When Life Hurts, Call on God

Psalm 86:1, 3 (NLT) says, “Bend down, O LORD, and hear my prayer; answer me, for I need your help. Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am calling on you constantly.” We’ve all had moments when life felt like more than we could handle. Decisions that seemed too heavy. Relationships that became strained. People we love showing us sides of themselves we never expected to see. Sometimes life has a way of slowing everything down enough for us to see what was always there but hidden by busyness, distance, and everyday distractions. And when those things come to the surface, it can hurt. It can leave us disappointed, confused, angry, and wondering what we’re supposed to do next. But there is something a storm will always reveal: we have limits. And those limits remind us that we need a strength greater than our own.

When David said, “I am calling on you constantly,” he wasn’t sitting somewhere enjoying a peaceful afternoon. He was in trouble. His enemies were surrounding him, and his own son, Absalom, had turned against him and tried to take his kingdom. That kind of betrayal had to hurt in a place that went much deeper than the circumstances around him. David was dealing with fear, loss, disappointment, and uncertainty all at the same time. Yet he knew where to go. He called on God. He didn’t try to convince himself that everything was fine. He didn’t pretend he wasn’t hurting. He took his pain to the One he knew could handle it. And sometimes that is exactly what we need to do. We need to stop trying to carry something that was never meant for us to carry alone.

Sometimes we wait until we are completely worn out before we call on God. We think about the situation, replay the conversation, try to figure out what somebody meant, wonder what we should have done differently, and lose sleep trying to come up with an answer. Then, when we’ve exhausted ourselves, we finally say, “Lord, I need You.” But we don’t have to wait until we are at the end of ourselves. We can call on God right in the middle of it. David said in Psalm 86:7 (NLT), “I will call to you whenever I’m in trouble, and you will answer me.” There is something powerful about knowing that we can go to our Heavenly Father in real time. We can call Him when we’re confused. We can call Him when we’re angry. We can call Him when somebody has hurt us and we don’t know what to do with the pain. We can call Him before we have the answer.

And then David reminds us who it is we are calling. Psalm 86:15 (NLT) says, “But you, O Lord, are a God of compassion and mercy, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.” David’s circumstances were difficult, but his understanding of God had not changed. He knew God was compassionate. He knew God was merciful. He knew God was faithful. That is important because pain can mess with our perspective. When somebody betrays us, we can start expecting everybody to betray us. When somebody disappoints us, we can begin to wonder if God is going to disappoint us too. But people are not God. People have limitations. People make choices that hurt us. People can walk away. But our Heavenly Father remains faithful. We may not understand what He is doing, and we may not like what we are going through, but we can still trust who He is.

So if you’re running on empty today, call on God. If your heart is worn out from disappointment, call on God. If you’re dealing with betrayal, confusion, family problems, relationship problems, or something you never saw coming, call on God. And keep calling. Talk to Him in the car. Talk to Him in your kitchen. Talk to Him when you wake up in the middle of the night and your mind won’t shut down. You don’t have to have the right words. You don’t have to pretend you’re stronger than you are. Tell Him where it hurts. Tell Him what you don’t understand. Cry if you need to. Your Heavenly Father already knows what is happening inside of you. The same God David called on is still here. He is still compassionate. He is still merciful. He is still faithful. So when life hurts, don’t run away from God. Run to Him. Call on Him constantly.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

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