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Speaker 1: Life Audio. Thank you for listening to your Daily Bible Verse,

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Speaker 1: the podcast that examines one verse each day to learn

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Speaker 1: more about God and his will for our lives. I'm

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Speaker 1: your host, Kyle Norman. After a brief message from one

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Speaker 1: of our sponsors, we will continue with today's verse. Today's

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Speaker 1: verse is found in Psalm eighty eight, verse thirteen and fourteen.

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Speaker 1: I cry to you for help Lord in the morning,

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Speaker 1: my prayer comes before you. Why Lord do you reject

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Speaker 1: me and hide your face from me? The worst day

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Speaker 1: of my life was when my wife was diagnosed with cancer.

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Speaker 1: We sat in the doctor's office weeping over the news.

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Speaker 1: It came out of the blue, completely unexpected, and in

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Speaker 1: that moment, despite our lifelong faith, our ministry, our knowledge

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Speaker 1: from the scriptures, I'll be honest, faith felt very thin

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Speaker 1: and God felt very far away. As a result, our

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Speaker 1: prayer life waned. We simply couldn't find the words to

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Speaker 1: say to articulate what we were feeling. Have you ever

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Speaker 1: experienced that one of the hardest situations to pray through

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Speaker 1: is when we can't see the path ahead. Difficulty or

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Speaker 1: tragedy of any kind can rob us of our ability

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Speaker 1: to see the Lord's presence or the Lord's plan. When

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Speaker 1: such times can leave us feeling angry or embittered or

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Speaker 1: discouraged to the point of not being able to pray.

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Speaker 1: And when that happens, it becomes easy to feel condemned,

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Speaker 1: because not only are we struggling, but now we can

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Speaker 1: even pray our way through it. And so, in an

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Speaker 1: act of radical goodness and love, God gives us the Psalms.

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Speaker 1: The Psalms have an important role for Christians that are

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Speaker 1: sometimes referred to as the prayer book of the Bible.

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Speaker 1: The Psalms have governed the prayer life of the faithful

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Speaker 1: since the day that they were written. Jesus himself quoted

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Speaker 1: the Psalms more than any other Old Testament book. In fact,

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Speaker 1: in the darkest moment of his life, while hanging on

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Speaker 1: the cross, with his life slowly ebbing away, it was

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Speaker 1: a Psalm that was on his lips. If Jesus turned

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Speaker 1: to the Psalms to articulate his deepest prayers, then surely

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Speaker 1: we can as well Psalm eighty eight. It gives us

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Speaker 1: a template of how to pray when everything seems to

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Speaker 1: fall apart around us. This psalm is unique in the

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Speaker 1: Bible because the Psalm contains no resolution at the end.

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Speaker 1: Where other lament psalms conclude with a hopeful visit for

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Speaker 1: the future, Psalm eighty eight ends with an articulation of despair.

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Speaker 1: And the fact is there are times when we feel this.

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Speaker 1: As much as we try to be people of hope

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Speaker 1: and people of faith, there are times when we just

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Speaker 1: can't see the promise ahead, or we don't know how

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Speaker 1: God will save us in this moment. See. God is

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Speaker 1: not interested in prayers of sachering sentimentality, prayers that sound

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Speaker 1: faithful in word but have no heart to them. God

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Speaker 1: wants us to be honest in our prayers, brutally honest. See.

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Speaker 1: The purpose of prayer is to bring ourselves to Jesus

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Speaker 1: in whatever state we are in. Even in the life

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Speaker 1: of faith, we may feel overwhelmed with troubles and our

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Speaker 1: eyes dim with grief. There may be times where when

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Speaker 1: we feel that as much as we cry out to

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Speaker 1: God day after day, God seems to hide from us,

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Speaker 1: and we may even feel like we are surrounded in darkness.

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Speaker 1: These experiences are not contrary to our life of faith,

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Speaker 1: They're actually part of it. And the fact that these

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Speaker 1: things are written down in the psalms means that we

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Speaker 1: don't have to deny when they occur in our lives.

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Speaker 1: God's love ensures that we can voice our deepest hurts

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Speaker 1: and complaints. God will not reject us for our struggle

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Speaker 1: or our discouragements. So praying Psalm eighty eight, therefore, is

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Speaker 1: simply communicating our deepest hurts. It's a prayer of radical

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Speaker 1: faith and true honesty. Are you currently in a time

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Speaker 1: where you feel that everything has fallen apart around you?

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Speaker 1: Are you struggling under a way or a burden that

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Speaker 1: just seems heavier than you can carry? Do you feel

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Speaker 1: that God is far away? If so, perhaps a way

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Speaker 1: forward is to pray through Psalm eighty eight. Praying with

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Speaker 1: Psalm eighty eight is quite easy. Simply read a line

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Speaker 1: and then repeat the line in your own words, tailoring

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Speaker 1: it to your own situation. So you might read why

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Speaker 1: lords you reject me and hide your face from me?

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Speaker 1: And then you might pray Jesus, sometimes I feel like

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Speaker 1: you don't listen to me, or that I'm not important.

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Speaker 1: And as you make your way through the Psalm in

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Speaker 1: this way, you will undoubtedly find that your prayers have

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Speaker 1: plunged into a new depth. You may even find yourself

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Speaker 1: articulating prayers that you didn't know you needed to articulate.

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Speaker 1: God invites us to express our hearts honestly and fully.

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Speaker 1: We need not mask our emotions, and the Psalms, particularly

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Speaker 1: Psalm eighty eight, it guides us into a deeper prayer

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Speaker 1: by helping us describe that deep movement of our soul.

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Speaker 1: And because the Psalms cover both the heights and depths

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Speaker 1: of human emotions, we can be assured that no matter

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Speaker 1: what we face in our lives, we are able to

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Speaker 1: voice our prayers before the God who listens to us

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Speaker 1: and stands with us