Call on God

We have talked about who God is and how He made mankind, why Jesus came to earth and died, came back to life and taught us that God wants an intimate relationship with us and we can have that relationship through faith in Jesus Christ. All we have to do is call on God to save us from the sin in our life and God will. Now let’s look at examples of those who called on God and what they tell us to do.

In Psalm 17, David is praying to God and calling on God to bring him into God’s presence while stating his confidence in the final salvation.

Psalm 17:6 NIV

6 I call on You, O God, for you will answer me,

Give ear to me, and hear my prayer. 

David gives us a great example of how we should call on God. We need to be confident that God will hear our cry and respond.

Then in Psalm 50, we have Asaph giving us God’s promise if we call on Him.

Psalm 50:15 NIV

15 Call upon Me in the day of trouble;

I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.

David gives us the same idea in Psalm 145 that when we call, God hears and comes to us.

Psalm 145:18-19 NIV

18 The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.

19 He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him;

He hears their cry and saves them.

Isaiah gets a bit more forward with the need to call on God, puts more urgency into our need to cry out to God. He gives us what God tells him to say.

Isaiah 55:6 NIV

6 Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.

Both Isaiah 55 and 56 speak to us of salvation and God’s desire for all of us to be saved from the death of sin. Isaiah encourages us to call on God before it is too late.

Jeremiah sent a letter to the elders and survivors of the Babylonian exile. In it he tells them that God has a plan for them and they need to seek God.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 NIV

11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

12 Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

13 You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.”

A good thought for us today – call and pray on God with all your heart!

If you do this, God promises to be with you always, forever, never ending!

We find a new statement about what happens when we call on God, in the words from minor prophet Joel.

Joel 2:32 NIV

32 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the survivors whom the Lord calls.

Then we have Peter addressing the crowd at Pentecost with this same statement:

Acts 2:21 NIV

21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Finally, we have Paul telling us that a relationship with God is available to all who call on God. He gives us the same words in verse 13 that we just read from Peter and Joel.

Romans 10:12-13 NIV

12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile – the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him,

13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

We need to call on God for salvation! Jesus Christ is the only way we can have freedom from the sinful nature we live with. To walk with God requires accepting that Jesus died for us, believing that Jesus did that to wipe away our death sentence for our sin so we can be clean and whole before God.

We also are to call on God for strength, patience, protection, joy, guidance, and love. Our calls are done through prayer, and Paul tells us to “pray without ceasing”. (1 Thessalonians 5:17 NKJV). If we do that, we will be walking and talking with God for eternity.

Let’s pray!