Title: When Life is Difficult
Scripture Reading: Psalm 77:1-15
I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me.
2 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.
3 I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah.
4 Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
5 I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.
6 I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search.
7 Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?
8 Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore?
9 Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.
10 And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High.
11 I will remember the works of the Lord: surely I will remember thy wonders of old.
12 I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.
13 Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?
14 Thou art the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people.
15 Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.
A Christian life is not easy. You will face many difficulties along the way. But these need not derail you. In fact, as you go through difficult times staying close to Jesus, you will emerge stronger, wiser and more Christ-like.
The Christian life is made difficult in three areas which we want to discuss this morning and how should we handle them. The three areas are:
Distress
Disputes
Decoys
- Distress: How should you respond?
I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me.
2 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.
3 I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah.
4 Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
5 I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times.
6 I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search.
7 Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?
8 Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore?
9 Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.
Jewish prayer posture is usually
- Standing
- Hands raised
- Eyes open, lifted to heaven.
It is pouring one’s heart out to God in prayer and lifting, stretching one’s hands out to God in prayer.
In the first half of Psalm 77, we begin to see how to respond to distress. You can be assured that:
- God listens to your cry
- Tell God exactly what you’re feeling.
- God likes your honesty
- There is therapeutic effect in asking honest questions.
Charles Spurgeon said this. ‘Days of trouble must be days of prayer; in days of inward trouble, especially when God seems to have withdrawn from us, we must seek hm, and seek till we find him. In the day of his trouble he did not seek for the diversions of business or recreation, to shake off his trouble that way, but he sought God, and his favor and grace. Those that are under trouble of mind, must not think to drink it away, or laugh it away, but pray it away.’
Other says, ‘Go to a movie and have some fun’, or some other advice you to treat your despair lightly. Sometimes we are in such despair that seeking God and God alone can help, and nothing else.
- Disputes: How should you resolve them
To dispute is to engage in argument or debate, to argue vehemently, wrangle or quarrel, to call into question. There is nothing surprising about ‘arguments’, ‘disputes’ and ‘debates’ in the church today.
Take a look at disputes. There are only two ingredients needed for a conflict: people and a problem
Also, the closeness in our relationships combined with the duration of those relationship only increase the potential for us to inflict harm upon another.
There are 4 steps for dealing with disputes even among members of the church.
- Call a meeting.
- Consider and discuss.
- Come to a decision.
- Communicate the decision.
But in the midst of disputes, God brought reconciliation.
The scriptures say, ‘God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’ And ‘Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God. In needing to restore the relationship, God took the initiative to bring peace between Himself and us. And this peace was achieved by sending the ultimate peacemaker, Jesus Christ, to remove our sins through His death on the cross. And He has given us the Holy Spirit to empower us to be peacemakers.
As Christians we have received Christ and have entered in to the full benefit of His work. We of all people should understand and appreciate the need for peace. We of all people should actively and sacrificially pursue peace. We of all people should act like Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peaceand reveal the Holy Spirit’s fruit of peace. We of all people should be peacemakers and thus imitate our heavenly Father Himself. As the Beatitude states, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God”.
- Decoys: How should you resists them?
Psalm 77:10 ‘And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High.’
A decoy is such that a person is enticed, lured into a danger, a trap or the like. Many a times we apparently do not perceive that the problem might be the sin, idolatry, and the covenant faithlessness of the covenant people. The most distressing aspect to our many questions is the false conclusion. That the right hand of the Most High has changed. No. YHWH has not changed. It is His people that has changed.
Psalm 77:10 says, ‘It is my infirmity.’ Another translation says, ‘It is my grief’. The NKJV says, ‘It is my anguish’. JPSOA says, ‘It is my fault’. Psalm 78:14 says, ‘Yea, they turned back and tempted God. And limited the Holy One of Israel. In another translation, it says, ‘yes, again and again they tempted God. And Limited the Holy One of Israel.’ Not only our stubborn disobedience provoke and tempt God. There is a real sense in that it limited God. In one sense it is impossible for the creature to limit the creator. Yet, when God ties His work to man’s faith and or disobedience, there is a sense in which man can and does limit God. As long as God chooses to work in concert with human agency, developing our ability to partner with Him, our unbelief can and may hinder the work of God.
The Christian life can be led into a decoy.
The best example found in the bible that was led into a decoy was King Solomon
He was highly successful -the richest and wisest king of his day. Everyone wanted to meet him and ‘hear the wisdom God had put in his heart.’ Solomon had everything.
Yet, tragedy is that Solomon did not finish well. He was led astray.
What went wrong? It started with promiscuity. King Solomon was obsessed with sex. He had 700 royal wives and 300 concubines – a thousand women in all. It ended with following detestable gods.
Solomon shows us something different. 700 wives and 300 concubines did not happen overnight. There must be compromised after compromise in Solomon’s heart. In spite of all of God’s blessings, Solomon allowed sin to breed, and in the end, it ruined him
