January 12, 2025 Devo

Trauma can sometimes have a numbing quality to it. It can skew our perceptions of reality. It has a way of magnifying our pain and fear and making the darkness absolutely blinding. That’s why we feel hopeless and helpless. It’s also why we feel so alone.
David had to fight through that trauma. Imagine fleeing your palace and the security of your home to run from your son who has engineered a plan to overthrow you. Where will you go? What will you do? Who can you trust? And that other deep, gnawing question: Where is God in all of this?
But even though David was on the run, somehow he found a sense of the presence of God. Jerusalem was left behind. The Holy Temple, the place where David would meet with God, was now far away. But even though David couldn’t bow his head in that holy place to plead his case to Almighty God, he came to a comforting reassurance. God could hear him anywhere and at any time. “I cried out to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy mountain.” David’s voice may not have been loud enough to reach all the way to the temple, but God’s ears were good enough to hear David no matter where he was. And God answered.
God hears. It doesn’t matter where you are. You might be a long way from where you know you should be, a long way from where you really want to be, but God hears. You might be feeling the numbing effect of trauma yourself. It may seem as if your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling. It may seem as if in your pain that your voice is being ignored. It may feel as if the darkness is growing deeper and you are lost and all alone. But it only FEELS that way. God is not a million miles away. He is right there. Right where you are. His eye sees you. His ear hears you. You are never, ever alone.
Go ahead. Cry out to Him. Pour out your broken heart. Lay before Him your deepest fears. Empty yourself in His presence of all of your guilt, all of your hurt, all of your anger, and all of your loneliness. Your cries will not stop at the ceiling. In fact, they won’t even reach the ceiling. The moment your cry leaves your heart it goes straight to the ears of God. No matter where you are. No matter what you’ve gone through. No matter what you’ve done or what’s been done to you. God hears. That’s God’s Word for you today.