Psalm 13

16
Feb
2022
I Will Trust in Your Steadfast Love

I Will Trust in Your Steadfast Love

Suffering. No one likes it and as we wade our way through it, most of us think “What did I do to deserve this?” or “Why me?” or “When will this be over?”

A few months ago, I had Covid. I know that many of you reading this have had it too. I had a fever that would not go away. I was tired it seemed like for forever and couldn’t make it through a day without a nap. Even now, I have this “pain” that comes on me when I am tired or my allergies are bothering me. The long term effects of Covid that so many of us struggle with.

Don’t we so often think when we are suffering for longer than we expect to say “How much longer?”

We saw that last week as we looked at David’s anguished prayer in Psalm 13. He cried out to the Lord saying, “How long, O Lord?” We left off last week with pouring out our anguished hearts to the Lord. When we are suffering, we need to tell the Lord how we feel. It is important to acknowledge our feelings. When we can name them, we then can better identify what is causing us to feel this way. If we do not identify how we feel, we tend to push our feelings down and pretend they are not there. This causes many other issues.

Once we have laid our hearts out before the Lord and let Him know how we feel, we come to the balm in Psalm 13:5, 6.

“But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.”

 

So often when we change from looking at the human condition to God, we see the word “but.” In other words, God wants us to see that there is contrast between who we are and who He is. There is a contrast between what humans have to offer and what God has to offer.

When we have laid out our hearts before the Lord, then we need to recognize who God is.

First, we see that God has steadfast love. He has an everlasting love for us that will not be taken away.

When we are crying out to God and asking Him how much longer, we forget that He has a steadfast love for us. We must commit to trusting in God’s steadfast love.

When suffering and disappointment and hurt rage through our hearts and lives, do we commit to trusting in God’s steadfast love?

God does not change. His love for us is steadfast. When we are in the midst of suffering and in pain, we think that God has forgotten us. We think that He has abandoned us and we are in the midst of suffering all alone.

We must make a choice. Will we choose to trust in God’s steadfast love, or will we choose to feel sorry for ourselves? Since God is unchanging and His love for us is steadfast, it is us as changing creatures to make the choice.

What does your heart rejoice in? David says that our “hearts shall rejoice in your salvation.” (Psa. 13:5). If you have “Confessed with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9), then you enjoy salvation.

If you are saved, you don’t need anything else. When life lets us down, the thing we should rejoice in and cling to is that we have been saved. Saved from eternal separation from God. Saved from eternal punishment. Saved to an eternal relationship with our Creator. What else do we need?

But, we think we need so much more. We think we need the blessings that this world says are blessings. When we trust in God’s steadfast love and we rejoice in our eternal salvation, what else do we need?

When we choose to dwell on the good things that God has given to us, it will cause us to “sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me” (Psalm 13:6).

God deals bountifully with us. The problem as humans is we choose too often to look at the bounty that the world says is bounty and think we are lacking in worldly bounty so God must not love me.

God loves you with a steadfast and bountiful love that is never self-centered on His part, is never lacking, and is continual. When we stop measuring the love of God to the worldly standards of love, we will begin to see how steadfast and bountiful His love is.

After you have poured out your heart to God and told Him how you feel (Psalm 13:1-4), you need to then focus on who God is and what He has done for you. Allow these thoughts to rule your thinking and in so doing your emotions will change from pain and hurt to joy and thanksgiving. As David so often did, you will “sing to the Lord.” (Psalm 13:6)

 

Posted by ddykema5@gmail.com in The Seasons of Motherhood, 0 comments
09
Feb
2022
First Step in Suffering

First Step in Suffering

Last week, I talked about “Imitation is the highest form of flattery” related to the suffering that we experience in life. There is not anyone that would say that life is easy. Life is hard. There are definitely many wonderful things in life, but there are also hard things in life that we have to struggle through. Sometimes, those moments feel like we are in a quagmire of quick sand with no hard ground in sight nor a lifesaving hand from a friend.

The pain is so deep and intense all we want to do is figure out some way for it to go away.

Usually, we resort to what seems like it will bring relief at the moment. We lash out in anger at whoever is nearest. We indulge in whatever food makes us feel better and continue to indulge until we can’t eat another bite. Maybe we drown our sorrows in alcohol or drugs. Sometimes, we hide away and cry for days and can’t seem to move off the couch or out of bed.

Then what?

After we have lashed out in anger, eaten our way through a container of ice cream, drank to excess or “drugged up” until we pass out, or cried until our eyes are puffy and we have missed a week of life; what is it that we have left? What did all of these things do for the pain? Is the pain still there? Is the sorrow still lingering?

And what do we have to show for it but broken relationships, weight gain and clothes that don’t fit, and chores that still are not done and a boss that is angry because our work still isn’t done.

So what do we do?

David went through many difficult challenges in his life. He is such a good example of how to handle the emotional turmoil that we deal with.

Psalm 13:1 starts with “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?”

Don’t you feel like God has forgotten you and the pain is going to never end? Don’t you just want to ask God how much longer He will make you suffer?

Go ahead and ask Him. Go ahead and tell God how you feel. We feel like God has forgotten us in our pain and in our sorrows. We feel like He doesn’t even care about us and our suffering. “How long will you hide your face from me?” (Psa. 13:1).

God wanted us to see the struggles of David, who was a “man after His own heart,” (Acts 13:22), and how he handled the challenges and the calamities of life. He called out to God. David did not deny how the suffering made him feel, he did not try to hide from the pain. Rather, he took the pain to the Lord and told the Lord how he felt.

Have you done that? Have you told the lord how heavy the burden is? Have you told the Lord how you feel about the situation?

What happens so often is we deny how we feel and try to cover our feelings and pretend we aren’t hurting, or we go to a friend and tell them everything about the situation and how we are feeling. Neither one of these are the solution.

David showed us that we must take all the pain to the Lord and tell Him how we feel. Have you done that?

David asked the Lord, “How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?” (Psalm 13:2). This is how we feel. How much longer is this pain and suffering and sorrow going to go on for?

We don’t know the answer, but God does.

So go to Him and tell Him how you feel. Don’t bury it. Don’t hide it. Don’t drown it. Don’t run away from it.  Take the pain to the Lord.

Posted by ddykema5@gmail.com in The Seasons of Motherhood, 0 comments