13 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 16 I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.”
1 From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the LORD his God. 2 He said: “In my distress I called to the LORD, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry.”
1 I love you, O LORD, my strength. 2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. 3 I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies. 4 The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. 5 The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. 6 In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.
1 I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. 2 Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live. 3 The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came upon me; I was overcome by trouble and sorrow. 4 Then I called on the name of the LORD: “O LORD, save me!” 5 The LORD is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion. 6 The LORD protects the simplehearted; when I was in great need, he saved me. 7 Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.
27 “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
“Upon some points a believer is absolutely sure. He knows, for instance, that God sits in the stern-sheets of the vessel when it rocks most. He believes that an invisible hand is always on the world’s tiller, and that wherever providence may drift, Jehovah steers it. That re-assuring knowledge prepares him for everything. He looks over the raging waters and sees the spirit of Jesus treading the billows, and he hears a voice saying, ‘It is I, be not afraid.’ He knows too that God is always wise, and, knowing this, he is confident that there can be no accidents, no mistakes; that nothing can occur which ought not to arise. He can say, ‘If I should lose all I have, it is better that I should lose than have, if God so wills: the worst calamity is the wisest and the kindest thing that could befall to me if God ordains it.’ ‘We know that all things work together for good to them that love God.’ The Christian does not merely hold this as a theory, but he knows it as a matter of fact. Everything has worked for good as yet; the poisonous drugs mixed in fit proportions have worked the cure; the sharp cuts of the lancet have cleansed out the proud flesh and facilitated the healing. Every event as yet has worked out the most divinely blessed results; and so, believing that God rules all, that He governs wisely, that He brings good out of evil, the believer’s heart is assured, and he is enabled calmly to meet each trial as it comes. The believer can in the spirit of true resignation pray, ‘Send me what thou wilt, my God, so long as it comes from Thee; never came there an ill portion from Thy table to any of Thy children.’” C. H. Spurgeon
“Converse as those would who know that God hears.” Tertullian
“We have a God who sees hearts like we see faces, a God who hears ache like we hear voices, and we have a God who touches wounds like we touch skin. No one’s crazy can change God’s crazy love. Jesus died to save us not to make us safe. No one ever got saved unless someone else was unsafe.” Ann Voskamp
“Yes, we need to feel our need. Where real need is not felt, there is rarely any real praying.... Our places of desperation are the places of God's revelation of his power (2 Corinthians 12:8-9).” Jon Bloom
“My hope is not in a cure today. My hope is not the absence of suffering and comfort returned. My hope is in the presence of the One who promises never to leave or forsake, the One who declares nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God.” (Romans 8:39). Nothing. Your story is a good story. In the grief, pain and hard, the Author has a plan. It may feel like a desperate breaking of your very heart, but suffering is not the absence of God or good.” Kara Tippetts
Regarding the lyrics to “In Christ Alone” Keith Getty received a letter from a soldier: “‘As I drive down the highway,’ wrote the soldier, ‘with my M-16 pointed out the window and my 9MM pistol tucked in my flak jacket, I can tell you that I feel more secure in claiming the promise, ‘No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck me from His hand till He returns or calls me home’ than I do with that rifle and that pistol.’” Robert Morgan’s Then Sings My Soul Book 3
“Life holds for all of us, from time to time, desolate places. All that was ordinary and secure and familiar and dependable seems a thousand miles away. Here we are in this strange wilderness - out of work, ill, robbed of something or someone, banished from a privilege that once was ours, no longer needed, confused, forsaken. It is a place of dryness, loneliness, isolation, helplessness, fear. We feel as though we are walking where no human being was ever meant to walk, a place of dragons. Don't despair. Even though you find no signs, be sure that thousands have traversed this terrain. When you reach the far side you will meet them. But there is something that is far more comforting than that. You are not alone now. Always beside you is Another whose voice you may not hear, whose arm you may not feel, whose footprint you may not see. Nevertheless His Word is utterly to be trusted: ‘I cared for you in the wilderness’ (Hosea 13:5).” Elisabeth Elliot
“Do not think that your prayer, however weak or trembling, will be unregarded. Our God not only hears prayer but also loves to hear it. ‘He does not ignore the cry of the afflicted.’ True, He does take into consideration haughty looks and lofty words; He doesn’t care for the pomp and pageantry of kings; He doesn’t listen to the swell of martial music; He doesn’t regard the triumph and pride of man; but wherever there is a heart big with sorrow, or a lip quivering with agony, or a deep groan, or a penitential sigh, the heart of Jehovah is open; He marks it down in the registry of His memory; He puts our prayers, like rose leaves, between the pages of His book of remembrance, and when the volume is opened at last, a precious fragrance will release itself from it.” Charles H. Spurgeon
“Of all of the blessings of a Christian's salvation, none is greater than this. We have access to God in prayer.” Martin Lloyd Jones