I was reading Judges 19 today. I read it slowly because I felt there was a deeper message there and I did not want to miss it. I will remember this story for some time and I am sure I will be dwelling on it and disturbed by it. In particular, it was all about a woman and she was unnamed. She was abused in more ways than one by the men in her life, especially her father who you could tell had created a culture of emotional abuse. There was no prayer mentioned in this chapter and yet I am compelled to pray for women, unnamed women, who have been abused emotionally and physically.

 “We tend to use prayer as a last resort, but God wants it to be our first line of defense. We pray when there’s nothing else we can do, but God wants us to pray before we do
anything at all.” – Oswald Chambers

Prayer should have been included in this chapter somewhere.

Call to me, and I will answer you; I will tell you wonderful and marvelous things that you know nothing about. – Jeremiah 33:3 GNT

The words – call to me – opens my mind to the power of who God is and how I am invited to relate to Him through prayer.

I call to the Lord for help,
    and from his sacred hill^[b] he answers me. – Psalm 3:4  GNT

I know silent prayers are heard. However when I am in my secret place of my prayer life, and when I pray out loud, they cover the noise that surrounds me that are not of God.  And then when God answers there is a sweetness to our relationship that makes my soul right and I do not fear the world for I joy in a prayer hearing God.

Though [something] is good, it can be loved in the right way or in the wrong way – in the right way, that is, when the proper order is kept, in the wrong way when that order is upset. – Augustine, City of God