Difficulties

P 2131 God is our ever-present help.

/ DVH

Psalm 77:1-I2  “I cried out to God for help; I cried out to God to hear me. When I was in distress, I sought the Lord at night I stretched out untiring hands, and I would not be comforted. I remembered You, God, and I groaned; I meditated, and my spirit grew faint. You kept my eyes from closing; I was too troubled to speak…”

This person is so troubled that they can’t speak or sleep, simply because they are in great pain. Even thinking about the Lord doesn’t help how they feel, and when He doesn’t answer – that pain and anguish gets worse! It overrides all the other good things in someone’s life and demands our full attention. However, the next part of this Psalm is where the writer starts to turn their focus around, because they start to meditate on what they personally know and remember about the Lord. and what He has already done for them. Our background, and testimonies of His Grace in other circumstances, are an important part of making it through any new hardship and difficulties. David remembered he’d killed a lion and a bear before he ever tackled Goliath! 

Back to the Psalm: “I thought about the former days, the years of long ago; I remembered my songs in the night. My heart meditated and my spirit asked: “Will the Lord reject forever? Will He never show His favour again? Has His unfailing love vanished forever? Has His promise failed for all time Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has He in anger withheld His compassion?…”  

When our pain and suffering overwhelm us, we can easily end up asking questions like these. I’ve been there!! Most of us have asked the Lord at some time or other: ”Don’t You CARE?” When the wild sea of our circumstances means we think our boat might sink – (Matthew 8:23-28) – that’s the time to cry out for help. Those men in that sinking boat woke Jesus up! But on the plus side the disciples knew exactly where to go when the world was overwhelming them. Because this person wrote this we can see that hard circumstances can come between us and what we believe, and our peace of mind. That is when we find out what is true faith and what is wish faith.

In the next part of this Psalm we can see that the person’s experiences from their past start to help sustain them. They start drawing on those things about God that they already know to be true. This does not mean that they are not still struggling with what is going on, but they return to what they know and remember about Who the Lord Jesus is.  HIS CHARACTER AND REPUTATION.

“…Then I thought, “To this I will appeal: the years when the Most High stretched out His right hand. I will remember the deeds of the Lord;  yes, I will remember Your miracles of long ago. I will consider all Your work and meditate on all Your mighty deeds.”

Remembering what the Lord has already done gives us something substantial to stand on in the middle of any current difficulties.The thing I love about this Psalm is that we can see that this person complains. I mean to hear some people speak, it is as if you are committing the ultimate sin when you can’t cope under terrible circumstances. Rhubarb. We cannot lie our way out of pain … just Who do we think we are trying to fool – the One Who knows everything?? 😶 Fortunately this Psalmist knows where to go with His pain. He goes to God!  

It is far better to get alone with God and tell Him what is going on in your life and talk about how you are coping … or not. It is also quite normal to share with another person, as well.  But choose that person carefully, it can be even more heartbreaking to find that the someone you have confided your deepest fears and feelings to, has betrayed you by passing that info on. As helpers, we must remember that whatever we are told privately, needs to become a subject for prayer – or giving aid as the Lord leads us. 

I sincerely believe all of us go through dark nights of the soul. Sometimes it is because of our circumstances, as well as the lack of relief when we feel we need it. In those days, weeks, whatever .. etc!… I’ve wandered around my house saying things like this to my self: “My Heavenly Father’s knows my frame. He knew this would happen, and if He has allowed it, then He knows He and I can get through it. Please help me find the way through it Lord!” Amen. On really bad health days I simply say: “God’s got this and He’s got me!” 

I’ve gained confidence in the Lord’s Character from reading about how the Lord Jesus interacts with other people who are just like us. He was incredibly kind to the sick, sinful and suffering. The truly incredible wonderful thing about our God is we don’t have to pray long arduous prayers to get His attention. Jesus is standing right there, beside our Father, praying for us with personal knowledge of our humanity. That is what ever-present help looks like! 👋🏻 

P 2119 What comes out when the pressure comes on?

/ DVH

Human beings can be quite clever at hiding stuff, from themselves … as well as others.  Like Jesus showed us in John 7:37-39 “On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.” … If we want rivers of His water flowing in our lives … then  we have to stop building dams to protect ourselves, or diverting His streams of life away from the purposes of God into our own purposes. This water goes through us to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. LET IT FLOW.

I realised a number of years ago that I could be ‘nice’ and fool people, even the people around me … but Almighty God sees my heart, and I can’t fool HIM.  Now, despite the fact that I can lie to myself and get away with pretending I am a nice person … who I really am comes out when I am squeezed tightly by life’s pressures and difficulties. HOWEVER, I am here to say today, do not give up on yourself, and definitely do not give up on Him! “But…”you wail, “I pray all the time about my bad temper, sarcastic tongue, petty stinky attitudes  plus rebellion, pomposity, resentment and bitterness I feel inside, and God hasn’t done anything about it SO… perhaps it doesn’t bother Him!” (Yeah right, telling yourself that won’t change anything.) 

You can tell yourself that, but you and I have read the book, and we all can see instantly in there that’s not what He is aiming at! I now understand that nothing happens to me, or around me by accident. The Lord allows circumstances into my life so I can acknowledge my sin, then repent, and repair things and ask for His help to change. THEN!!! …Then I gird up my loins and deliberately start taking faith steps. I’ve pray this – “help help “ all the time. Why? “The Lord is close to all who CALL on Him, yes, to all who call on Him in truth. He fills the desires of those who fear Him: He hears their cry and saves them.” (Psalm 145:18) My advice is we need to be truthful and admit our faults.

I’ve learnt that there is no use blaming other people for your response. Your response is your responsibility. Saying nothing is better than letting stinky dangerous stuff fly out of your mouth. “But I mean what I am saying at the time!” Yeah, we all do, but what is said in anger cannot be easily repaired. The thing is, someone has  threatened us, and we use our words to push back at them. At that moment we are deliberately telling that other person something they don’t need to know about themselves. Their bad attitude, if they even have one, is their responsibility – not ours. Our aim is to spread love, and our opinion about someone else’s behaviour or thoughts or actions isn’t something they need to hear from us. BTW, if you poke the bear serves you right if it bites your head off! 

Our words are meant to HEAL not hurt. “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Ephesians 4:29. (The dictionary says: LET is a verb (used with object), let, let·ting. to allow or permit:)  “But I have a foul temper!!” Hmmm.. Thank you so much for telling me that, I will do do my best to avoid YOU! 🤣 We do not have to feed our weaknesses by indulging them. Instead, we can learn to actively transform who we are with His help. The Lord Jesus has done all the work at Calvary, now we get to live out what He did IN FAITH. The only power satan has over us is the power we GIVE him. Faith, however, is the substance of things hoped for …” We give our faith substance by acting on what we believe, in spite of our feelings or circumstances.

So when my mouth wants to vomit bad stuff over someone else, I take a great big breath and pray ‘help help.’ And if doing that doesn’t stop the flow, then I excuse myself and go be by myself until the Lord and I have a strategy – and that strategy never includes hurting the other person. The Power of God can only flow through us to the extent that we let it work ON us. Ya might want to read that sentence again, I know I need too!  Stop looking at what the other person said, and look at what you are saying. Our speech needs to build up and help others, not shatter them.

“His strength is made perfect in our weaknesses.”  When I am weakest then I am strong in Him. We get strong in His Might … using our faith. Faith has substance, we learn that when we use it.  We don’t get zapped there, we WALK there deliberately, on purpose, using our faith. Jesus did it. He went up a mountain and prayed, then He spoke things that were going to help His disciples to rely upon the Holy Spirit when He came. We need to stop reading the bible for benefits and start reading it for our ways to become His ways. What comes out when the pressure comes on is what is already IN there. Change and transformation require co-operation, if we want His rivers of living water flowing through our lives.

Our mouth is not a DRAIN for our emotions. 👋🏻