Hear my cry O, God! Psalm 61 at HMP Forest Bank.

This week at Forest Bank Prison I shared with my “New Life Group” from Psalm 61. I spoke of how God not only hears but also answers when we cry out to Him!

We saw how there was an urgency and a passion about Davids' cry. He was being real with God, he meant business and there was a sense that he expected an answer! He evidently knew that God not only hears our prayers but answers us and moves on our behalf. David, in simple child-like faith knew that God would meet his need.

The psalmist confessed to feeling “overwhelmed”. He was far from home and from all that was familiar, as he put it he was crying out to God “from the end of the earth” driven from his kingdom and outnumbered by those surrounding him. He then prays “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” David saw God as his refuge, his fortress, his rock! I shared that throughout the Bible there are many times when the Lord Jesus is referred to as the Rock of our salvation, and that here David is calling out to God but at the same time this is an Old Testament, prophetic passage speaking of Christ.

I encouraged those inmates present in the group to pray the same prayer, asking God by His Holy Spirit to “Lead me to the Rock Christ Jesus.” He is higher than we are and will lift us up out of our situation and turn things around for us if we cry out to Him. This message really resonated with the guys in the group. We had a new attendee this week J and he said he had been greatly moved. He described himself as a back-slidden Christian. He had been going to a church in Bolton where he had given his heart to the Lord but had recently fallen away and ended up in prison. He had been crying out to the Lord and now he had come to the “New Life Group” and heard this talk. He saw this as an answer to his prayer and said he wanted to rededicate his life to Christ.

I prayed with him and gave him a Bible and some follow-up literature. I also helped him get his name on the list for the chapel service on Sunday mornings. What a wonderful privilege and encouragement it was to see God move in this way and be part of it! Please pray for J that he will go on from strength to strength with the Lord.