Christ Will Rescue You

Tuesday, February 10, 2026

God Will Answer Our Prayers!

In Matthew 7:7-8(NLT), our Master Jesus gives us a clear picture of what faithful, persistent prayer is supposed to look like. He said, “7 Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” What He says is both encouragement and instruction, because almost every believer has a “still waiting” in their prayer life. It’s that one thing you’ve prayed about the most and the longest, and you’re still waiting to see it manifest. And if you’re being honest, you’re not even sure what the next move should be. You’ve asked for this thing so long and so often that a part of you wonders if God might be tired of hearing it. So you’ve thought about pulling back… giving the request a rest. But we have it on good authority — that’s the wrong move.

God never tires of hearing from His people, and we know that prayer is one of the greatest opportunities and privileges that God has given us. It is our duty to pray for others, and it is our right to pray for ourselves in the powerful name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And knowing this should stir something in us — a desire to come to God with the very attitude our Messiah lays out in Matthew 7:7–8. But to understand what that attitude truly looks like, we need to take a closer look at the verses that come right before it in this same chapter.

Matthew 7 opens with Jesus warning us not to judge others, because the way we treat people will eventually make its way back to us. That’s hard medicine for many of us to swallow. We gossip, we speak negatively about folks, and sometimes we think even worse than what we say out loud. Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:2 that this cycles back around, because the standard we use on others is the same standard that will be used for us.

There is a difference between having the wisdom to discern right from wrong and having a heart that’s eager to condemn someone. Wise discernment isn’t a license to look down on people — it’s an opportunity to respond with God’s grace. As believers, we’re called to walk in the way of Christ, to reject the sin without rejecting the person.

Scripture teaches us in Matthew 7:4 (NLT) that Jesus said, “How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?” And that’s the point — if we’re truly tending to our own spiritual growth and maturity, we won’t have the time or the desire to magnify someone else’s flaws. This isn’t a small lesson. It reaches into how deeply we value the incredible gift of salvation our Lord and Savior made available to us. The good news about Jesus Christ is the greatest treasure humanity has ever been given. Its worth can’t be measured, and nothing blocks our blessings more than treating lightly what Christ accomplished for us on the cross when He shed His blood to cleanse our sins. That’s where our focus belongs — learning of Him, loving Him, and living out the Gospel so others can encounter the same truth.

In Matthew 7:6, our Lord and Master warns us not to waste what is holy on those who have no desire to honor it. He tells us not to give pearls to pigs, because they will only trample what is sacred and may even turn on you. With razor-sharp clarity, Jesus is teaching us to be wise about the people we entrust with the truth of God’s Word. When someone has no regard for what is holy, they’re not yet in a place to value or respect it. And if we’re not careful, trying to force what they’re not willing to receive can weaken our own commitment, pulling our obedience down to the level of their disregard. Jesus is calling us to handle the gospel with the seriousness and stewardship it deserves.

God is showing us the connection between our reverence for the Gospel, the precious blood Jesus shed for our sins, and the way our prayers are answered. We are called to keep asking, keep seeking, and keep knocking as we grow in faith — recognizing that God’s heart is far more open to us than our hearts often are to Him. He delights in the prayers of His people and opens the door of blessing according to His divine Will, but He also calls us to grow in maturity and stewardship as we walk with Him.

We must also remember that while we knock in prayer, Jesus is knocking too. He tells us in Revelation 3:20 (NLT), “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.” As we deepen our knowledge of Christ, His love anchors itself even more firmly within our hearts.

God will answer our prayers. On this we can depend! And we must be as diligent to pursue Him through Jesus Christ as we are eager to receive His blessings. Heavenly Father never goes bankrupt; He never runs out of treasures. The well of His goodness is always overflowing.

Through Paul, He tells us in Philippians 4:19 (NLT), “And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.” Every blessing we receive — whether small or monumental — comes from His inexhaustible supply.

But we must continually remember and keep at the forefront of our minds that Jesus Christ is the channel by which we have access to these riches. God tells us in 2Corinthians 1:20 that through Christ, ALL His promises are fulfilled with a resounding “Yes!” So we don’t just pray; we pursue. We keep knocking because He invites us to. We keep seeking because He’s already drawing us closer. And as we align our hearts with His Son, we position ourselves to receive what only God can give — the answers, the wisdom, the provision, and the blessings that flow from a Father whose love never runs dry.

This is the confidence we carry: when we come to God through Jesus Christ, the door of blessing is never closed to His children. ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Tuesday, February 3, 2026

When Jesus Steps Into the Wounds Trauma Leaves Behind

Charlotte grew up in a house where fear lived in every room. Her father drank heavily, and before he got sober, he whipped his children without reason. “If I whip one, I have to whip them all,” he’d say. Her mother feared him too — maybe more than the children. And one day, when Charlotte was in the second grade, her mother left and never came back.

Charlotte is in her early sixties now, but she told me her memories after her mother’s disappearance are blurry, like whole years of her childhood vanished. She’s carried that pain in her body and mind her entire adult life. So have her siblings. Trauma has a way of leaving fingerprints on a family, and they show up in places we never asked for or expected.

In her twenties, Charlotte started a family of her own. But without healing, she repeated what she knew. Her husband’s verbal abuse, the instability, the emotional exhaustion — it all echoed the life she grew up with. And today, her children are wrestling with many of the same emotional battles she once did.

Charlotte loves God. She prays. She serves her faith community. But she doesn’t believe in what some of us know deeply — that the Holy Spirit is still delivering, still healing, still breaking generational patterns today. “God doesn’t work that way anymore,” she said to me once. “Prayer brings comfort, but it can’t really restore anything.”

But Scripture tells us something different.

Romans 8:11 (NLT) says, “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.” The same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead now dwells within us, bringing life, renewal, and divine power into places that once felt worn down or unreachable. Scripture reminds us in 1 Corinthians 6:19 that we don’t belong to ourselves; our bodies are His dwelling place and He desires a relationship that is personal, close, and healing.

He sees the parts of us that are still trembling from childhood. He sees the memories we lost on purpose. He sees the wounds we learned to function around. He wants to bring healing not to shame us, but because He loves us too much to leave us untouched by His presence.

Healing doesn’t erase the past. It doesn’t undo what happened. But Jesus has a way of stepping into the places trauma once claimed and breathing life where silence used to live.

Survivors don’t heal by willpower or by “trying harder.” We heal through safety, truth, the slow work of renewal, and the steady presence of God meeting us where we are — not where people think we should be.

Paul calls us to bring our whole selves to God — even the parts that shake, the parts that ache, and the parts we don’t talk about. Romans 12:1 (NLT) tells us, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice--the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.” For a survivor, surrender is never about pretending the pain didn’t happen. It’s not about rushing forgiveness or skipping the hard work. It’s about trusting that God is gentle enough, strong enough, and present enough to walk us through healing without causing more harm.

Because the truth is still the truth: no one heals like Jesus heals. Trauma may wound the soul, but it never gets the final word. When Jesus steps into the places we’ve carried for years, He doesn’t rush us or shame us for what still hurts. He brings truth where lies once lived, safety where fear took root, and peace where chaos reigned. His healing reaches deeper than the memory, deeper than the reaction, deeper than the survival patterns we built just to make it through.

In His presence, what was once a place of pain becomes a place of restoration. Not because the past didn’t matter, but because His love is stronger than what tried to break us. ■

“When Jesus Steps Into the Wounds Trauma Leaves Behind”, written for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2026. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.