Pour Out Your Hearts

Godafoss Waterfall, Iceland

 'Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge.' Psalm 62:8

In our relationship with God, we are advised to pour out our hearts to Him. How do we do that? Sometimes we pour as in sprinkling just a little and intermittently. Sometimes we pour out our hearts as in steady streams of water. Rarely but especially in dark times, we pour out our hearts in torrents much like this waterfall in Iceland, a deluge of water, never ending. We come before the Lord our God, bearing all and emptying ourselves to find in God, our refuge and our solution.

Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel, was one such person. Her outpouring to God is recorded in the opening chapters of 1 Samuel. She was one of the two wives of Elkanah, the other being Pininnah who had many children whilst Hannah was barren. As a result Hannah was constantly mocked by Pininnah until she could barely sleep. In anguish, Hannah poured out her heart, petitioning God for a son.

'In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly.' 1 Samuel 1:10

'Hannah replied, "I am a woman deeply troubled. I was pouring out my soul to the Lord." 1 Samuel 1:15

When Hannah poured out her heart to the Lord, it was with such a torrent of prayer, so intense and with so much intent that Eli, the priest of the temple thought that she was drunk with wine.

God heard Hannah and gave her a son eventually, She named him, Samuel meaning 'heard by God.' We know that after raising Samuel to a young boy, she offered him up to serve God in the temple. (By the way the name, 'Hannah' means grace.) 

There is another 'pouring out of the heart to God'; this is the famous prayer in a cave cried out by David when he was relentlessly pursued by King Saul who wanted to kill him.

'I cry out loud for help from the Lord. I beg out loud for mercy from the Lord. I pour out my concerns before God; I announce my distress to Him.' Psalm 142:1-2 (CEB)  

It was a desperate cry for help. Saul, jealous of David and worried that he might usurp the throne decided to get rid of David. Hiding in the cave of Adullam, David felt utterly abandoned, all alone. 

'Look right beside me: See? No one pays attention to me. No one cares about my life.'  Psalms 142:4 (CEB)

There was no one to turn to but God. David invoked the grace and mercy of God and cried out to the Lord for help.

'I cry to you, Lord, for help. "You are my refuge," I say. "You are all I have in the land of the living." Psalms 142:5

Have you experienced dark times? Dark times are extremely difficult and painful periods in one’s life, for example, after the death of a loved one; the break-up of a marriage; or the diagnosis of a life-threatening illness. These dark times may be especially prolonged or especially severe such as the one recorded in Psalms 88; a prayer made out of sheer desperation.

'My whole being is filled with distress; my life is at the very brink of hell. I am considered as one of those plummeting into the pit. I am like those who are beyond help, drifting among the dead, lying in the grave like dead bodies.' Psalm 88:3-5 (CEB) 

What do we do at such times? We turn to God. The most remarkable aspect of Christianity is the honest, sincere and deep relationship established between Creator God and Believing Christians. We pour out our hearts before the Lord God, our creator with torrents of emotions, wholeheartedly,

'Lord, God of my salvation, by day I cry out, even at night, before You - let my prayer reach You! Turn Your ear to my outcry.' Psalms 88:1-2 (CEB) 

Francois Felenon wrote, “Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one’s heart, its pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend. Tell God your troubles, that God may comfort you; tell God your joys, that God may sober them; tell God your longings, that God may purify them; tell God your dislikes, that God may help you conquer them; talk to God of your temptations, that God may shield you from them: show God the wounds of your heart, that God may heal them. If you thus pour out all your weaknesses, needs, troubles, there will be no lack of what to say. Talk out of the abundance of the heart, without consideration say just what you think. Blessed are they who attain to such familiar, unreserved relationship with God.” 

Pour out our hearts and then we will experience the abundant grace of God and His bountiful mercy. There is a wonderful Psalm that gives us this great assurance,

'I will lift my eyes to the hills - from whence comes my help?

My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

He will not allow your foot to be moved; 

He who keeps you will not slumber.

Behold He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber or sleep.

The Lord is your keeper; 

the Lord is your shade at your right hand.

The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.

The Lord shall preserve you from all evil;

He shall preserve your soul

The Lord shall preserve your going out and coming in

From this time forth and even forevermore.'

Psalm 121 (NKJV)

 

The Lord will not abandon us!

Lionel