Wailing At The Wall

Over the years I’ve heard about the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, where people flock from all over the world to stand there and pray and stuff their written prayers into the wall. Many have high hopes that maybe this time their heart’s cry will be heard, that their prayers will finally be answered by this act of faith.

I was pleased to learn that the rabbis in that area take these prayers seriously and regularly (maybe 2-3 times a week) remove all the tiny slips of paper from the wall to pray over.

On a recent visit to Israel, I had the privilege of going to the Western Wall in Old Jerusalem where the Wailing Wall is located and tucking my own prayer slip in between the crevices in the wall.

Although I didn’t hear anyone wailing there, I wondered how many might be crying out in their heart for some deep need they’d struggled with perhaps even for a lifetime.

Perhaps the only difference between what I did there and the acts of many of the others, some desperate, who came is what Jesus gives us all the right to do but few realize. We are to ASK in relationship with him and to ASK expecting his answer as it is in agreement with his kingdom (spiritual) principles.

Before I even wrote my prayer requests for this year down on a small slip of paper, I knew that God my loving Father already had the answers on the way! We had already had this conversation and I know he knows my heart. And I am coming to know his heart more each day as well.

Then too, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Matthew 6:8b, NIV) This verse comes right before Jesus teaches his disciples the Lord’s Prayer. That’s where he explains how and why to pray. It sums up the way we bring heaven to earth as we connect our mind and heart to the Father’s.

The reason God wants us to pray is not for his benefit but for ours. This keeps us going back to God and staying in relationship with him, even as we draw closer and learn to know him as we see him work in our lives, guiding and directing us and answering our prayers in ways we often could never have imagined.

This is our love connection with the Father!

Blocks To your Prayers

As I approached the Wailing Wall, I looked around and was aware of all the people there – from many cultures and religious backgrounds. I prayed that their eyes would be opened to the truth and that through this experience, they would come into a closer relationship with God in their everyday life.

While I gazed up at the height of the Western Wall there, I was awed by the handiwork of many who labored centuries ago to carve out and stack up these huge stones to build the wall and all the buildings around Old Jerusalem – right across from the City of David on the next lower hill.

I wondered about some prayers not being answered. As I looked at those stones, I realize there are probably blocks and walls we have put in some areas of our lives that may have actually kept God out and hindered our own prayers.

Have you been wailing at God when you send up your prayers to him – begging and pleading and hoping and praying he answers your prayers the way you want to?

What if there was a better way?

Maybe it’s time to acknowledge in your life, as I continually must do in my own, the big boulders and blocks in your own life too. Why not ask God to open your eyes to the truth that keeps you from the answers he wants to send you?

Tell him you are ready for him to help you bust down those walls keeping that part of your heart from him. Commit to receive the answers you desire with no more blocks, no more walls between you and God.

The good news is that you don’t even have to take an 11 hour (for me) trip to Jerusalem to submit your prayer requests to God! He is waiting every second to hear from your lips and your heart what it is you desire in your closer walk with him. You can see and hear and know God right where you are at any time.

Take up the adventure of walking and talking and listening and feeling him in your heart.

Your wailing will be turned into dancing and joy! Life will never be the same for you!

Shalom!

By the way – feel free to click on any of the photos if you want to see a larger picture with the details of it which will open in a separate page.