When Your Tongue Fails for Thirst

Isaiah 41, beginning in verse 15  “Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.  16 Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel.”

Now friends – that is a wonderful promise.  God is promising here that if we will do as He tells you to do, and not do what He tells us not to do, then whenever a mountain comes up in front of us in our lives, then we will be able to grind those mountains down to chaff, and then the wind (His Holy Spirit) will come in and blow that chaff away.  Now that is just a wonderful promise from God isn’t it???  But I have to be honest with you:

• Some days, I have trouble relating to that kind of passage:
• Some days, I don’t feel like I beat down mountains.

Now, maybe you beat down mountains all the time.  Maybe you are on a spiritual high all the time.  Some days, I just have trouble relating to that kind of promise.  Some days, I feel more like the mountains are beating me down.

• Have you ever been there?
• Ever been in the place where you are doing everything you can to serve God but you feel like you’re beaten down?

Folks, I’m just saying that some days.  I just have trouble relating to this Passage:  Its’ not that I don’t believe God can surely beat down the mountains, and Hey – I’ve beat down a few mountains in my lifetime.  I’m simply saying that sometimes I feel like the mountains are beating me down more than I’m beating them down.  And the truth is, that’s where most of tend to live!

Then we get to verse 17.  Now this is where I seem to live sometimes.  Verse 17:  “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.”

How discouraging it must be for someone that desperately needs water to think they’ve found water, only to discover there is none.  Think about the cowboys from the old movies.  They are out in the desert, crawling around desperately looking for water, he looks up and sees what he thinks is water.  And, with all the strength that is in him, he lifts himself up and runs the best he can to that water, diving in face first, only to get his face buried in sand – it was just a mirage!

How disappointing it must be to be dying of thirst, and think you’ve found water, only to find there is none.  Now stay with me:

It is my opinion, that every Sunday, all across our country, somebody heaves themselves out of bed on a Sunday morning, whose life is a total wreck.  They have made a mess of their lives.  They have tried everything the devil had to offer, only to find it has left them with a big, gaping hole in their souls.  All the drugs, sex, alcohol in the world couldn’t fill it.

So, they rise up on a Sunday morning, and sitting on the edge of their bed, they think to themselves, “Well, I’ve tried everything else in the world, and it ain’t working, MAYBE I will find a church this morning and see if they have anything to offer that can fill this emptiness in my soul.”

So, they find a church somewhere, and they come in unannounced and uninvited.

• They come in looking like they did at their house; They come in smelling like they did at their house.
• They come in and sit down – and nobody goes over and shakes their hand – cause they look different;
• Nobody goes over and says, “I’m glad you came to our church today.  God loves you so much.”

So, they sit there and listen to the choir sing songs they don’t understand (and I’m talking about the choir – not the visitor).

They hear the preacher talk about his own personal pet peaves – how nobody loves him and everybody just bashes them on social media;

And here is this visitor, dead in his trespasses and sin, with a big ole gapping hole in his soul, desperately needing a drink of the Living Water, only to find there is none!

What a shame it is, that all across our country, people are coming to church hurting, broken and in need of water:

• And they don’t hear one message about how to fill that gapping hole in their soul;
• They don’t hear one message about the blessed hope;
• About how to find forgiveness of sin.

So they leave church just as empty as when they came, and they say to themselves, “Well, I guess there was nothing to this church stuff after all.”

Let me share with you one of the greatest lessons God has taught me about prayer.  Maybe you don’t need this lesson – but maybe you do!

Sometimes, over my Christian life; sometimes over the life of my kids and my grandkids; during the lives of people I’ve known and loved – sometimes bad things happen, and I don’t understand why bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people.  Sometimes I can’t explain them.  ALL I KNOW IS THAT GOD IS WORKING ALL THINGS IN MY LIFE FOR MY GOOD AND HIS GLORY.

But there are times that I don’t understand why I’m going through certain things, or why people I know and love are going through certain things.  So sometimes I go to pray for these things, and for the people I love, and I get on the altar and pray, only to find I don’t know what to say.  I didn’t understand enough about what’s going on even to put it into words.

There have been times I’ve gotten down to pray for something that I’ve prayed for so many times that I don’t even know what to say anymore.

So there I am kneeling at the altar, not knowing what to say – but hear me – God doesn’t need you to explain it to Him.  When I can’t explain it myself, how in the world am I supposed to explain it to God?

So there I am praying, and I get up feeling like a failure ‘cause I didn’t know what to say.  There are people I love, people I care about that I’ve prayed so much for that I don’t even know what to say anymore.

But let me show you a wonderful promise God shared with me about prayer.  The Reality of Prayer is this:

• You don’t have to say something to pray;
• You don’t even have to think something to pray.

Now, let me show you how I know this:  Back to our text:  “The poor and needy seek water, and there is none, their tongue faileth for thirst.  I THE LORD WILL HEAR THEM.”

Joe, what do you mean?  When you can’t find the words, when your tongue faileth – God hears you.

Now, turn with me to Romans 8.  We are all familiar with Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things  work together for the good of them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”  However, before we get to verse 28, you’ve got to go through verses 26 and 27:

“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.  27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.  28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God”

Why, because verse 27 says it is the will of God.

You know what – those times I prayed and felt like such a failure, are probably the times in my life when I prayed the most – because that is when the Holy Spirit was praying for me.

I don’t know about you, but I think I would much rather have the Holy Spirit praying for me than to have me praying for me.

“When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them”