Lord, I'm Having Trouble...

Lord, I'm having trouble feeling close to you lately. Of course, there has been all the commotion with people visiting the last week. Also, I know I can't rely on my feelings.

I want to think of you and smile instead of being worried I'm not praying well or doing something wrong. I pray I'll feel relaxed and happy in our relationship.

I'm so looking forward to seeing you face to face one day and holding your hand.

Life is difficult, but life was difficult for you too. You were wanting your task to be over so you could go back home. I feel the same.

I look at the world and see the terrible evil of ISIS, racism, human trafficking, drug lords and all the rest and think of you seeing it in detail every day.

Life looks so overwhelmingly sad to me. Yet you have told me that life is beautiful. I pray I will look on life that way.

There is beauty in a baby's smile and a parent's love. There is beauty in kindness, giving, sharing and loving. There is beauty in a sunset, a mountain or an ocean. There is beauty everywhere. The Bible says the earth is filled with your glory and I see that.

Turn my face towards your face. Let me always see beauty in the life you have given me and the life you have given the world.

What, Me Worry?

There is a lot of talk today on how evil and frightening the world is becoming. Wars of all kinds, terrorism and natural disasters fill the headlines. It is natural to be concerned, but I was reading Psalm 36 this morning and God's words tell us what to do when we feel this way.

Do not fret because of those who are evil

or be envious of those who do wrong;

for like the grass they will soon wither,

like green plants they will soon die away.

Trust in the Lord and do good;

dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

Take delight in the Lord,

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord;

trust in him and he will do this:

He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,

your vindication like the noonday sun.

Be still before the Lord

and wait patiently for him;

do not fret when people succeed in their ways,

when they carry out their wicked schemes.

Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;

do not fret—it leads only to evil.

For those who are evil will be destroyed,

but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.

Psalm 36

Instead of looking at what evil there is in the world, let us look up to God for strength, help and hope.

Do Not Put Faith in People.

by Dwight L. Moody

FAITH IS AN OUTWARD LOOK. 

We are to have faith in God, and not in man. A great many people place their faith in men, and they pin their faith to other people’s doctrines and creeds. If their church teaches it, they believe it. All the churches in the world can’t save a soul. It is not to have faith in this church or that church, this doctrine or that doctrine, this man or that man, but it is to have faith in the man Christ Jesus at the right hand of God. That is the only faith that will ever save a soul.

PUT NO CONFIDENCE IN MAN. 

Let me call your attention to a few verses where God has warned us not to put faith in man: Jeremiah xvii. 5: “Thus says the Lord; Cursed be the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. 

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.” You will find some men have not faith in God; they are like a tree that is withered and blasted. And there is a man perhaps right along next to them who has strong faith in God; “he is like a tree planted by the rivers of water; his leaf also shall not wither.” Why? He trusts in the living God. 

It is a terrible thing for man to put faith in man. Then Psalm cxlvi. 3: “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goes forth, he returns to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. 

"“Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me; ...Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God.” 

Now here we are told very plainly by God that we are not to put our trust in this man or that man—not to lean upon an arm of flesh. All the ministers in the world and all the potentates in the church put together cannot save one soul. It is thoroughly impossible. 

It is the Lord who can save, and the Lord alone; therefore we want to get our eyes away from man, from the church, and right straight up to the man Christ Jesus. We read in Mark 11:22 whom we are to believe in. Christ says—and how sweet it sounds—“Have faith in God.” I never saw a man or woman in my life that had faith in God who was confounded; I do not care what their troubles or trials were. Have faith in God, and not in man.

Bitter or Better?

I read a book long ago about trusting God when you have troubles. I don't remember the book, but I found some notes I made while reading it. Here they are:

1. Don't have bitterness in your soul because God hasn't done what you expected him to do.

2. Do not despise your problems.

3. The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness. He does that with us.

4. Worship God in the wilderness.

5. Do not despise the water God gives you and go dig your own well to drink from.

6. Love God for who he is, not for what he does for you.

7. God has a different plan for everyone.

8. Remember Jesus said, "Blessed are those who are not offended by me.

9. You can become bitter or better. You can go under or go onward.

10. You are not alone.

Joseph - A Slave, A Convict, A Prime Minister.

I have always admired Joseph. The story of his life is found in the book of Genesis Chapters 37-50. For me, he is the ideal believer in God. He never lost faith and trusted God in every circumstance.

Joseph was sold as a slave by his brothers. Imagine yourself, a 17 year old, being sold as a slave. What would be your feelings? I would guess:terror, sadness, despair.

Did Joseph turn from God because God had let this terrible thing happen to him? No. He was such a good slave that his master Potifar, Captain of the bodyguards of Pharoah, promoted him. "...he made him overseer over his house, and all that he owned he put in his charge."

In Chapter 39 verse 2, the Bible says, "The Lord was with Joseph..." Yet a new trial awaited him. Potifar's wife wanted to sleep with Joseph and asked him over and over. Joseph said to her, "How could I do this great evil and sin against God?" But this made her angry and she accused Joseph of trying to rape her. Potifar had him thrown into prison.

In verse 21 it says, "But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer." He gave Joseph the job of looking after all the prisoners.

These are the years of Joseph's life that I especially admire. It seems that nothing on earth could shake his faith in God. In this age, when many preachers tell us God will make us rich - God will prosper us in every way - God will not let anything bad happen to us if we have faith; I look at Joseph and I know this is not true.

We do not know the plans God has for our lives. He could have kept Joseph safe from all these troubles, but he didn't. It would have been so easy for Joseph to question God's love but he didn't. God's wisdom is so far above ours we can trust that whatever is happening in our lives, he is with us as he was with Joseph.

Understanding.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
And he will make your paths straight."
Proverbs 3:5-6

There have been times when I have been upset or worried about something and this verse has come into my mind. My own understanding of things is sometimes distorted or skewed. I don't see the way God sees. He is wisdom and knowledge itself.

I love the fact I can just say to God, "Well, I don't understand why this is happening, but I will trust in you. I know you can bring good out of this, and you will make things clear some day."

Jesus

"Jesus did not entrust himself to them, for he knew what was in man." John 2:24-25


"Our Lord never put his trust in any person. Yet he was never suspicious, never bitter, and never lost hope for anyone, because he put his trust in God first. He trusted absolutely in what God's grace could do for others.

If I put my trust in human beings first, the end result will be my despair and hopelessness toward everyone. I will become bitter because I have insisted that people be what no person can ever be - absolutely perfect and right. Never trust anything in yourself or in anyone else, except the grace of God."

I don't know what book this quote came from. I hope whoever wrote it won't mind if I print it.