Psalm 102

4. "My heart is smitten, and withered like grass..."
17. "He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer."

Several different difficult situations have come up in the last few weeks in the youth group at church. I'm not going to go into details about it, but verse 4 describes me a bit since these situations. My heart is heavy. Teenagers make so many decisions. Many of them can be very life-changing, sometimes for the good, sometimes not. A fork in the path can change the direction in a person's life, but it seems to be even more prominent in teens' lives. The teenage years are often when people figure out who they are and what they plan to do with the rest of their lives. I've seen a few decisions lately that seem to be the wrong path to take. Maybe it's actually God trying to get a hold of these teens and bring them closer to Him. I don't know. But I know verse 17...God loves to hear our prayers. I wish that I could make the decisions for these teens, but I can't. In a sense, I am destitute because I cannot change their actions. But God will hear my prayers! He knows what is best for them! He knows that I can only pray for them at this point! He knows them, and loves them! He hears my prayers for them and sees my heart! What a comfort it is to know, even when I can't do anything else for them, that He hears my prayers for them!