What is the source of the inner hurt and pain that consumes your life? Do you ever think that no one cares about you or that no one has truly endured a life like your own? Deep down every person wants to know that there is someone who knows their hopes, dreams, fears, worries, pains, and desires. We search out someone who will fulfill that desire in our life and when we fail to find the perfect soul mate we turn to our idols to meet our needs. Do you feel a weight of hopelessness because no one is there to help you? Has everyone let you down and you dwell in a state of continual despair? Where can your hope be found? I can tell you today that there is someone who knows you better than you know yourself. God almighty the Lord of heaven and earth is the one that your are craving to know because He fully knows you. “O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways.” Psalm 139:1-4 Continue Reading…
The weight of hopelessness removed at the cross of Calvary: Psalm 139
Moments when a cry for help is all we can utter: Psalm 70
Have circumstances weighted you down to the point that you can only cry “Help”? Have words failed you as you look upon a heap of ruined hopes and dreams? Do you feel like an outcast and a reject who has no hopeful outlook for life? You are not alone my friend. When your world closes in around you and help is elusive remember the cry of David in Psalm 70. David was crying for God to quickly help and deliver him from his troubles. If we will focus upon God alone for our help we can have our hope in Him and our simple cry for help is all that we need to utter. “Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; and let those who love Your salvation say continually, ‘Let God be magnified.’ But I am afflicted and needy; Hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay.” Psalm 70:4,5 Our hope is secure in the faithfulness of God; rest your burdened heart in the hope and help that is found at the cross of Calvary. Continue Reading…
Remembrance of the past endures the present: Psalm 42
Are you saddened when you remember the seasons of life when your relationship with God was paramount to you? Did the worries of life weigh you down tainting your hope and outlook? Does your soul ache within you as you look back on moments when your faith was so vividly clear? The hope to endure these overcast and downtrodden seasons of life is glimpsed in Psalm 42. “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so by soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?” Psalm 42:1,2 We need God more than we desire water to sustain our bodies; our soul will remain tormented, empty and barren without God’s living water that restores the parched soul. Continue Reading…
A fast food faith in God will never satisfy: Psalm 25
Do you enjoy waiting? When you are unemployed is it easy to wait on God to provide work as the money in your bank account runs out? When you are single do you desire to take the best option for a spouse currently around you instead of waiting for God’s perfect match for your life? Sometimes do you wish you could get a fast food faith in God that you could get by driving through a church parking lot instead of a life of faith developed through years of dependance on God in painful moments? The most important aspect of life and faith are governed by waiting. It is not natural for us to wait so how do we learn to endure and trust God? Continue Reading…
Deliverance birthed from the acknowledgment of inability: Psalm 6
When weariness and anguish overwhelm you where where do you go for solitude? When your heart aches over the loss of a loved one where is hope found? When your mind is clouded with regret where is clarity found? When your soul is aching for something more than mundane existence where will purpose be found? When illness has sapped your strength where will healing come from? When life crashes down around you and each thought is clouded by pain and doubt where will help be found?When our heart, mind, soul and strength are broken by the circumstances of life, who can help? In the midst of difficult moments the desire and ability to rise up above the gloom will never be found in your own capabilities. God alone is able to rescue us from the despair that sin has brought. Continue Reading…
Dependance in the face of deadly opposition: Psalm 3
Where did David turn for help when he was hunted by his son Absalom? 2 Samuel details the calamity that came upon David from within his own family when Absalom desired to kill him and take the throne of Israel. How would you react if one of your children desired to see you killed? In Psalms 3 we find out how David endured his time of exile as his son sought to kill him.
Though the adversaries all around David increased and their counsel proclaimed that no help could be found in God, David chose to cling to God for his help and hope. God was the shield and glory of David. Do you have the faith and confidence to run to God when you face insurmountable obstacles? Continue Reading…
Do your words bring comfort to hurting hearts: Job 35 and 36
What is the point of Elihu’s discord after the discussion of Job, Zophar, Bildad and Eliphaz? I find myself reading the words that Elihu spoke with great caution. Why is this? What about the words of Elihu make me wary? What was the motive of this young man? Does Elihu have a greater degree of head knowledge concerning God only to have little of that knowledge transform his heart? I cannot know the heart of Elihu but it seems that there is an underlying self righteousness to Elihu’s arguments.
“How much less when you say you do not behold Him, the case is before Him, and you must wait for Him! And now, because He has not visited in His anger, nor has He acknowledged transgression well, so Job opens his mouth emptily; he multiplies words without knowledge.” Job 35:14-16 Continue Reading…
The greatness of God brings hope in trouble: Job 25 and 26
What is the difference between the views presented by Bildad and Job? What are they both saying in Job 25 and 26? Both men are speaking about how power and might of God. If you stop the comparison between these two men at this point you are missing an important key. When Bildad speaks to Job in chapter 25 the emphasis is on man and how he is so inferior to God. I’ll agree that God is infinitely supperior to man but are these words of comfort to someone in Job’s situation? With God being so great man is truly worthless and unable to be made just before God doesn’t bring comfort. Continue Reading…
The never placid and never foundering journey of life: Job 21 and 22
I’ll be honest that it was much easier to read Job 21 and 22 instead of writing a post. It is difficult when there is such repetition in the discussion between Job and his friends. Why does it appear so repetitive? Many times when I read through scripture it becomes easy to make assumptions about what I am reading. So far there has been a continual discussion on the nature of God and how He interacts with those who obey Him and those who do not. As the third round of discussions start in chapter 22 the danger of becoming desensitized to the text is my biggest danger. Continue Reading…
Sufficiency of God over the friendship of men: Job 19 and 20
What compelled Job’s friends to stay by him after the calamity happened? Did they just want to argue? Was it really their friendship with Job? Why do they insist on making accusation against Job? A true friend will not be one who when life falls apart throws accusations or flees from your presence. ”Pity me, pity me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has struck me. Why do you persecute me as God does, are you not satisfied with my flesh?” Job 19:21,22 We cannot sit and judge the lives of men; it is only for God to judge the heart of men. Continue Reading…
