"For the enemy has persecuted my soul,
he has crushed my life to the ground,
he has made me dwell in darkness,
like those who have long been dead.
Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me;
my heart within me is distressed."
Psalm 143:3-4
Every believer is going to walk through times so painful that it will cause him to stagger. He feels absolutely crushed, and it seems like all is darkness around him. He is overwhelmed.
Why is this so?
Well, for two reasons. First, Satan does all he can to destroy the believer, and he very nearly succeeds; do not underestimate him. The believer can be brought down to where he is totally helpless, and he's shocked, having never expected this. He staggers under the weight of the emotion that engulfs him, whether it be through loss, rejection, death of a loved one, illness, loss of his/her job with no other recourse, the unexpected turn-around against him of someone in the family or someone he thought was a close friend. The stories are endless but the bottom line is that every believer will pass through a time when the rug has been pulled out from under him and he is left reeling. Because the enemy causes it. To destroy the believer.
The second reason is that there are things we need to learn that we can learn only through suffering. Suffering changes everything. It sobers one up. The lessons learned through suffering are deep and profound, and the believer will never be the same afterwards.
When I was new in the Lord, I told him that "I want it all, Lord," I wanted to grow as close to him as one can be close to God. I realized that this passage through this lifetime is boot camp, a preparation, and I trusted the Lord to the degree that I wanted anything and everything that would conform me to his image. At that time I had no idea how much pain would be involved in the answer to that prayer.
As it turned out, I journeyed through every one of the things listed above, every single one of them, one at a time. Had I known how painful it was going to be, I wonder whether I would have prayed that prayer. But ...it brings me to the bottom line and that is that I wanted all that is needed to mature me to the greatest level I could attain to, because we only get one passage through this life, and then it's eternity. I was willing to invest all, for the sake of eternity. And now, years later, I know I'd do it again, for the treasure gained is incomparable, indescribable, and it is eternal.
So how does one walk in times of great suffering? One thing that helps greatly is to bring back to mind all that the Lord has done in one's life in the past. We go on day by day, and we seldom stop and remember the great stories in our lives, and how the Lord made all the difference in our world. It's a time to think back. For those who keep a journal, it's a time to go back and refresh your mind on the stories you might have forgotten if you had not written them down. Rereading what the Lord did in those stories will refresh one's awareness that we never, EVER, walk through the stories of our lives alone.
vs 5-6:
"I remember the days of old,
I meditate on all your works;
I muse on the work of your hands.
I spread out my hands to you,
my soul longs for you like a thirsty land."
When we're in a time of great learning, we are to pray that the Lord lead in every aspect of what we're going through. He is our source, sometimes our ONLY source. It becomes very clear that it matters not what anyone says, only what HE says. The counsel of friends is unsure, but HE is sure. It strengthens our faith, and solidifies the knowledge that this story is between him and me, and only between him and me. The only role friends may play is in the sympathy they offer, but that is moot compared to the knowledge that this is between me and my God alone. It has to be this way. All others will fall short, only he has the knowledge of all that has made up our lives, only he has the perspective and understanding of the goal this story is leading to. He is the ONLY one who can bring us through to the desired end.
vs 8:
"Cause me to know the way in which I should walk,
for I lift up my soul to you."
Later, when the story is complete and we are returned to some semblance of peace, we look back and see what the Lord accomplished even though he seemed so absent at the time. He never was absent, but when darkness overwhelms us it SEEMS that he is absent. When he does not speedily solve the problem, it SEEMS that he is absent. When the time through suffering is long, it SEEMS that he is absent. But later we will come to see that he was very, very present, and we rejoice in the changes that our passage through suffering brought about in us and in our lives.
vs 10:
"Teach me to do your will, for you are my God.
Your Spirit is good, lead me in the land of uprightness."
Yes, teach me Lord. Teach me all I can know about you. Teach me, because truly you and you alone are my God. You are everything to me and I surrender all to you because I have learned to trust you, and you alone ... and gladly so.
“Gather my saints together to me, those who have made a Covenant with me by sacrifice.” Psalm 50:5 The saints of God are those who have made a covenant with God by sacrifice. In the Old Testament, God's people approached him with an animal sacrifice, the blood of the animal atoned for their sin in anticipation of the Sacrifice to come. In the New Testament, the saints of God have received the Blood sacrifice Jesus Christ made on that Cross for man's redemption, the shedding of HIS blood FOR them, and they are brought to the Father through the sacrificed Blood of Jesus Christ. But the Scriptures tell us that in the last days there will be a great falling away from the Word of God, a great apostasy. The sacrifice of the Cross, the greatest event in the history of mankind, will fade and become no longer important to them. "Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron..." 1st Timothy 4:1-2 That is happening now. False teachers have risen in droves, not teaching the Word of God but speaking warm and pleasant feel-good words instead, denying sin, denying hell, denying repentance, calling good evil and evil good, speaking lies in hypocrisy, their consciences SEARED. These smooth-talking wolves in sheeps' clothing give what amounts to pep-rallies. These are those the Bible calls wicked, and they are being followed by the masses. And of course, the money flows. "But to the wicked God says: 'What right have you to declare my statutes, or take my Covenant in your mouth, seeing you hate instruction AND CAST MY WORDS BEHIND YOU?'" Psalm 50:16-17 These false teachers speak what the people want to hear. They reject God's precepts, deny sin, deny the need for the Sacrifice of the Cross, and cast God's words behind them. “An astonishing and horrible thing has been committed in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own power; and my people love to have it so." Jeremiah 5:30-31 “...and my people love to have it so.” How awful. How diabolical. Such deception. If you belong to a happy mega-church like this, run for your very life! They are offering doctrines of demons. Doctrines of deception. Oh of course they quote Scripture, but if ever they refer to the Word of God it is only when they can pull it out of context and make it support their false teachings. RUN from these. If you're hearing how you can be healthy, wealthy and wise, you're being deceived. If you're not being told to take up your CROSS and follow Jesus, you're being fed deception. If you are listening to a pastor who is wise in his own eyes RATHER than in the wisdom of the Word of God, RUN. If you never hear about the Cross, about sin, about hell, about the crucial need for repentance, RUN, these smooth speakers have deceived you. Run from them. "Come out of her, my people..." (Revelation 18:4) Surely the Lord is soon to gather together his saints who have confessed their SIN, who know the penalty of sin is death, who know they are being spared from a real and literal hell, who have turned to the Savior for salvation, who have come in to salvation through the Sacrifice, the shed blood of Jesus Christ, those who have SURRENDERED to him so he is not only their Savior but their LORD and who have picked up their CROSS and followed him; soon they are to be gathered together and be removed from this sinful world, before the "great tribulation," the wrath of God, falls upon the whole earth. The day after that gathering, the day after the Rapture, those mega-churches will still be full. Those who have listened to the smooth words of the false teachers will still be here, because they demanded only "uplifting" words, and refused or ignored the harder truths in God's Word. "Come out of her, my people...."
"Jesus said, 'Take away the stone.'
Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to him,
'Lord, by this time there is a stench,
for he has been dead four days.'"
John 11:39
The scene is at the graveyard where Mary and Martha's brother Lazarus was buried in a cave. Jesus told the attendants to roll back the huge stone that covered the entrance.
Imagine what they must have thought when he told them to roll the stone away! In fact, Martha told him that Lazarus has been dead now for four days and if they roll back the stone there's going to be a stench, especially after four days of Middle Eastern heat.
But they rolled back the stone, and were totally unprepared for what Jesus was going to do next. Not in their wildest dreams…
vs 41:
"Then they took away the stone
from the place where the dead man was lying.
And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said,
'Father, I thank you that you have heard me.'"
Four days before, someone had been sent to Jesus asking him to come because his friend Lazarus was sick. But Jesus waited four long days before going. Mary and Martha were appalled that he didn't come when they called for him, because they knew it was crucial that he come NOW, because Lazarus was dying. But Jesus did ONLY what the Father directed him to do, and the Father directed him to WAIT.
Have you expected Jesus to show up - yet it was as though he hadn't heard you? When God says "wait," you can expect something greater than the request you had put in. Jesus knew there was a greater result coming than the desired healing of Lazarus. After four days Jesus showed up. And everyone was watching:
Can you imagine the wonder…
vs 43:
“Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!”
They watched, and waited ...and then:
vs 44:
"And he who had died came out
bound hand and foot with grave-clothes,
and his face was wrapped with a cloth.
Jesus said to them, 'Loose him, and let him go.'”
"LOOSE HIM ..."
Salvation is a supernatural miracle in every person who comes to the Lord, in every one who has been brought out of darkness into the light of Christ. Every person who is born again has been taken out of death and brought into new life. He saves us - then he looses us from what has bound us.
The miracle of salvation doesn't stop there. After Lazarus was brought out of death into life, out of darkness into light, there was more - Jesus said, "Loose him and let him go." When a person has been walking in the world for a long time, when he has lived in sin, he needs more than just salvation. He needs to be loosed, to be set free from those things that controlled him, and this miracle is as great as the first.
Many of us have been praying for a long time for loved ones to come to the Lord and be saved, and we've learned only too well that our arguments with them are not able to bring them in. But when the prayer is answered, then we know we've seen a miracle, for the grace of repentance is a supernatural gift from God, and is not the result of OUR efforts to persuade them. Only God can bring them in, and he knows the best time and place and circumstances needed to bring them into his Kingdom. He knows HOW to best approach them. He knows what they will respond to, and what they will not. While waiting - TRUST him!
One of the greatest things one can witness in life is to see how a newly born-again person's life changes drastically. The things of his former life pass away, and everything becomes new.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
old things have passed away;
behold, all things have become new."
2nd Corinthians 5:17
Friends, when you pray for the salvation of a loved one, don't stop there. Pray for the grace of repentance, and ask for the total restoration of the sinner. Ask that he/she be loosed from the grave clothes that had kept him bound. And prepare yourself to witness a miracle.