Can you live in hope for the generations to come?

 Psalm 102 (ESV): 

1  Hear my prayer, O Lord; 

  let my cry come to you! 

 2  Do not hide your face from me 

in the day of my distress! 

  Incline your ear to me; 

answer me speedily in the day when I call! 

 3  For my days pass away like smoke, 

and my bones burn like a furnace. 

 4  My heart is struck down like grass and has withered; 

I forget to eat my bread. 

 5  Because of my loud groaning 

my bones cling to my flesh. 

 6  I am like a desert owl of the wilderness, 

like an owl of the waste places; 

 7  I lie awake; 

I am like a lonely sparrow on the housetop. 

 8  All the day my enemies taunt me; 

those who deride me use my name for a curse. 

 9  For I eat ashes like bread 

and mingle tears with my drink, 

 10  because of your indignation and anger; 

for you have taken me up and thrown me down. 

 11  My days are like an evening shadow; 

I wither away like grass. 

 12  But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever; 

you are remembered throughout all generations. 

 13  You will arise and have pity on Zion; 

it is the time to favour her; 

the appointed time has come. 

 14  For your servants hold her stones dear 

and have pity on her dust. 

 15  Nations will fear the name of the Lord, 

and all the kings of the earth will fear your glory. 

 16  For the Lord builds up Zion; 

he appears in his glory; 

 17  he regards the prayer of the destitute 

and does not despise their prayer. 

 18  Let this be recorded for a generation to come, 

so that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord: 

 19  that he looked down from his holy height; 

from heaven the Lord looked at the earth, 

 20  to hear the groans of the prisoners, 

to set free those who were doomed to die, 

 21  that they may declare in Zion the name of the Lord, 

and in Jerusalem his praise, 

 22  when peoples gather together, 

and kingdoms, to worship the Lord. 

 23  He has broken my strength in midcourse; 

he has shortened my days. 

 24  “O my God,” I say, “take me not away 

in the midst of my days— 

  you whose years endure 

throughout all generations!” 

 25  Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, 

and the heavens are the work of your hands. 

 26  They will perish, but you will remain; 

they will all wear out like a garment. 

  You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, 

 27  but you are the same, and your years have no end. 

 28  The children of your servants shall dwell secure; 

their offspring shall be established before you. 

Sometimes days get so desperate and there is such despair, that people forget to eat, their bodies wither away, sleep evades them and they feel vulnerable like there are enemies on every side seeking their demise. Tears flow, heartache is poured out, anger swells and life seems so close to death that it is hard to see hope. Have you ever felt like that or known someone who has? The author of this psalm felt this way, they were more than miserable, they were heartbroken and in great anguish, and they admitted it. Often people of faith can experience this level of despair, but feel awkward or ashamed to admit how desperate they feel because they know that God is good and He exists. We need to shake off that mindset of embarrassment. You can still believe and trust in God and be utterly miserable. You can be choked with tears and broken, and still have faith in Him because your feelings are real, and so is God. I mean, if you want some examples of people that have felt this level of despair consider; David, Job, Elijah, Jonah or Hannah and then read the psalms! It is ok not to be ok. It is ok to feel like the world is against you, for, lets face it, if you are following God, it is. 

No matter how you are feeling though remind yourself that, ‘you, O Lord, are enthroned forever’. Even if you experience mental anguish and physical depletion, you can still know that God is enthroned forever. Even when your life seems poured out, you can acknowledge that God is in charge. You can remember who He is and what He has done before. You can call on Him and trust Him to, ‘arise and have pity’. For God cares for you. God cares about building His kingdom and His family, so you can ask Him to ‘have pity’, and to ‘favour’ His people. He wants to do those things anyway! You can approach Him and call upon Him, no matter how weak or strong you are, no matter if you feel like a ‘shadow’ or that your ‘heart is struck down’. For God, ‘regards the prayer of the destitute and does not despise their prayer’. When you are desperately low, when you have are in need, God listens. He pays attention and regards you. How many people in real poverty can say that they are looked at and paid attention to? Yet you, as a believer in God, when you pray and call to God in your weakness and poverty, He looks up and pays attention to you. He will not overlook you or ignore you, instead He takes seriously your prayers. Therefore, do not just weep and walk in despair, but undertake the mighty act of prayer! God listens.

The psalmist writes, ‘let this be recorded for a generation to come’. They recorded their level of distress, and their prayer because they knew that the situation would change, and they wanted to inspire others that distressing times end because God intervenes. The writer knew that this present trouble would turn into a testimony. They understood that no matter what, God is in charge and that in time their prayers would be answered. It may not be fulfilled in their lifetime and their present suffering may not cease, yet one day it would. The psalmist trusted that ‘a people yet to be created may praise the Lord’ because they recorded what was going on and there was a future when these sufferings would be overcome. Therefore, you too can have confidence that God will respond. Just probably not in the way, manner or time frame that you desire. So, you need to learn to carry the hope of a better future even if you don’t get to see it. Moses did not get to enter the promised land, David did not see the temple built, the disciples did not get to see Jesus return. Yet they all lived in hope for the time to come ‘that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord’. Do you carry that same hope, is that what you are living for? Are you able to live through today knowing that the future will be better for the generations to come because God will look with favour upon His people? There will be a day when ‘peoples gather together, and kingdoms, to worship the Lord’ and, ‘The children of your servants will dwell secure’. So, even if you feel like your strength is broken, and your days shortened (v13), you can still carry hope like this writer did. 

When you live your life in faithfulness to God until your life ends, then you can trust that God will be looking out for those you have invested in. You will not always see the outcomes of your work or the answers to your prayers, but God is faithful. He will not forget. He listens, looks, and acts. So can you now look to the uncertain future and trust Him with it? Can you live in hope for the generations to come?

Pray together, pray big!

James concludes his letter with an exhortation to pray:

13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

James 5: 13-18 (ESV)

James ends his letter with this endorsement - no matter the circumstances of life you are facing, pray. The best thing you can do for yourself and your situation is pray and get others to pray with you. James encourages you to not pray alone; If you’re ill, he says to ask the elders in the church to pray over you, he adds that you should ‘confess your sins’ to each other and pray, and he commends getting the 'righteous' to pray. Therefore, prayer is not a lonely battle, but one that should involve others. James is ending his letter showing that the christian life should be wrapped in prayer and should not be tackled alone. 

These times he mentions when prayer or praise are required, he assumes that you will be journeying with others. Life is not solitary, you are to include others in it. Even in the personal things such as sickness and sin. If you keep the troubles of your life to yourself, it is not only lonely but you might be missing out on the blessing of being anointed, forgiven and the effect of powerful prayer. You should not keep your pain, suffering, illness or sin secret. In fact, you are meant to share those things with others of faith so that they can uphold you, keep you accountable and they can celebrate with you. In the times of illness or distress, surely you want a ‘righteous person’ to pray for you? As James tells us that a righteous person’s prayers have great power and they work yet if you do not allow people to know your suffering, how can they pray, and who will you celebrate the breakthrough with? The life of a God-follower should be surrounded by other people of faith, that includes in the toughest of times. If you are suffering in some way today, do not do it alone, pick up the phone and ask someone you know is following God to pray for you - then see what God does with the prayers of the righteous in your life.

Elijah in this passage is mentioned as someone who powerfully prayed, but also as, ‘a man with a nature like ours’. That is pretty incredible when we consider the story of his life. James is showing here that even the great, powerful, spirit-filled men and women we read of in the Bible, like Elijah, were just men and women like you and I. Elijah was a man, a man that invested in his relationship with God. He was nothing special apart from the connection he had with God. Elijah dared to pray great, big prayers. He prayed for extremes of weather, and God heard and did it, he prayed for fire from heaven to consume his offering, and God did it, he prayed for a widow’s son who had died, and the son was restored to life. What are you praying for? Do you dare to pray such big prayers? Do you dare to pray for the impossible knowing that who you’re talking to has achieved some pretty impossible things already?! Elijah, remember is just like us. He was a man following and honouring God in his life, and he wasn’t afraid to ask for the incredible, impossible things because he knew just who he was speaking to. Are you a righteous person who prays big? Or are you someone that keeps things small? God can do more than you can ask for or imagine (Ephesians 3:20), so why not pray BIG today and see what God can do?