“How are you, sweetie?” my friend asked. Her embrace was warm. Comforting. Salve to my soul.
We’d come together, with several others, to talk, pray and lift our children and our families to the Lord. It was a blessing to be there among these women. Though we’re all dealing with our own unexpected places of worry, concern and fear, there is strength in numbers when this prayer group gets together.
READ MORE: WHEN GOD ALLOWS PAIN
We remind each other that Jesus never said that we’d have a life without trouble.
When I gather with these women who are trusting in the Lord to move forward, I think of David.
He was called from his father’s field and anointed by Samuel. The Lord chose him from a lineup of Jesse’s sons to be Israel’s second king. Yet before the crown, he had to flee King Saul. Before the crown, he crouched in a cave (1 Samuel 24).
I’ve always loved David’s honesty–his raw, open way of talking with the Lord. In Psalm 57, David is crying out to God as he’s running from Saul. In the first part of the psalm, he calls for God’s merciful help:
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in You my soul takes refuge. (Psalm 57:1, NIV)
And later in that same psalm, David offers a vow to praise:
I will praise You, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing to You among the peoples. For great is Your love, reaching to the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the skies. (Psalm 57:9-10, NIV)
A plea and a praise.
It’s what David did in times of distress. It’s what we do in our prayer group too. We ask the Lord for help in our circumstances, and we praise Him for who He is. For what He has done. For what He will do.
And as I sat in my circle of friends, looking from woman to woman, each living and breathing and reaching with both hands to the One who will hear us, I’m thankful that like David, we can trust God too. And that we can experience His familiar love when we stand in unexpected places.
