Introduction:

Every participant in this Bible Study has had his world shaken during the last year. All of us remember exactly where we were, and what we were doing, when we first heard of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. We became ill as we imagined ourselves, or one of our loved ones, as a passenger on one of those doomed planes. We stood in shock as we watched those monuments to culture, commerce and civilization collapse like houses of cards. Many of us cried as we saw thousands of our fellow Americans slide into a fiery, unexpected and unmarked, tomb. Then, just when things began to get normal, we were warned of other dangers. It seems the same mailman who carried Christmas cards and gifts, could also deliver death in envelopes jammed with germs and chemicals. Yes, all of us have had our world shaken during this past year.

During the time of our Savior, a Roman philosopher, by the name of Seneca, had his world ripped apart - literally. Having lived through an earthquake, he described the event:

"What can one believe to be safe if the world itself is shaken, and its most solid parts totter to their fall ... and the earth lose its chief characteristic, stability?"

Seneca's words accurately describe the feelings of the general populace, including many Christians. They are not out of line wanting to know, 'Where can we go if the world is shaken?' 'In what shall we trust when the most solid elements of our lifestyle can be attacked?'

From the time we first became Christians we have been told that believers should take all of their worries and concerns to the Lord in prayer. The Psalmist enunciated that truth when he penned the verse that has supported, and satisfied, so many searching souls over the centuries: "Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." (50:15) Under the Spirit's direction, Peter penned the powerful: "Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7). The big fisherman's invitation to find hope in the Savior who had defeated death and demonstrated Divine mastery over demons, is as assuring today as when it was written 20 centuries ago.

Twenty centuries of shared persecution and pain, labor and loss, fear and frustration eventually leads all of practicing Christianity to echo the hymnwriter's simple:

The Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah, lived at a time when people were also unsure; when governments were falling and tomorrow was less than certain. To a world that would not listen, he constantly repeated the Lord's inspired invitation, "Call to Me." (33:3) In the most simple of terms, God was extending an invitation to His people that they trust Him; believe on Him; rely on Him. It should have been a simple thing. It wasn't. The pseudo-scholars of Jeremiah's time debated the truth of his words. Doubters made mockery of them. Leaders ignored them. When the dust settled, God's people were without a home, and the prophet had been threatened, imprisoned and exiled.

This year, in a time when we are also unsure of our tomorrows, Lutheran Hour Ministries has selected those words, given to Jeremiah, "Call to Me" as the theme of its 2002 International Convention. Calling to the Lord, in prayer, will be the theme of these studies. In these lessons we shall try to sweep away some of the misconceptions and misdirections that have surfaced and surrounded prayer in recent years and create an attitude where we can, in every situation, 'call upon the Lord.'