Welcome back, friends!  My heart and mind are growing in anticipation of our prayer time together next week.  What about you?  I have heard from some of you and I know there is a common burden of prayer.  I’m convinced that God has planted it deep in the hearts and minds of many.  Fellow believers in several countries have responded, indicating that they are on board for the “Shake it Up” Prayer Event next week.  Indeed, this will be an international event!  Please use email or your social media outlets to invite others to join us.

Believe it or not, the name of the event was not pulled out of thin air!  For weeks I studied passages that contained the words or the idea of being shaken.  What I found was astounding, so I want to share four ways that I saw the idea of “shaken” being used in Scripture.  The first is that, in the past, God shook things because He was angry.

Now, before you get off track on the idea of God being angry, let me remind you that God is a righteous judge who becomes angry when He sees unrighteousness.  There is a righteous anger that is justly displayed by a righteous God.  After all, He sets the standards and has every right to judge right and wrong, and every right to be angry at unrighteousness.  To illustrate, does it make you angry to see a child heinously abused by an adult?  Of course it does, and it is appropriate for us to be angry about such unrighteous acts! So, please don’t tune out if you don’t like the idea of God being angry.  (And keep following for the next few days, as I show you the positive side of God shaking things up!)

I want to share two occasions in Scripture where God “shook things up” because He was angry.  First, check out the parallel (almost identical) passages in 2 Samuel 22 and Psalm 18.  After years of running and hiding from Saul’s murderous attempts on his life, David rejoiced in the Lord’s protection.  These passages record his song of deliverance, but iIn the midst of praise and thanksgiving, David said this:

Then the earth shook and quaked,
The foundations of heaven were trembling
And were shaken, because He was angry.
~2 Samuel 22:8, Psalm 18:7

You see, David was the anointed king-to-be of Israel and God did not take kindly to His servant being hunted down like an animal.  David describes God’s anger in several ways in the passage, but includes the fact that God shook the earth, and the foundations of heaven trembled.  God had a heart for David and in His anger over the unrighteousness Saul exhibited toward David, He shook the heavens and the earth!

But God’s jealous anger was not reserved only for David.  Take a look at Psalm 82 where God shook the foundations of the earth (verse 5) while rebuking unjust judgments.

What this says to me is this: our God will shake the heavens and earth in anger against unrighteousness.  Whether a king-to-be or an unknown victim of injustice, God is capable of shaking the heavens and the earth to deliver us from unrighteousness.

Praying friends, there is plenty of unrighteousness in our world, and next week we’ll ask the Lord to shake the heavens and the earth to bring about deliverance from unrighteousness.  We will pray for righteousness in:

• Bringing peace to Jerusalem
• Bringing mercy and deliverance to persecuted believers
• Igniting a third Great Awakening in our nation that impacts the world

God is angered by unrighteousness in our world today.  So, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16), asking our God of mercy and grace to deliver us from unrighteousness.

Stay tuned…in the next few days we will  look at other ways the idea of “shaking” is used in Scripture, which will prepare us for our time of prayer next week.

Blessings!