I pray you are having a great day today. We have a wonderful God who loves us, has called him to us, and has asked us to join in his mission. We have love, provision and purpose. What more do we need? But perhaps this is not your experience today. Maybe you are overwhelmed by some great challenge or problem that you feel is unbeatable. Maybe you feel all alone in your experience as if no one can understand you. Maybe, you feel you are being destroyed. Allow me to assure you that it's not a new feeling and you aren't the first to be in that place. The most terrible thing about it is that we often abandon or lose sight of God in it.
The psalmist wrote:
Look to my right and see;
no one is concerned for me.
I have no refuge;
no one cares for my life. (Psalm 142:4)
Whatever he was facing he was feeling all alone in the experience. This can be true for all of us. No one else is us. No one else knows how we see things or how we experience things because each of us is unique in our perspective and experience. Yet, there is one who knows all of us right down to our deepest more intimate thoughts. He knows exactly how we are experiencing things and how we feel and what it is doing to us. This same psalmist wrote:
When my spirit grows faint within me,
it is you who know my way. (Psalm 142:3)
Often we hide ourselves, our feelings, our hurts, our pain, our need from everyone, including Jesus. We stop talking to him, stop praying, stop seeking, stop expecting, stop praising. But this is the opposite to what the psalmists did. Instead of running away they ran toward God. They sought him even more. They brought their complaint to him:
I cry aloud to the LORD;
I lift up my voice to the LORD for mercy.
I pour out my complaint before him;
before him I tell my trouble. (Psalm 142:1-2)
Those without a spiritual mind cannot discern this spiritual matter. They may see value in getting the complaint off our chest but that is as far as it goes. Those of us who have the Spirit know that bringing our troubles and complaints to God demonstrates our trust and dependence on Jesus and our Father loves that. He loves to respond to his children with mercy. Even when we have caused the trouble he still is the Father who rescues us because of his unfailing love.
When we are willing to listen to our Father we discover he guides us around most storms and at other times he gives us the protection and strength to weather them. When we don't listen we can find ourselves being blown all over the place. We deserve it because of our disobedience but our Father doesn't see it that way. Don't stand in your troubles thinking you deserve it. You have the right as any child does to call out to our Father for help and his promise is that he will always respond to us because of his Father's love. If you decide to face that storm on your own it is because of some religious spirit you are holding on to which has nothing to do with our God.
Listen to my cry,
for I am in desperate need;
rescue me from those who pursue me,
for they are too strong for me.
Set me free from my prison,
that I may praise your name. (Psalm 142:6-7)
What comes out of these hardships, troubles, and storms is a wonderful testimony that glorifies our Father, if we trust him with it. What comes out of it when we decide to face it on our own because we think we do not deserve God's help is hardship, trouble, hurt, pain, destruction. This is crazy. God is our rescuer and we are his children and he wants to demonstrate his love for us. He wants to strengthen you, renew you, restore you and rescue you.
Right now, call on the name of Jesus. Tell him your troubles, anxieties, complaints and expect him to do something about it. Expect to be rescued. Expect to see a miracle or two as he carries you right through to the end and the storm passes away. There is no one like our God and all praise is due him. You worship him, you talk about him, you read about him, now it is time to start trusting him, walking with him, and enjoying the intimate relationship he has called us to. Do not hide away from him and suffer on your own. Tell him how desperate you are for his help and then watch how everything changes. To God be the glory!
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