Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry out, and He will say, 'Here I am.' Isaiah 58:9
A Good Cry
A good cry can feel good, but crying out to the Lord makes us feel better. So, if you want to have a really good cry, cry out to the Lord.
We serve a God who hears and cares. We have a Father in Heaven who listens to His children when we cry out to Him. Unlike the gods of false religions, our God is not indifferent to His people's needs or cries for help. Jesus is attuned to our every sigh and tear. He understands all our weaknesses (Heb 4:15) and shares in the deepest depths of our grief. When we call, the Lord will answer. When we cry out to Him, He will say, “Here I am” (Isaiah 58:9). Jesus will be there to deliver us from all our troubles because He promises to always be with us. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:20
“Because he holds fast to Me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows My name. When he calls to Me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him My salvation” (Psalm 91:14-16).
To Cry Out
To cry out is to express oneself loudly in a state of distress or desperation. To cry out is to direct our needs to the Lord. He is the Master Recipient of our cries. When we lift our voices to Him we can trust that He hears us with clarity and compassion. (See 1 Samuel 7:8; Psalm 107:6,13, 19,28). When Peter found himself sinking in the water, he cried out to Jesus for help, "Lord, save me." Jesus immediately reached out His hand and took hold of him (Matthew 14:30–31). Jesus heard Peter's cry for help and immediately took hold of him. He does the same for you and me when we cry out to Him. He will come to our rescue and say, “Here I am.”
Crying out doesn’t always mean expressing oneself vocally. Sometimes our cries to the Lord are silent. In times of distress when no words come out, God still hears the cries of our hearts. Just as Hannah prayed silently in distress, as “her voice was not heard” since she was “praying in her heart” (1 Samuel 1:10, 13), God was there, listening to Hannah’s unspoken pleas. In our most silent moments of angst or sorrow, when no one else can hear, Jesus always does. He hears the silent cries of our hearts loud and clear, and He says, “Here I am.”
Crying out to the Lord is not just an act of desperation, but a demonstration of our faith in Jesus and total dependence on Him. Through our tears or anxieties, we not only recognize our sins, shortcomings, and failures but also our limitations and the impossibility of taking on life's struggles in our own strength. Our cries are not just a plea for our Heavenly Father to intervene on our behalf but evidence of true saving faith and confidence in His ability to do so. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons and daughters, by whom we cry out, “Abba! Father!” Romans 8:15
Two Prayed, One was Heard
Scripture says that God does not listen to the prayers of unbelievers; people who are self-righteous, who pride themselves in their “goodness,” and feel no need for repentance. We know that God does not listen to sinners; but if someone is God-fearing and does His will, He listens to him (John 9:31). But God always listens to the cries of a repentant sinner who recognizes his own sinfulness and pleads for forgiveness. In the parable of two men praying, one is proud while the other is humble and repentant. Jesus tells us how two prayed but only one was heard.
“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 18:10-14
The corrupt tax collector came to God with a contrite and broken heart. He was burdened with sin and guilt and cried out to the Lord to have mercy on him. In contrast, the Pharisee, a respected religious figure in the community, prided himself on being an example of goodness and righteousness. He was blind to his own sinfulness and didn’t recognize his pitiful state like the tax collector did. Even though both men prayed to the Lord, it was only the tax collector's prayer that reached God's ears, as he was the only one who genuinely cried out to the Lord. One exalted himself and was ignored, and the other humbled himself and was received.
The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and His ears toward their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:15-18
Jesus Died for Me. Jesus Cares.
Scripture makes it clear that self-reliance is not a quality of a true follower of Jesus; only complete dependence is. As believers, we are to never rely on our own strength. Instead, we must always turn to Jesus, especially in our trials. We must continually remind ourselves of the greatest truth and love there is: that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the dead, so that by grace through faith in Him, we may have eternal life! So knowing this, why wouldn’t we always want to cry out to Jesus, for everything? Jesus solved the biggest problem we’ll ever have 2,000 years ago on a cross: our sin problem that separated us from God. Will Jesus not solve all the comparably little problems too? Of course He will! All in His perfect ways and timing. Jesus died for me. Jesus cares.
Jesus is compassionate, patient, and loving toward us in all our trials, big and small. He takes pleasure in helping us when we are in need, which is always! There is never a time when we don't need Jesus, whether in a tough trial or on "easy street." The beauty in trials is that it drives us to cry out to Jesus way more than when life is going smoothly for us. Trials test our faith and produce endurance (James 1:2-3). Trials give us a precious opportunity to prove the authenticity of our faith in Jesus, which gives us assurance of our salvation. And assurance of our salvation is one of the greatest blessings from God and joys we can experience in this life!
When setbacks happen and troubles arise, when we find ourselves caught in a sin cycle, when people are mean to us, when life throws a curveball or seems to fall apart, just have yourself a good cry by crying out to the Lord. Only in Him do we find our help, relief, comfort, and mercy. Whether we cry out to the Lord loudly or silently, we can trust that Jesus hears our cries. We can trust that Jesus cares. We can trust that Jesus will always say, “Here I am.” And we can trust that crying out to the Lord will always make us feel much, much better!
Cast all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. Psalm 107:6, 13, 19, 28
“Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me” Psalm 50:15
I cry aloud to the LORD; I lift up my voice to the LORD for mercy. I pour out before him my complaint; before him I tell my trouble. Psalm 142:1-2
This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. Psalm 34:6
Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:3
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