Moving Mountains Session 2 Chapters 3 and 4
#3 The Cry of the Heart
Whew! Haven’t you let loose a “Jesus, help me!” or a “Lord, I need You now!” This chapter reminds me I’m not the only one who has had a near miss behind the wheel of a car or boat, screamed for Jesus out of fear of injury for a child or grandchild, or experienced excruciating pain that won’t allow me to sleep. When I was in labor for the first time and had settled into a bed in labor and delivery my anxiety was heightened when I heard the woman in the labor room next to me screaming... “Jesus, HELP me! HELP me!” I looked at my husband and said, “Am I saying things like that?”
The psalms are filled with David’s ballads about the mighty victories of God, but in Moving Mountains we are reminded we can blink our eyes and then read where David is singing songs of lament and woe. Great faith doesn't eliminate our need for God. God hears the cries of his children.
Eldredge states, "The child who cries out in the dark feels very differently when the mother comes in and switches on the light. What felt so real and inevitable vanishes. Let us be careful we do not embrace pain in such a way that we forbid God to turn on the light and draw near."
Read Psalm 42:3-6 "Watch how David handles the stormy waters of his own soul. He admits it, he pours it all out with raw honesty, but he does not allow himself to stay there...David reminds himself that God has been faithful."
Day and night my tears are my only food, as everyone keeps asking, “Where is your God?” Sorrow floods my heart, when I remember leading the worshipers to your house. I can still hear them shout their joyful praises.
Why am I discouraged? Why am I restless? I should trust you, Lord. I will praise you again because you help me, and you are my God. I am deeply discouraged, and so I think about you here where the Jordan begins at Mount Hermon and at Mount Mizar.
We should start everyday with the same attitude. We are on a great adventure filled with puddles and pitfalls, but we know how the story ends. Again and again in our own lives as well in God's Word we see He is FAITHFUl.
Shoulda, woulda, coulda. Whew! I was in a discontented downward spiral recently and needed this reminder. I shoulda remembered God is in control and turned my eyes upon him. Then, I woulda been easier to live with and my husband and I coulda gotten a better night's sleep.
Eldredge says to take up the sword and shield and start changing the course of events by strong determined prayers of intervention.
#4 Who He is and Who We Are
When Jesus is calling Lazarus to come out he says to God, "Father, I thank you that you have already heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe you sent me." John 11:38-44
Eldredge writes "Jesus looks up to heave to fix his attention on his Father's loving face. He is orienting himself to what is most true in the world-not the impossibly inadequate resources for the need of the five thousand, not the sister's grief (they were his dear friends), not even the finality of death sealed with a stone rolled over the tomb. He turns his gaze from all that 'evidence' and fixes it upon his Father God and the resources of his kingdom. We know faith plays a critical role in effective praying...Peter looks at Christ, and he can walk on the water; he looks at the waves, and he goes down."
Remember-
With my great power and outstretched arm I made the earth and its people and the animals that are on it. Jeremiah 27:5
He is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being. Acts 17:27-28
This study is so good. I do hope you will buy the book. Just have to share one more snippet. "Agnes Sanford was a woman with a remarkable gift of physical healing; many miracles were confirmed at her hands. I found it extremely insightful that when praying for sick children, she would often ask the parents to leave the room, the reason being that the fears and anxieties of the parents were actually getting in the way of effective prayer-just as anxiety gets in the way of a good night's sleep, just as anger gets in the way of a reconciling conversation. The parents were fixed upon their child's suffering, and therefore they were impotent in prayer; Agnes fixed upon God, and her prayers were mighty." Amen!
Session 2 The Cry of the Heart- Read Chapters 3-4
https://wildatheart.org/rhplay/video/moving-mountains-session-2-cry-heart
The Song
"You’ve Already Won" by Shane and Shane
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM0ovt_nbd4
