There are times of great distress and discouragement for all people, whether they are a citizen of Heaven or not. As lovers of Jesus, we can fall into the trap of thinking we need to be happy and blissful all the time, but that is not reality. We are blessed because we are children of God. We do have joy in the Lord because of His grace and mercy towards us. But we don't always feel that way. In Psalm 42, the psalmist wrestles with his own soul, and what is recorded is a brutally honest discussion of faith, truth, and feelings. He begins with a declaration of his longing for God. "As the deer longs for streams of water...,"...
“And the Lord spoke kind and comforting words to the angel who talked with me.” - Zechariah 1:13 Sometimes my struggle hasn't been whether God can do something, but just whether He will. It becomes difficult to trust that He will act since we don’t know if He will. When a prayer is seemingly unanswered, we fall back on what we know, that our God is all-knowing, kind, and knows what is best for us. And that can mean He doesn't act because it's what is best for our current situation. Even though I can reason this out, it does leave me in a place of discouragement sometimes. The verse above is a beautiful look into the character of our...
"The time is short,yet the road it seems so longwhen I look into the troubles of my life." Sometimes the road seems long and hard. Daily trials, hardships, and mistakes can compound, leaving me to wonder, "Where are you, Lord, in all of this?" Paul speaks of pressing on, and James says to count it all joy, yet I find it hard to identify with those words and ideas. I don't always have the resolve to endure. This time of unknown is where faith kicks in – doing something when I don't feel like it. I can trust God even though I don't see a solution. The following excerpt from “Daily With The King” captures a difficult season of life...
“Is that so?” retorted Pharaoh. “And who is the Lord? Why should I listen to him and let Israel go? I don’t know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.” - Exodus 5:2 Moses and Aaron were ready. They had received their instructions from the Lord and were following through with obedience. The day before, they had communicated all the Lord had said to the leaders of the Israelites. The news that the Lord had heard them and was concerned over their bondage and misery comforted the nation and inspired worship. Confident that the Lord and the nation are with them, Moses and Aaron approach Pharoah and are met with a response they did not expect. Pharoah scoffed at...
“About this time, a man and woman from the tribe of Levi got married.” - Exodus 2:1 Many verses in the Bible appear unimportant or ancillary when first reading them. Exodus 2 begins with an account of an ordinary marriage. Yet, Paul wrote to Timothy, "All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us…” (2 Timothy 3:16) First, we can infer that all marriage is significant. God instituted marriage from the beginning for our benefit, and it is designed to be intrinsically beneficial and lasting. Secondly, we see that without this marriage, Moses, the Deliverer of the Hebrews, would not have been born. This mother and father are unnamed, and we only know that they are part...
