Gone Up With a Shout

 

I was reading in Genesis recently and came across Chapter 21.  Something struck me as I read these words, “and God heard the voice of the lad” (verse 17).  This was a desperate cry and God responded to it!  It was Ishmael’s cry. You remember the son born out of Abraham’s impatience.  Because of Sarah’s envy, Ishmael and his mother were sent away and they traveled into the desert.  Near exhaustion and out of water, Hagar and Ishmael both cried out and the Lord responded with a miracle!

This story is just one of many in scripture where someone verbally cried out to God and that cry of desperation got God’s attention.

You remember the account of blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10:46-52. It was his desperate and deliberate cry that got Jesus’ attention.  Even after others told him to hold his peace (to be still), “…he cried out the more a great deal”.  Then the Bible says, “Jesus stood still…” and called for Bartimaeus, healed him of his blindness, and in an instant he could see! Wow – the power of crying out!

I love Isaiah 40:9, “…lift up thy voice with strength, lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, behold your God”!  God says, “lift up your voice”. Something moves God when I lift up my voice and cry out to Him.

Psalm 47:5 says something interesting. It says that “God is gone up with a shout…”  The phrase “gone up” means; stirred or aroused. God is somehow stirred or aroused when He hears the shout of His people, when we boldly cry out to Him.

We all remember the story of the walls of Jericho tumbling down.  In Joshua chapter 6, the instructions were to march around the city. Verse 16 says, “And it came to pass at the seventh time, (on the seventh day) when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the Lord hath given you the city.”  Verse 20 says, “So the people shouted…” and the walls fell down flat! 

Don’t you see it? God does amazing things when someone lifts up their voice!  God responds to the fervency and the intensity of our voice.  Accept it. Believe it. It works!  Don’t be timid my brothers, lift up your voice – cry out to Him in your pain, your crisis, your trouble.  God will hear your cry. You can count on it!


The Pastor's Pocket

Pastor Bruce Freeman

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