-blue... I’m nearly dead’ (v.17, MSG).

Yet there is one note of hope. The hope comes from the fact that, in the midst of all this, he chooses to start each day by crying out to God: ‘I call to you, O Lord, every day; I spread out my hands to you’ (v.9b).

Perhaps today you’re struggling with a relationship: in your marriage, workplace, church, or with a close friend. However bad your situation may seem, there is always hope if you cry out to the Lord for help.