Cloud Cover.

“You have covered Yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can get through.” Lamentation 3:44

Honestly,  it startled me when I first read this verse. There are too many needs for Him to make a shield out of those fluffy white cumulous creations: Baltimore rioting, Nepal death toll rising, the 2016 presidential election. Heck, the concerns of my own family alone require His divine and prompt intervention.

It gave me cause to squint through eyes shut in prayer and inquire, “Ya listening?”

Or was He simply hovering up above, hiding Himself behind a cloud in response to my concerns?

“That verse in Luke where you tell your disciples that they should always pray and not give up?” (vs 18:1)

“Yes. That’s My word, it’s eternal and, logically, still applies.”

During the time Lamentations was written the Jews had reason to lament. Exiled from their beloved city Jerusalem which had been destroyed by the Babylonians. Yet they were challenged by the prophet Jeremiah to examine their ways and return to the Lord, to confess their sin of rebellion. God had, indeed, covered Himself with a cloud…for a time.  Yet when Jeremiah called on God’s name from the depths of the pit God heard his plea and came near saying, “Do not fear.”

Ah ha! A contrite heart had parted those clouds.

~What is my heart condition that might cause Him to cover Himself with a cloud and effectively block the heavy flow of prayer traffic from my heart to His ears?

~What needs to be confessed first?

~When’s the last time I praised Him – just praised Him – without tacking on my “Things that need fixin’ ” list?

So with hands clasped together and a heart bent at the knee, I ask again…