Avenged Sevenfold (2007) "Dear God"

[reprinted as written by Avenged Sevenfold]
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A lonely road, crossed another cold state line
Miles away from those I love purpose hard to find
While I recall all the words you spoke to me
Can't help but wish that I was there
Back where I'd love to be, oh yeah

Dear God the only thing I ask of you is
to hold her when I'm not around,
when I'm much too far away
We all need that person who can be true to you
But I left her when I found her
And now I wish I'd stayed
'Cause I'm lonely and I'm tired
I'm missing you again oh no
Once again

There's nothing here for me on this barren road
There's no one here while the city sleeps
and all the shops are closed
Can't help but think of the times I've had with you
Pictures and some memories will have to help me through, oh yeah

Dear God the only thing I ask of you is
to hold her when I'm not around,
when I'm much too far away
We all need that person who can be true to you
I left her when I found her
And now I wish I'd stayed
'Cause I'm lonely and I'm tired
I'm missing you again oh no
Once again

Some search, never finding a way
Before long, they waste away
I found you, something told me to stay
I gave in, to selfish ways
And how I miss someone to hold
when hope begins to fade...

A lonely road, crossed another cold state line
Miles away from those I love purpose hard to find

Dear God the only thing I ask of you is
to hold her when I'm not around,
when I'm much too far away
We all need the person who can be true to you
I left her when I found her
And now I wish I'd stayed
'Cause I'm lonely and I'm tired
I'm missing you again oh no
Once again

A group effort, "It’s a song that, 'Puts your mind at ease,' says Zacky and is constantly referred to as a song which you can listen to driving down a highway. The focus of the lyrics is, 'Being away from people you miss and love, and want to get back home to, and just being alone and lonely. I know a lot of people feel that way a lot of the time, being on the road,' explains M. Shadows."

"Dear God the only thing I ask of you..." When you and I are lonely, when there's no one around, no one to listen or to hold, no one who is there for us, or cares, or even knows us...God is still present.

Paul, one of the apostles, talked about terrible times of abandonment and loneliness, when his heart ached and there was no one he could turn to. He was hidden in prison for two long years before he ended up in Rome, with not a single visitor except the guy who put him there. How did he survive it, emotionally, mentally? He prayed.

Prayer is conversation with God. You and I talk with God through our voices and our thoughts. God speaks through what He inspired to be written in the Bible, through the events in our lives and through His Holy Spirit.

The most important part of prayer is the opportunity God gives you each time to experience His healing and transforming love. In fact, prayer opens one up to the infilling of God’s presence and should involve the whole person: will, mind and emotion.

In prayer God gives us the opportunity to experience His healing and transforming love, through worship, thanksgiving and confession of sin. People often treat prayer like a Christmas list, or a bottle to rub so that when the genie comes out we'll get our three wishes. But in reality prayer is more a way of asking God to give us what He wants rather than of demanding from Him what we want.

Often it is a good start to begin by listening to the Lord first in Scripture, understanding what He wants for me and what He wants to do through me, then respond to Him in prayer. God uses prayer to teach you and me to depend on Him and to tune our desires and wishes to His will.

In prayer we experience God as personal and powerful. The Bible teaches that God is sovereign and ordains all events, yet the Bible also teaches that prayer is powerful and effective. These are not inconsistent principles, because God ordains the means as well as the ends for His divine purposes. Prayer is a means God uses to bring about what He intends to have happen.

The prayer in this song is especially poignant, and, as it happens, a very scriptural prayer, to ask God to comfort the one the poet loves while he's away. And just being able to voice his loneliness, his regret at leaving, his desire to be reunited, the poet gets some comfort himself. God is listening and He cares more than you and I could ever really know.

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