Daily Lesson for Monday 8th of January 2024
All Christians know, and have experienced, times of despair and suffering, times when they have wondered what the Lord is doing, or why the Lord is allowing these things to happen to them. The psalmists themselves went through similar things. And, through divine inspiration, they recorded what they had experienced.
Read Psalms 44:1-26. What is it saying to us, and why is this relevant to believers in all ages?
This reluctance could cause us to miss the point of worship. The failure to express honestly and openly our feelings and views before God in prayer often leaves us in bondage to our own emotions. This also denies us confidence and trust in approaching God. Praying the Psalms gives an assurance that, when we pray and worship, we are not expected to censure or deny our experience.
Psalms 44:1-26, for example, can help worshipers articulate their experience of innocent suffering freely and adequately. Praying the Psalms helps people experience freedom of speech in prayer. The Psalms give us words that we can neither find nor dare to speak. “Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from Your way; but You have severely broken us in the place of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death” (Psalms 44:18-19, NKJV).
Notice, however, how Psalms 44:1-26 begins. The writer is talking about how, in the past, God had done great things for His people. Hence, the author expresses his trust in God and not “in my bow” (Psalms 44:6).
Despite this, trouble has still come to God’s people. The list of woe and lament is long and painful. However, even amid all this, the psalmist cries out for God to deliver, to “redeem us for Your mercies’ sake” (Psalms 44:26, NKJV). That is, even amid the trouble, he knows the reality of God and His love.
How can drawing on past times, when God’s presence felt very real, help you deal with the times in which troubles make you think that God is far away?
The post Monday: Trust in Times of Trouble appeared first on Sabbath School Net.
Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/24a-02-trust-in-times-of-trouble/