«Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice» (Psalm 55:17).
THERE ARE MANY inspiring moments in the life of Louis Zamperini, the American athlete and soldier who managed to survive forty-seven days on a raft in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. As Zamperini himself noted, nothing is more indispensable to survive a shipwreck than drinking water. However, on one of the most distressing moments of his journey, it had been seven days since he had been able to have a drop of the priceless liquid. Whenever he thought the clouds would bring water, they «seemed to know we were there and avoid us,» Zamperini says. Many times he and his friends rowed desperately in pursuit of a cloud, only to be overcome by exhaustion and be even more thirsty than they were before putting in all that effort.
That seventh day, when the ominous shadow of death extended its arms over them, they had no choice but to resort to prayer. Until then, Zamperini had been a nominal Christian, only outwardly, but not of the heart. However, that day he made a vow to God and told Him, «Answer my prayers now, and I promise if I get home through all this and whatever is to come, I’ll serve You for the rest of my life.» Not an hour had passed before a lot of rain fell over them. «With the first taste, I knew I was the wealthiest man in the world,» Zamperini wrote.
Zamperini’s experience reminds us of this wonderful promise: «Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know» (Jeremiah 33:3). The Hebrew word translated as «call» implies the idea of yelling, shouting, calling out, asking for help. It’s not a silent plea; it’s the desperate cry of someone who urgently needs a helping hand. That was how Zamperini prayed, and that’s how we should pray: as if life itself depended on it (and it actually does).
As I was writing this devotional, I received a message from a friend asking me to pray for a young man who was battling COVID-19 and couldn’t find a hospital bed. Perhaps you know of someone who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, a father who is desperate because of the path his children have chosen, someone who needs us to cry out for some reason. Today we have the opportunity to pray and cry out to God in behalf of someone else, and He will hear our voice.
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Taken from: Devotional Readings for Adults 2023
“I AM WITH YOU”
From: J. VLADIMIR POLANCO
Collaborators: Lorina Maya & Angelica Cuate
