It occurs to me that sometimes I just need to write. I simply need to put pen to paper (or fingers to keys, in this case) and let the thoughts flow and see how the Spirit moves me.
Over the last few weeks I have been writing very thematically. I am making great use of my little black moleskin notebook to jot down ideas as they come to me. I then take these ideas, usually days later, and try to develop them into full blown posts of 500-1000 words. It’s a good system, and it works, but it’s not very spontaneous.
Spontaneous King David
Biblically speaking, I think about the Psalms of David. How many of the Psalms did David write spontaneously? How many did he plan out and build systematically over time, refining and correcting them as he went? I really don’t know. I do know that the kind of emotion displayed in many of the Psalms seem to me to be original, organic and most probably spontaneous.
David simply sat down and poured out his heart on paper, talking to God as he wrote. Consider Psalm 55, verses 4-8.
4 “My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death have fallen on me. 5 Fear and trembling have beset me; horror has overwhelmed me. 6 I said, “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest. 7 I would flee far away and stay in the desert; 8 I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm.”
Tell it Like it Is
Clearly, David was in misery and pain and he was not hiding from it. I am quite sure that his tears were falling even as he was writing. I don’t envy what he went through but I very much respect his honesty and his willingness to throw it all down before God and acknowledge his helplessness. And let’s face it, if you are in dire straits you aren’t going to wait until you can craft a formal request. You are going to head straight to the one who can handle it for you.
That’s exactly what David did. In verse 16 David says “As for me, I will call upon God,
And the Lord shall save me.” And then in verse 22 “Cast your burden on the Lord,
And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.”
The reason David knew that he could pour out his heart to God in honesty was because he knew that his God was big enough to take care of the problem. David trusted God and continually called on his Heavenly Father (verse 17 says “Evening and morning and at noon
I will pray, and cry aloud, And He shall hear my voice.”) and never gave up hope. And neither should we.
It may take a crisis for us to realize it, but our God is big enough to take care of us through life’s many troubles. We simply need to remain honest and humble before Him and never stop praying. Let us take spontaneous King David as an example and cry out to God and then wait expectantly on His deliverance.
Can you think of any situations recently where you have asked the Lord to intervene in a time of trouble and He heard and answered your prayer?