When life turns out the lights

Image: Pixabay

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Ezekiel 40-44;  Psalm 43

TO CHEW ON:
“Oh, send out Your light and Your truth!
Let them lead me
Let them bring me to Your holy hill
And to Your tabernacle.” Psalm 43:3

Have you ever tried to walk a footpath—even one you know well—in the dark? Without the benefit of light how easy it is to stumble on subtle unevenesses, to miss obstacles, to run into things, or “see” things that aren’t even there!

Such walking in darkness is bad enough in the physical, but we can also experience it spiritually. That’s what the psalmist seems to be going through in today’s reading.

His distress has several sources. In the verses preceding our focus verse he speaks of an “ungodly nation” and an “unjust man” who trouble him. In Psalm 42 (which commenters believe was originally joined to Psalm 43 as one psalm—note the common refrain in Psalm 42:5,11; 43:5) he speaks of cynics who mock him in his grief (Psalm 42:3) and a personal sense of depression and loss of hope (Psalm 42:5,6; 43:5).

And so he prays for light—a light that will lead him back to God and His house (“Your Tabernacle”), where he dreams of joining others in worship (Psalm 42:4).

It’s easy to identify with the psalmist in his cry for light. Life throws many surprises at us too. Loved ones get sick, or we get a bad diagnosis. Natural disasters wreak havoc with our surroundings and our lives. Money problems are the wreckage of marketplace storms. We often find ourselves asking why, what next, where to from here? We may feel left in the dark, as if God has abandoned us.

At these times, let’s pray, with the psalmist, to get back to Him:

“Oh, send out Your light and Your truth!
Let them lead me”

For He is the source of light (“… God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” - 1 John 1:5). With our hand in His, we can walk any dark path.

PRAYER:
Dear Father, uncertainty is so much a part of the human condition—of my condition. Help me not to stew about what I can’t see ahead, but to seek You, to join other believers in Your house, and in faith to enter into praise and worship no matter what my circumstances. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 43

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Calamities and spiritual warfare

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Job 4-7; Psalm 136

TO CHEW ON: "'Oh that I might have my request,
That God would grant me the thing that I long for!
That it would please God to crush me,
that He would loose His hand and cut me off!'" Job 6:8,9

Does Job sound depressed or what?

You will recall the beginning of the story, how in one day Job's life falls apart when calamity strikes from all directions. And then he gets sick (Job 1-2:10). His friends come to comfort him. Here he responds to the speech of his friend Eliphaz.

Job sounds like he feels betrayed, double-crossed, and attacked by the God he has been trying to please: "'For the arrows of the Almighty are within me; My spirit drinks their poison; The terrors of God are arrayed against me'" - Job 6:4.

He feels physically unable to bear the agony: "'Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh bronze?'" - Job 6:12.

He begs to die: "'Oh that I would have my request … That it would please God to crush me, That He would loose HIs hand and cut me off.'" - Job 6:8,9.

Is there a reply to what Job has said that isn't shallow and trite? Job's friends certainly don't have it for they keep insisting Job is responsible for the horrible scenario. We, however, have information that Job and his friends didn't have about what was happening behind the scenes. Charles E. Blair, my Bible's commenter on Job says:

"Job's criticisms of God that appear in chapters 6 and 7 as well as in his other responses to his friends can best be understood as a man's feeble attempts to make sense of a scenario for which he is missing an essential piece of information, namely that there is something happening between God and Satan—that there are spiritual purposes overriding earthly circumstances. Because he is unaware of this dimension of the spiritual realm, his understanding is severely impaired" - New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 652.

Could unseen spiritual battles also be a part of the troubles, illnesses, calamities, and disasters that come to us? I believe they could. When we feel puzzled, let down, even betrayed by God, let's remember this aspect of Job's story. Let's pray over and into the activities in the spiritual realm, of which we're unaware, and let's keep despair and bitterness toward God from creeping into our hearts.

PRAYER: Dear God, please help me to see troubles that come to me and those around me with insight into spiritual warfare. Amen.

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 136

The Bible Project - VIDEO: Job (Wisdom Series)




 

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Help for the Frustrated Leader

Moses helped by Aaron and Hur - Exodus 17:12

Illustration from Treasures of the Bible



TODAY’S SPECIAL: Numbers 11-13; Psalm 43

TO CHEW ON: “And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Has the LORD’s arm been shortened?’” Numbers 11:23

Here we see Moses so discouraged and frustrated with the complaints and grumbling of the people, he wants to die.

His cry out to God was not ignored. Here is a short list of how God came to his aid and the aid of other frustrated and discouraged leaders in the Bible.

1. He gave Moses helpers, putting His Spirit—the Holy Spirit that was on Moses—onto 70 leaders of the people so they could help him - Numbers 11:24,25.

2. Before David became king and was on-the-run from Saul, on one occasion his camp was raided by Amalekite bandits. All their stuff and wives were taken. David’s response to his own outrage and the anger of his men: He “strengthened himself in God” - 1 Samuel 30:6.

3. For Solomon, his request for wisdom and God’s reply happened in a dream. The next day he went about his work as usual, perhaps not knowing if anything had changed. However, it was soon evident, by the wisdom with which he judged the people, that God had indeed answered his prayer - 1 Kings 3:28.

4. Elijah, after fleeing for more than a day from Queen Jezebel, fell asleep, awoke to an angel-prepared meal, slept some more, ate again, and carried on “in the strength of that food” for 40 days and nights - 1 Kings 19:5-8.

5. In our reading additionally, God’s way of solving the meat problem was, in effect, to do a miracle. When God promised meat and Moses objected: “Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered to provide enough for them…?”  God replied: “‘Has God’s arm been shortened?’” - Numbers 11:23. (“‘Has the Lord’s hand [His ability and power] become short [thwarted and inadequate]?’” - Numbers 11:23 AMP.) In other words, When was I ever limited by anything, to keep My promises?

These are still some of the ways God uses to bring us out of discouragement and provide help (some He does for us; some we do ourselves).


We defeat discouragement by:

• Accepting help.

• Changing our focus from the situation to God.

• Going about our tasks with faith, confident that God has answered our prayer.

• Attending to our physical needs for rest and food.

• Trusting that God can, and sometimes does, respond with miracles.

PRAYER: Dear Father, help me to use the means available to me to dispel discouragement. You and Your plans are never thwarted! Help me to believe this at a life level through up and down times. Amen. 

PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 43

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)

The human Jeremiah

Jeremiah by Rembrandt

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Jeremiah 20:7-18

TO CHEW ON: "Then I said, 'I will not make mention of Him,
Nor speak anymore in His name!'
But His word was in my heart like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back
And I could not." Jeremiah 20:9

Poor Jeremiah—he is not a happy prophet. In our reading today we see the human heart of this mouthpiece of God.

Putting his lament in context, the early verses of Jeremiah 20 describe how Pashur the priest and governor reacts to a previous negative prophecy. He puts Jeremiah in stocks in a gate near the temple. It sounds public and humiliating.

Jeremiah is released the next day, unbowed. He prophecies a future of Babylonian captivity on not only the nation but specifically on Pashur and his household. I'm sure that goes over well! And then he comes out with his complaint to God.

"You induced me, and I was persuaded," he says. But the result is that he becomes "A reproach and derision."

He decides to shut up—not speak God's prophecies any more. But they burn inside him; he can't keep silent. So he speaks again, enduring more of the same, feeling egged on and betrayed by "All my acquaintances." Family and friends too? It sounds like it.

The curious part of his monologue is the section where he breaks into sublime praise (Jeremiah 20:11-13). It's almost as if, in the middle of his rant, he gets a glimpse of reality:

"But the Lord is with me as a Mighty Awesome One.
Therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail…"

Alas, he doesn't stay there but slips even deeper into depression, wishing he'd never been born (Jeremiah 20:14-18).

Jeremiah's honesty here can instruct us:

- Even great prophets have a human side. Jeremiah longed to be accepted and liked, not unlike most of us. Maybe we need to remind ourselves of him when we're tempted to criticize our teachers, pastors and "prophets."

- Jeremiah didn't keep quenching the Holy Spirit within him. Under the Spirit's compulsion he kept speaking, despite how his listeners responded or didn't. Let's not let the negative reaction to the gospel in our time silence us either.

- When he looked at the big eternal picture his tune changed to praise:

"Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord!
For He has delivered the life of the poor
From the hand of evildoers" - Jeremiah 20:11.

The same can be true for us.

- But he allowed himself to slip back into the dumps. I wish he had kept his focus on God—that he had ended with verse 13 (Jeremiah 20:13) instead of verse 18 (Jeremiah 20:18).

Jeremiah's slip-slide into gloom reminds me of something Joyce Meyer teaches: "We have to purposely choose right thinking. After we have finally decided to be like-minded with God, then we will need to choose and continue to choose right thoughts" - Joyce Meyer, Battlefield of the Mind, p. 26).

PRAYER:
Dear God, thank You for using flawed human instruments like Jeremiah. Remind me of him and his humanness when I'm tempted to criticize the pastors and prophets in my life. Help me to overcome depressing thoughts with thoughts of the eternal truths of Your word. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Pessimism-colored glasses

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Ecclesiastes 2:14-26

TO CHEW ON: "The wise man's eyes are in his head,
But the fool walks in darkness.
Yet I myself perceived
That the same event happens to them all." Ecclesiastes 2:14

"And then I took a hard look at what's smart and what's stupid … it's better to be smart than stupid, just as light is better than darkness. Even so, though the smart ones see where they're going and the stupid ones grope in the dark, they're all the same in the end. One fate for all—and that's it." Ecclesiastes 2:12-14 MSG


The words of Solomon's in this passage show us that the lens through which we view life is as important as the ability to see at all. He has chosen to filter what he sees through pessimism. Thus:

• The fact that his wisdom gives him insights and understandings about life that the unseeing person doesn't have goes unappreciated (Ecclesiastes 2:12-16).

• The work he enjoys becomes a bitter thing because he has to leave the fruit of it to someone undeserving - Ecclesiastes 2:17-23.

• Even the supposedly merit-based inequalities—the wisdom, knowledge, and joy God gives to the man "who is good in His sight" over the "gathering and collecting" of the "sinner" is, to him, "vanity and grasping for the wind" (Ecclesiastes 2:24-26).

We too can sink into such depressive thinking if we let ourselves. Even when life is sweet, we can harbor thoughts like, "It will soon be evening and this will end," or
"Something bad will probably happen tomorrow," or "Despite this good incident, it's generally all downhill from here."

There is one advantage to viewing life with such negativity: it is the realistic view without God. Solomon seems to be setting himself and his readers up for what I consider the climax of the book in this answer to the disappointing human condition:

"Remember your Creator before the silver cord is loosed;
Or the golden bowl is broken
Or the pitcher shattered at the fountain
Or the wheel broken at the well" - Ecclesiastes 12:6.

When we do that—live with our Creator and His promises for the present and future in mind—life filtered through optimism becomes the realistic view.



PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for changing everything when You sent Jesus to earth to die and rise again so that a future with You is possible. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

Attitude check

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Numbers 21:1-9

TO CHEW ON: "Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way." Numbers 21:4

Have you ever noticed how one little choice of bad attitude leads to the next and the next until you've worked yourself into a full-blown funk? That seems to be what happened to the Israelites in today's reading.

They have just conquered King Arad, destroying all the cities of his small kingdom south of Canaan. Perhaps the Israelites expected to enter Canaan from that point. Instead God led them on a detour away from the promised land. That understandable disappointment may have sparked their initial complaints.

They began with an attitude that is common—at least to me: discouragement—"discouraged" is also translated "impatient" (Amp, NIV, NLT), "depressed" (Amp), "irritable and cross" (Message).

Their complaints followed the usual format:
- against leadership: "the people spoke against God and against Moses."
- against conditions: "There is no food and no water and our soul loathes this worthless bread."
- had the typical faithless tone: "Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?"

God's response—sending poisonous snakes among them—may have seemed harsh. But it certainly got their attention. The remedy, Moses erecting a bronze snake to which the bitten looked and were cured, foreshadowed God's final blow to sin through Jesus on the cross (John 3:14-15).

I ask myself, am I struggling with a seeming innocuous negative attitude today? Discouragement, impatience, irritability in my situation may seem like a harmless, even typical response to irritations, disappointments, and difficulties. But it is just such common attitude choices that got the Israelites into trouble way back in the wilderness and still easily trip us up today.

PRAYER: Dear God, please help me to guard my attitudes. I want to nip my faithless bent in the bud before it blooms its toxic flowers of complaining, unbelief and depression.


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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Four steps out of discouragement

TODAY'S SPECIAL: 1 Kings 19:1-18

TO CHEW ON: "…and after the fire a still small voice. So it was when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, 'What are you doing here, Elijah?'" 1 Kings 19:12-13

I love this tender story of how God dealt with the über-discouraged Elijah.

He had just experienced his finest hour—defeated the Baal prophets in a power showdown and prayed down rain after a three-year drought. I wonder what he fantasized would happen next. He probably saw the people turning to God en masse. Perhaps he imagined Ahab getting rid of Queen Jezebel. Whatever he expected, none of it came about. Instead, one threat from the vicious queen had him running again, and for his life.

His complete and utter discouragement is clear: "And he prayed that he might die" (vs. 4). How God picked him up from depression to continued usefulness can be instructive for us when we're dealing with ourselves or others during down times.

1. Elijah was physically exhausted. He set out on the road to recovery by sleeping and eating (verses 5-7).

Exhaustion and physical illness, weakness or hunger are fertilizers to depression and discouragement. Rest, nourishment and health can do wonders for our attitude.

2. Elijah sought out a sacred place—Mount Horeb (also called Mount Sinai and the "mountain of God" - verse 8). That was the place where God had met face-to-face with Moses numerous times.

When life no longer seem worth living, it's well worth our time to seek God. The place we go to may or may not be a significant physical location. But intentionally seeking God and getting still before Him is vital to our recovery.

3. Elijah and God had it out. Elijah listened while God spoke. Then he poured out his frustration and named his fears. God's reply was no scold or rant of unmet expectations. Instead, He talked to Elijah gently, reassuring him he wasn't the only prophet left. And God still had work for him to do (verses 9-18).

Sometimes I think we avoid baring our hearts to God because we think He will respond to us like a disapproving parent or disappointed school teacher. But I have found that God often deals with me a lot more gently than I think I deserve or expect. Time and time again I have found Romans 2:4 ("Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?") to be true in God's dealings with me.

4. Elijah got back to work (verses 19-21). God's new assignment was probably nothing like what he had imagined for himself after the Baal prophet fiasco. But God's confidence in him was enough to get him back on-track.

If you are discouraged, disheartened and ready to give up, put yourself in the hands of the God who dealt so tenderly with Elijah. Face His quiet but probing "What are you doing here?" Talk to Him. Listen to Him. And let Him nurse you back to hope.

PRAYER: Dear God, please forgive me for becoming so easily discouraged. Sometimes that happens because I have been making my own plans and following my own path. Help me to place myself at Your disposal for Your plans. Amen.

MORE:  The stranger

One of my favourite songs about hope is "Hope Like A Stranger" by Bob Bennett. You've got to love the way it starts:

"Hope, like a stranger, came to my door
I was afraid, I was rude
"What are you coming here for?
Have you come to stay
Or are you just passing through?
I've seen your face
But I do not know you."


It's nowhere to be found as a YouTube on the web, though the rest of the lyrics are here. It's from Bob's 2003 re-release Songs from Bright Avenue (my fav of his albums). If you like ballady songs, great guitar playing and thoughtful lyrics you should consider getting it!

Do your 8-12-year-olds have daily devotions? Point them to Bible Drive-Thru.