Ever felt so exhausted that it seems like your faith is slipping through your fingers? Ever questioned if anyone has been more faithful and a steadier help in times of trouble than God? Join me as we walk through the darkness together, reminding ourselves of God's unwavering love and faithfulness. Inspired by David Crowder's 'My Everything', we'll reflect upon relevant passages from Psalms that serve as a beacon of hope in our darkest hours and reassure us of God's constant presence.
Have you experienced the profound power of prayer? When hope appears to be fading, God's love and faithfulness remain our steady compass. This episode encourages us to embrace our struggles, cease our battles, and instead let our lives glorify God. It's time to challenge ourselves, to strive to adopt His grace and love into our everyday lives. Let's explore the depths of His faithfulness together and emerge with renewed strength and resolve. Brace yourselves for an invigorating journey of faith and resilience.
You ARE:
SEEN KNOWN HEARD LOVED VALUED
Ever felt so exhausted that it seems like your faith is slipping through your fingers? Ever questioned if anyone has been more faithful and a steadier help in times of trouble than God? Join me as we walk through the darkness together, reminding ourselves of God's unwavering love and faithfulness. Inspired by David Crowder's 'My Everything', we'll reflect upon relevant passages from Psalms that serve as a beacon of hope in our darkest hours and reassure us of God's constant presence.
Have you experienced the profound power of prayer? When hope appears to be fading, God's love and faithfulness remain our steady compass. This episode encourages us to embrace our struggles, cease our battles, and instead let our lives glorify God. It's time to challenge ourselves, to strive to adopt His grace and love into our everyday lives. Let's explore the depths of His faithfulness together and emerge with renewed strength and resolve. Brace yourselves for an invigorating journey of faith and resilience.
You ARE:
SEEN KNOWN HEARD LOVED VALUED
Lord, I'm tired, so tired from walking, and, lord, I'm so alone. And, lord, the dark is creeping in, it's creeping in to swallow me. I think I'll stop and rest here for a while, because this is all that I can say right now. This is all that I can give. That's my everything. Lord, didn't you see me crying and didn't you hear me call your name? Wasn't it you that I gave my heart to? I wish you'd remember where you sat it down, because this is all that I could say right now. I know it's not much. This is all that I can give. This is my everything. This is all that I could say right now. I know it's not much, but this is all that I can give, because this is my everything. I didn't notice you were standing here. I didn't know that it was you that was holding me. I didn't notice that you were crying too. I didn't know that it was you that was washing my feet. Because this is all that I can say right now. I know it's not much. This is all that I can give. This is my everything. This is all that I can say right now. This is my everything.
Speaker 2:If the songs were still being written today, the song by David Crowder would be included. I feel these lyrics deeply on this day, and in a year, one that has been difficult at best, this is all I can give Feels very real on this day, so I'm going to attempt to do that for you. Today. It feels like nothing that I have to offer to God or to you by any way of this podcast episode will be OK.
Speaker 2:Right before I sat down to write this episode, I sent a text to my producer telling her what an imposter I felt like, because I am a mental health advocate and in this difficult season I seemingly have forgotten all of my coping skills and I find myself dealing with tears that I did not invite and won't leave. They were like an unwelcome guest sent to clean out something I thought was already clean, and so I ask, as David Crowder did in this song Lord, don't you see me crying? And then I remember it is him that is holding me, just like the lyric says, as we continue our summer in Psalms and as I walk through this difficult season, and many of you through yours, I want to remember the faithfulness of God, even when it doesn't feel like it. There's no better place to find that than in the Psalms. I've grabbed my Bible just now because I needed to remind it of what I had forgotten and, through the lens of my tears, I found that Psalms 34, 18,. The Lord is close to the broken heart and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Speaker 2:If any of you are like me, sometimes this verse doesn't feel true. Sometimes the valleys are so low and you feel like you're there all alone and nobody even cares if you ever get out at the depth of your sorrow and grief. In those times, we all have a choice. We all have a lot of choices, actually, but the main one we have is this Do we believe that God is God or don't we? Do we believe him when he tells us to draw near to him and he will draw near to us, as we see in James 4-8? What if we all stopped right now? I actually mean I pause the podcast and ask him to be near you during our next few minutes together? I am going to do the same.
Speaker 2:I have said it over and over and I believe this with my whole heart, even when everything I thought to be true seems to be in question. So I head to YouTube to find it to share with you. I love you, lord, for your mercy never fails. All my days have been held in your hands. From the moment that I wake up to the moment that I lay my head, I will sing of the goodness of God Because you see, all of my life you have been faithful. All of my life you have been so, so good. With every breath that I am able, I will sing of the goodness of God Because your goodness is running after me, is running after me because all of my life you have been faithful.
Speaker 2:Here's my question to you guys, though why is this so hard for us to remember? God is nothing but faithful. He has never changed and he never will. Perhaps it is the darkness of this world that makes us question everything we've ever known to be true. But as I ask you to pause the podcast again, I want you to answer this question, and I will too. Has anyone been a more steadfast help in trouble for you than God? Some of you may be like me, and you see comments online like this If there is a God, why do babies die? Why are there murders, cancer and death? I have that answer, but I don't like the answer, especially on this day. It seems trite. Most of the time it does little to soothe hurting people. So I won't offer it here because, as I said, this is family time and this real life struggle for all of us has an answer. I can tell you from experience, as early as just 10 minutes ago, that he is faithful to keep His promise to be near the brokenhearted.
Speaker 2:The book of Psalms is filled with confusion about how God brought destruction and pain, but almost every time the psalmist comes back around a God. So is it really confusing? Because, you see, at the end of the day, despite a cloud of confusion and hurt and pain, god was the only one that remained faithful to His people All throughout history, for you and for me. He cares about our tears, as Psalm 56-8 tells us. You keep track of my sorrows. You have collected all of my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book, but the darkness does so often make threats to overtake us. It is hard for us to remember that the darkest night means dawn is just in sight. Psalm 39-12 says even the darkness will not be dark to you. The night will shine like the day, for the darkness is light to you. As I've mentioned a few times, I stole the summer in Psalms idea from my church.
Speaker 2:Sunday, our pastor spoke on Psalm 46. The Trauma tribe knows this one well and perhaps verse 10 has served to indict you as many times as it has to comfort you, as its commandment seems impossible to those of us who have deep hurt and pain and wonder what the future looks like for us or why the past held what it did for us. On Sunday, however, our pastor used a different translation of Psalm 46-10. Most of us have memorized that, but if you still want to know that I am God, I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted among the earth. That's how I memorized it, but he read it out, the Christian Standard Bible, and I love how the Christian Standard Bible translated it Stop fighting and know that I am God. Say that again Stop fighting and know that I am God. Another translation says it like this Cease striving and know that I am God.
Speaker 2:I sat in my chair on Sunday, hoping the entire church did not hear my sobs from the deepest part of me, because, you see, even people like me, who have seen and proclaimed God's faithfulness, have times of doubt and despair, and Sunday in church, I felt as low as I had in a while, so tired of fighting, so tired of striving, just so tired. All I could do was watch my tears fall on the church floor. I didn't even stand up for the final song. How, how do I stop fighting? How do I stop striving? How do I trust God and why don't I trust him, with all of the proof that he's given me all of my life? And you can ask yourself that same question. The answer is easy, though, because you see the battle, my battle and your battle is not against flesh and blood, but instead our battle is against an enemy who wants to destroy us.
Speaker 2:He doesn't want anybody getting behind microphones, platforms, keyboards and proclaiming the goodness and faithfulness of God, despite all of his tricks to use our past and present hurts to make us doubt God. When you take the time to listen to a podcast full of scripture or anything that you put your hand to that advances the kingdom of God, I can promise you you will come under attack, leaving you to question everything you've ever believed, just like the songs of lament and the Bible, many of them from David. What do we do when he collects all of our tears, when he binds the broken hearts, but not fast enough? I don't know about you. Clearly, I get behind a microphone and talk about it because I know in doing so I take the power away from the enemy, who wants to destroy me. He does not want to see the redemption of the years that the locusts have stolen. He wants me in despair. He wants you in despair. He wants us hanging out in the valley believing the lie that we are alone and have to fend for ourselves, because, you see, the lies are so much louder than the truth? Do you know that you have the same enemy? His favorite place to hang out is in the dark, but we know in our hearts and our heads that Jesus is the light, and that light is so bright that the darkness cannot overtake it. But that doesn't stop our enemy from trying to engage us in a battle we have already won. Did you hear me? We already won it, so I'm here to remind you that that battle does not belong to you. It does not belong to me.
Speaker 2:The message version of 2nd Chronicles 2015 says it this way the war is God's, not yours. It feels like a war right now, doesn't it? So why do we try to fight a war that isn't ours? For most of us, the hardest part is in the waiting, the time when it doesn't feel like he's fighting for us, but he is. We are not alone, and plenty of Bible verses promise us that.
Speaker 2:Joseph comes to mind when I think of someone who could have wondered if God would fight for him. God had fought for him over and over and at the end of it all, he put all the pain, the depth and the spirit rarely on the shoulders of the person responsible for all the lies. We all know the story of Joseph and the trials that he endured, and we all know the famous verse you meant it for evil. God meant it for good. What is that in your life right now? I know what it is in mine, and I needed to be reminded that Satan has meant this for evil, but God will turn it into good, either on this side of heaven or on the other side of heaven. If there's one thing I know, is that I can't give you any hope without the hope of the completed work of Jesus on the cross.
Speaker 2:I know what many of you think of God because you blame him for your pain, but I have tried it the other way. It doesn't work and it lands you in deeper despair than you already feel. Seek him, he will be found. Cry out to him, he will answer. I don't know how he will do that in my life right now, but I know without a shadow of a doubt that he is so, so faithful. We see his faithfulness throughout history, especially in the book of Psalms.
Speaker 2:So what does God need from us right now? He needs that childlike faith in him, that it will be okay and that nothing can take him away from us or us away from him, even in the darkest dungeons of our lives. No one can take God from you. Will you join me on this day? Call out to him he is our ever present help and trouble. It is my prayer that today, whoever needed this podcast episode will feel the enveloped love of Jesus around you and let him extinguish the darkness and, for those of you where it seems like it is going to be dark for a season, cling to him like the life preserver he is. I know I am Try it this week. Stop fighting. Know that I am God.
Speaker 1:Have a great day, and when my hope is fading, and when will these do uselve me? I will remember how you. You never failed me. You have pulled me out from the depths. You have Saved me from certain death. You have Showing yourself faithful to me over and over Jesus. So let my life glorify you. Teach me to walk beside you. I want to be more like you, so let my life be one. More by you, more by you, more by you.