Exodus 2:23-25 – Their cry for rescue came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel – and God knew.

Lord God, when we are in the thick of things, it is hard to know that you have heard me. When suffering comes and hardship sticks around for a while, it is hard to know that you care. I wonder how the Israelites felt when you seemed to have been so silent for so long in their terrible suffering. It must have been aweful to be ruthlessly enslaved with no end in sight. It must have been gut-wrenching to watch their babies thrown into the Nile with no help on the horizon. But God, you were not silent and you were not still. You heard their cry and you cared deeply and compassionately for them. You remember the promise that you had made to Abraham, the promise to bring them out of slavery, the promise to give them the Land of Promise, to make them into a great nation. You saw their suffering and you knew what you had to do. Lord God, in my suffering and in my trouble, help me remember how you have felt in the past and what you have done. Even when it seems like you are silent and still, you are not. You hear my groaning and crying. You remember all your promises; not one of them will fall to the ground. And even when I don’t know which way to turn, you always know and you always accomplish that which needs to be done. You are not still. You are not silent. Still my troubled heart with your presence and with your promise that you are not silent or still. You are active and compassionate for me. Amen.