Pouring Out Your Heart Before the Lord - The Promise of Psalm 62:8 - Episode 135

The Burt (Not Ernie) Show

21 Days of Prayer - 21 Prayer Devotions by Jan L. Burt

Well, hey there! Welcome to this episode of the podcast. I am so very thankful that you have taken the time to listen to the show today. You know, listening is so important for any relationship. Parent / child, marriage, boss / employee, good friends are good listeners, am I right? And I think that is also true of our relationship with God. If we listen well, good things will come of it. Listen well to God’s Word by applying what you read in your Bible each day, what you learn in your small group, what the pastor has to say in his weekly sermon. Show you are a good listener by the application of the Word to your life. And also, during your prayer time, don’t just talk talk talk, say amen, and never slow down and listen. God may have something really important, terribly encouraging, challenging at times, that He wants you to know. So be sure to get quiet enough to hear Him (having a pen and a journal handy is super helpful for me - but I am a very wordy person, so it seems pretty spot on for me to listen well with a pen in my hand because I remember best what I right down, but if that is not helpful for you, ignore it and do what works). Today’s verse holds a whopper of a promise for us. It’s big, it’s vast, it’s important. So, let’s get to it.

You’re listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show, part of the Spark Network, now playing on the Edifi app. This is episode number 135.

Today we are going to look at one single verse found in the books of psalms, smack dab in the middle of the Bible. Psalm 62, verse 8. I’m going to read from the Amplified version for this episode.

AMP - Trust (confidently) in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him. God is a refuge for us.

So, the promise in this verse comes attached to some things. First, we need to evaluate the state of our hearts and discern whether or not we are fully trusting in the Lord. At all times. And the Amplified Bible uses the word confidently as an adverb to help us really understand how we are to be trusting in the Lord. Confidently. By definition, that word indicates certainty and total trustfulness. Full of conviction. Having assurance. Confidently.

Trust confidently, full of conviction, having assurance, certain and totally, in God at all times.

All means all, doesn’t it?

When are we to trust confidently in the Lord?

Oh, only at all times.

Every single moment of every single day. At all times.

And we are also told here in Psalm 62 verse 8 to pour out our heart before Him.

Pour it out.

Don’t hold on to bits and pieces of the things that are weighing heavily on your heart and mind.

Do not hold back when you talk to the Lord about what’s troubling you, about what’s happening in your life and in your world.

If He didn’t want you to get it all out, ya know, like let’s get this totally out of our system, God would not have said to do this. He doesn’t mince words with us. He isn’t playing hide and seek with us. He loves us with an everlasting love. And out of that love for us, He calls us to pour our heart out before Him.

Jesus said in John chapter 14 that we will obey Him if we love Him.

Could it be possible that this directive to pour it all out, all that heavy stuff in our heart, before Him feels wrong in some way, and so we don’t really do it? Like, we kind of pour out our hearts during our prayer time, but only kind of. Not totally, since that could involve tears possibly at times or real, raw honesty that doesn’t feel very Christian sometimes. It can leave us feeling a bit exposed, maybe like shaky or wobbly.

And yet, God wants just this exact thing from His dearly loved children. And according to 1 John, that’s exactly what we are - dearly loved children.

We are safest when we are smack dab in the center of God’s will. No place else will ever be more safe, more secure, for us.

And one way we can know God’s will is to find out what He has told us in His Word. The Bible in this psalm tells us to pour out our hearts to Him and to trust in Him confidently at all times.

When we do those two things, we are in the will of God. We are safe. We are secure. Period.

And then, look out now, cuz here is where it gets really. And then, the promise comes.

God is a refuge for us.

IS.

A beautiful present tense verb.

IS.

God is a refuge for you.

Go ahead, turn to Him in confident trust right now today, whatever the case may be, like where you are dealing with some junk in your life, right in that exact spot, turn to God in confident trust and pour your heart out to Him. And then, just you watch Him show up as your refuge.

Your shelter, your protection, in a dangerous or difficult situation.

He is going to protect you right there in that place of distress.

And God will keep on providing you with protection and shelter for as long as you need it. This isn’t a promise with an expiration. Friendships can be like milk, and can have expiration dates but God’s promises are not at all like milk. They don’t expire or curdle or go bad.

They last. They prove true. And they always hold up, no matter what.

(Ask me how I know…)

God as your refuge means God is your recourse in times of trouble.

Recourse - think about that.

Legal recourse comes to mind when I try to think of how that word applies, where I’ve heard it used before.

Can you think of a better source of refuge and recourse than the Lord God Almighty? The One who was and who is and who is to come? The Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end? The Great I AM?

Nothing and no one can stand against the power of our God.

You are not alone, you are not abandoned, you are not set aside, you are not forgotten, and you never will be.

Because God is, right now, today, in this very moment, a refuge for you.

And tomorrow, He will be a present tense, in that very moment, refuge for you.

You don’t walk alone through this life.

And you certainly don’t battle alone.

Put on armor of God, pour out your heart before your trustworthy Lord, and enjoy the benefits of being hidden away in your place of refuge.

Look, not to be too blunt here, but the truth is that so many of God’s promises are for us right now, here in this place, while we are living this life here on this earth. In eternity, in heaven, the new heavens and the new earth that are to come for those of us who know Jesus as Lord and Savior, look we won’t be needing many of the promises we find in our Bibles. When we can see Him face to face, when He makes all things new, when He wipes every tear from our eyes and all things are set right and there is no longer the impact of sin and death will be gone forevermore…we won’t be living by faith, because our faith will have become sight.

So today is the time to believe God’s promises. They are not for later on, down the road, after a while. They are for right now. And they cannot be used up or worn out so when you need this promise again in a couple of days, which is normal for me at least, been a day or so time to take up another one of God’s promises and choose to believe it, ya know? They’ll be plenty good for all of your tomorrows. But for your today, don’t leave them out of your life. Because they are for today. God wants you living in the light of His blessings right now, this very day. Jesus did not endure the cross and procure your freedom so you could wait around to live in that freedom, eh, ya know, maybe later one, next month I’ll really get serious and start applying this to my life, and kick my prayer time into a higher gear.

Well, how ‘bout now? Like, today? Right now? What’s wrong with now?

There’s a lot more wrong with, “I’ll get around to walking in the freedom Jesus offers me later on,” than is wrong with, “Today I am going to live in state of chronic and contagious belief - what God has for me can’t not be for me, and it is for this very moment in time.”

Which one honors the Lord more? Which one stretches and grows our faith more? Which one gives us a testimony that points to Jesus? Which option is the option God wants us to choose?

Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.

Isn’t that how the saying goes?

Well, today don’t be putting off what it says in Psalm 62:8.

Do it now, today, and get yourself the full blessing of this promise.

Let me end this episode by reading the verse to you just once more real quick.

And I will also add a link to a free prayer resource I created, oh golly, it’s been a few years back that I put it together, but it’s on the subject of prayer so it’s still not expired, right?

Psalm 62:8 - Trust (confidently) in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him. God is a refuge for us.

Would you do that today?

And expect Him to keep up His end of the deal, because He always, always does.

Lord bless you, thanks for listening today and I’ll be back next time for episode number 136.

Find me here:

Jan is the author of the new book “A 60-Day Prayer Journal for Parents” & “The Power of God’s Will – 40 Days of God’s Promises Devotional” (available on Amazon). Find Jan on Instagram: @JanLBurt, TikTok @JanLBurt or at her website JanLBurt.com or at her YouTube channel, “God’s Promises for You with Jan L. Burt”.