Psalm 121:1-2 (NLT)
1 I look up to the mountains—does my help come from
there? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth!
We must see all our help laid up in God, in his power and
goodness, his providence and grace; and from him we must expect it to come:
"My help comes from the Lord; the help I desire is what he sends, and from
him I expect it in his own way and time. If he do not help, no creature can
help; if he do, no creature can hinder, can hurt.' [Matthew Henry Commentary]
In the book Prayer, Tim Keller writes: In the second half
of my adult life, I discovered prayer. I had to. In the fall of 1999, I taught
a Bible study course on the Psalms. It became clear to me that I was barely scratching
the surface of what the Bible commanded and promised regarding prayer. Then
came the dark weeks in New York after 9/11, when our whole city sank into a
kind of corporate clinical depression, even as it rallied. For my family the
shadow was intensified as my wife, Kathy, struggled with the effects of Crohn's
disease. Finally, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. At one point during all
this, my wife urged me to do something with her we had never been able to
muster the self-discipline to do regularly. She asked me to pray with her every
night. Every night. She used an illustration that crystallized her feelings
very well. As we remember it, she said something like this:
Imagine you were diagnosed with such a lethal condition
that the doctor told you that you would die within hours unless you took a
particular medicine—a pill every night before going to sleep. Imagine that you
were told that you could never miss it or you would die. Would you forget?
Would you not get around to it some nights? No—it would be so crucial that you
wouldn't forget, you would never miss. Well, if we don't pray together to God,
we're not going to make it because of all we are facing. I'm certainly not. We
have to pray, we can't let it just slip our minds.
Let us all take a moment today to pray to the living God
thanking Him for the help, mercy, grace and love provided. In our prayers
remember those of 9/11, the families, friends and responders.
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