My father was at a low point in his life. He’d lost his marriage, his home, and his ability to live a normal life. He was imprisoned by alcoholism. I tried to comfort him, but my words didn’t help.
But one day, I read Jesus’ words to him, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest.”[1]
I read the rest of the chapter and explained to Dad that Jesus wanted to give him the rest from this great burden. He began to cry. The philosophies of his college had led Dad to doubt God’s existence. But Jesus’ words opened up the eyes of his heart. Eventually, Dad entrusted his life to Christ.
But Dad still struggled. There was a gap between his reality and the deliverance he longed for. He tried dozens of alcoholics anonymous meetings and was in and out of rehab centers. Nothing worked.
All along he’d been asking God to help him quit, but it wasn’t working. One day he came to the end of himself and cried, “God. I’ve tried everything I know. This isn’t working. I can’t do this. You’re going to have to do it.”
A bit later, after cutting the grass, he opened a beer and took a sip. It tasted horrible. He poured it out and never had another drop to drink the last fifteen years of his life.
Dad modeled for me a very powerful truth. Christ Himself is our life.
Jesus said. “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”[2]
Paul said it this way, “for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”[3]
We were never designed to live life apart from God. Christ was pierced through for our transgressions[4] in order that He might share His life with us. By God’s doing, we’ve been placed in Christ[5] and seated with Him in heavenly places.[6] We’re indwelt by the Holy Spirit.[7]
As children of God, we’re new creations. [8] We’re united with Christ. God’s purpose is to transform us into the image of His Son. [9] But His way is not for us to try harder to improve ourselves. God never intended to make a better version of us. We died and our lives are now hidden in Christ. Christ now is our life. [10]
Anything which causes us to realize we can’t and God can has the possibility to draw us deeper into our true Life Source. It comes with humility and utter dependence.
Perhaps in our situations we need to say along with my dad, “God. I’ve tried everything I know. This isn’t working. I can’t do this. You’re going to have to do it.”
Thanks Dad. I miss you.
Robert Elroy Buck III, whom I am named after, went to be with Jesus on April 30th, 2011.
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30 NASB)
[1] Matthew 11:28
[2] John 15:5
[3] Philippians 2:13
[4] Isaiah 53:5
[5] I Corinthians 1:30
[6] Ephesians 2:6
[7] Ephesians 1:13
[8] II Corinthians 5:17
[9] Romans 8:29
[10] Colossians 3:3-4
Unless otherwise noted, verses are from the NASB version of the Bible.
Joy in the Journey is about the gladness of God’s nearness in the midst of life’s adventures.
Subscribe below to get email notifications of new posts. We post a few times a month. Thank you for reading.
Novels by the Author:
Rob Buck
What happens when a professor figures out how to send messages to his younger self to try and avoid the suicide of his best friend? Did he change more than he bargained for? Beyond Time
By finding two undelivered letters in a old shack deep in the woods, Cassie and Daniel unknowing set off a series of events which uncover a plot to wipe out a whole family Hope Remains
You’ve heard about the guy who had it all: riches, fame, prestige, complete, earthy autonomy. He had everything going for him, but made some really bad choices and crashed and burned. It’s hard to imagine how anyone can get on the other side of adultery, murder, and the hostile rebellion of a son. He certainly reaped what he sowed, but we can learn from him on steps we can take to salvage our hearts on the other side of sin.
His troubles began one evening, when he really should have been working. In his leisure, a beautiful lady caught his eye. He did more than just take a second look. When the smoke cleared, her husband was dead and she was pregnant.
You’ve probably figured out by now, I’m speaking of King David, the man who wrote a majority of the Psalms. It would be written of David that, in spite of his poor choices, he was a man after God’s own heart. [1]
How can this be? How did his heart recover from such devastation? How do we recover when we sin? What do we do when we don’t even want to approach God because of the shame we feel? What do we do when we don’t feel loveable?
Steps to Recovery
Into the Light
David didn’t voluntarily bring his sin with Bathsheba into the light. Nathan, the prophet of God, called him on it by using a story of a lamb, recorded in II Samuel chapter 12.
David’s anger burned against the wealthy man in the story for taking the poor man’s lamb.
He said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this certainly deserves to die!So he must make restitution for the lamb four times over, since he did this thing and had no compassion.” (verse 6)
Then, in an instance, David’s sin was brought to light when Nathan said to him, “You yourself are the man! (verse 7)
Nathan went on to say, “Now then, the sword shall never leave your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’This is what the Lord says: ‘Behold, I am going to raise up evil against you from your own household; I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight.Indeed, you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and in open daylight.’” (verses 10-12)
Not good outcomes for David when his sin was brought to light, but keeping things hidden is also very damaging. As hard as it is to bring the shame of our sin into the light, it must happen, and the sooner the better.
Hidden secrets, not only stifle us spiritually, but they can affect us in other ways. “The emotional, mental, physical and spiritual impact of secrets are well documented. In fact, research suggests keeping secrets can significantly boost stress hormones, impact blood pressure, inhibit sleep, contribute to mental health and substance use disorders and even increase chronic pain.” [2]
Confession
Big or small, God wants us free from the weight and shackles of unconfessed sin.
I believe one of the reasons David is called a man after God’s own heart is his quick, humble response.
Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” (verse 13a)
And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has allowed your sin to pass; you shall not die.However, since by this deed you have shown utter disrespect for the Lord, the child himself who is born to you shall certainly die.” (verses 13b – 14).
As mentioned before, what David did had consequences which would follow him the rest of his life. But, in spite of this, David pressed into God not away from him.
God’s ultimate goal is for us to be like Jesus. [3] He wants us to experience the freedom and joy of casting down idols and digging deeply into God and His ways.
Pressing Deeply into God
What we see in David’s heart is an eager desire to draw closer to God. Rather than wallowing in shame, which would keep him from God, he asked for deeper cleansing and for the joy and gladness of being with Him.
Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; Cleanse me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness, Let the bones You have broken rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins And wipe out all my guilty deeds (Psalms 51:7-9).
From what David wrote, we see he valued fellowship with God over walking in deceit. So much so, that he invited God to do further work in his heart so that deeper intimacy could occur.
Create in me a clean heart, God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me (Psalms 51:10).
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, God, You will not despise (Psalms 51:17).
It seems that because the sins were revealed and forgiveness was granted, David’s desire for God intensified.
Potentially, as Jesus pointed out to Simon the Pharisee concerning the sinful woman who washed his feet, our sin can deepen our love for the Lord.
Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little (Luke 7:47 ESV).
But we must accept His grace, point our lives in a different direction, and depend upon His Spirit within us to live lives reflecting Jesus’ life. In other words, we need to follow Him.
Turning Evil on It’s Head
Joseph, as he was speaking to his brothers concerning what they had done to him, saw evil from a much broader, eternal perspective.
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive (Genesis 50:20).
God uses our confession and repentance from sin to bring us His joy and freedom. This has always been the case in my life, as I follow David’s example of asking for a pure and contrite heart. As God shows me my sin, and I follow David’s example of dealing with it, I see God’s hand at work in it all, in spite of my sin. God’s grace and forgiveness leads me into a deeper love of Him.
Why would we ever want to hold onto that which causes us such inner turmoil instead of the joys of walking closely with God who created us?
Though we will still struggle, as we follow David’s example in our lives, we can experience God’s love no matter what we’ve done.
O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You,In a dry and weary land where there is no water. Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory. Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips will praise You (Psalms 63:1-3).
Prayer
Lord, in Christ, I’m holy, blameless and beyond reproach. When I see this, and believe it by faith, I begin to feel Your lovingkindness, even in my failures and sin.
I rest in Your love right now and I desire to walk in it throughout the day. Even when I go through hard times, Your love shines brighter and brighter. You are faithful. You are good. You are kind.
Please continue to reveal sin in my life and give me the courage and strength to follow hard after You no matter what.
Amen
Instead of your shame you will have a double portion, And instead of humiliation they will shout for joy over their portion. Therefore they will possess a double portion in their land, Everlasting joy will be theirs (Isaiah 61:7 NASB).
Joy in the Journey is about the gladness of God’s nearness in the midst of life’s adventures.
Subscribe below to get email notifications of new posts. We post a few times a month. Thank you for reading.
Novels by the Author:
Rob Buck
What happens when a professor figures out how to send messages to his younger self to try and avoid the suicide of his best friend? Did he change more than he bargained for? Beyond Time
By finding two undelivered letters in a old shack deep in the woods, Cassie and Daniel unknowing set off a series of events which uncover a plot to wipe out a whole family Hope Remains
You’re running late for work. You stayed up late and overslept. As you gather your info for the presentation you’re in charge of, you plop a sausage biscuit in the microwave and pry on your dress shoes. The oven sounds and you retrieve your breakfast. As you grab your lunch from the fridge, you spot the mustard and add a dab to your biscuit.
As you back out of the driveway, you calculate that, barring bad traffic, you’ll arrive just in time for the start of the meeting. You can feel the pressure mount as you pull to a stop at the first red light, the one that seems to take forever. As you wait, you take a sip of coffee and think of the countless hours you put into this presentation for your companies’ top client.
“We have good reasons for them to stay with us,” your boss had said. “You just have to clearly show them why.”
As you near the ramp to the highway, you hear a train whistle. Tension mounts. “Please Lord!” you pray.
No deal. The crossing arm comes down two cars a ahead of you. You’re stuck, boxed in, with no way to take an alternate route. The train cars just keep on coming. You sip your coffee and pick up the biscuit from the paper plate.
As you take a bite, you get lost in the savory, crunchy delight. But then, as if in slow motion, you watch a large mustard drop escape from the back end of the biscuit as you take your second bite. Yellowness plops and spreads quickly down your blue dress shirt. You look around. No napkins.
Your boss glares you down as you burst into the conference room, fifteen minutes late. A junior colleague stands up from the presentation desk and gives you a questioning look. Soon after you sit down, you realize why. In your late night weariness, you forgot to upload the presentation from your home computer to the companies’ shared folder.
In stunned disbelief and growing panic, the words of a song flash in your mind:
Mamma said there’ll be days like this There’ll be days like this, mamma said. [1]
Perhaps you’ve had days which feel this unnerving. I know I have. What steps do we take to recover?
Recovery Mode
Being an IT professional, I’ve been trained to think recovery. We make plans for restoring the data when programs end abnormally?
That’s IT, but how do we recover from life’s unexpected happenings?
I suggest there’s two phases – circumstantial recovery (dealing with the problems at hand) and inside recovery (dealing with the affects on our mind and emotions).
Circumstantially, in the above scenario, perhaps an honest disclosure of your disastrous morning would add some sympathetic humor to the growing tension. Then you could give your presentation from the heart without the Power Point slides.
This might work, but what about the damage to your insides? What are ways you can tend to your heart when your outsides are falling apart?
Soul Recovery
What’s the plan?
As believers in Jesus Christ, we need to be reminded of God’s overall plan. Though we’d like to be, we’re not in control. God is and His plan doesn’t include elimination of chaos from our lives. He has a much greater plan. God is at work for His greater purpose of bringing the universe into submission to Jesus Christ. [2] He’s also at work in us, not for us to experience the American dream, but for us to be transformed more and more into the image of Christ. [3]
Get with the plan?
If God’s plan is different than us just being happy, how can we get with His plan? Even though we love smooth, predictable days with no oversleeping, no train delays, no mustard stains and dazzling presentations, this is not necessarily God’s plan for our day.
What if far greater, eternal things happen in the midst of our difficulties? What if, in our trials, we learn more and more to depend on God and not on ourselves? [4] What if problems lead us into more intense interactions with folks around us, giving opportunities to love them more deeply?
The Rest of the Story
In the above scenario, when you finish speaking your presentation, you feel relieved. As far as you can tell, you hit all the major points from your presentation.
To your surprise, the client walks up and congratulates you on how you owned up to your struggles and forged ahead, even with an ugly blob of mustard on your shirt. You both laugh. Your client mentions similar experiences and empathizes with you.
When the client leaves, you’re junior colleague comes up and compliments you on how cool you were under pressure and asks you how you did it. This gives you an opportunity to give glory to God for what He did in you. You tell him how you were praying and asking God for guidance the whole way through.
Hearing your name, you look over and see your client and boss talking. They both smile at you. Your presentation did the trick, the client is renewing for another year.
Stepping Into the Greater Plan
Not every bad day ends with circumstantial success. Some days are so bad we feel the effects for a long time. However, if we stick with God’s greater plan as our goal, our actions can have positive eternal ramifications.
The bottom line has to do with our goal for each day. Is our primary goal to be successful in all our tasks with no problems? Or is our first priority to love God and whomever He puts in our path as we go about our duties? [5]
This change in focus is a paradigm shift which changes everything concerning our stress levels and our joy. Keeping God’s greater purposes in mind, we develop a love first mentality.
If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love.These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you (John 15-10-12 NASB).
Prayer
Lord, I’ve had days like what is described above. At the time, it felt as if my life was falling apart and crashing into the sea. But, You are an ever present help in my times of trouble. [6] Thank You.
You are trustworthy. You know what’s best for me. You never stop working for my greater good. Please increase my faith that I might always trust in Your greater purposes no matter my circumstances. Please help me order my days around loving over accomplishments.
Amen
[1] Song by The Shirelles, 1961
[2] Ephesians 1:9-12
[3] Romans 8:28-29
[4] II Corinthians 1:8-9
[5] Matthew 22:36-40
[6] Psalms 46:1-3
Other Posts on Experiencing God during Difficulties:
Joy in the Journey is about the gladness of God’s nearness in the midst of life’s adventures.
Subscribe below to get email notifications of new posts. We post a few times a month. Thank you for reading.
Novels by the Author:
What happens when a professor figures out how to send messages to his younger self to try and avoid the suicide of his best friend? Did he change more than he bargained for? Beyond Time
By finding two undelivered letters in a old shack deep in the woods, Cassie and Daniel unknowing set off a series of events which uncover a plot to wipe out a whole family Hope Remains
Growing up, I had an idealistic scenario of what I hoped my future would be like. My aim was a life of peace and circumstantial happiness. But it didn’t take long to realize reality is far different.
When I gave my life to Jesus Christ, I figured it would be much better since I’d chosen the right path. What I didn’t factor in is true life is about something far greater than comfort and smooth circumstances.
God is working for my good, but He alone knows what that is. Sometimes we face hard, confusing situations. Jesus tells us we’ll experience troubles , but we wonder why since all they seem to produce is pain. [1]
In a broken relationship my wife and I are facing with a close family member, God seems to have erected a ‘God at Work – No Trespassing’ sign. We’ve done all we know to do.
We pray ferociously. We cry out. We wait.
The following steps help:
Don’t Pretend
Don’t pretend all is well. Acknowledge life is different than you had hoped. Accept the loss and feel the pain.
Lord, I call You near in the depths of my grief. You’re the God of all Comfort. Sooth my pain with the Joy of Your presence.[2]
Celebrate God’s Faithfulness
Celebrate the fact that God has seen you through tough times before and trust He will do it again in this situation.
Lord, You’ve been so faithful through so many difficulties. Looking back, I certainly see how You’ve used these trials for me to give up trying to live life on my own and to trust You.[3] The eternal work You’ve done in my soul makes this very hard situation worth it. It has strengthened me emotionally and spiritually. It has drawn me closer to my bride.
Stop Fretting
Fret – to be worried or anxious.
Catch yourself in the act of fretting about what you can’t change. This is in the Lord’s hands. Decide to stop trying to figure things out.
Lord, I trust You to invite me into this difficulty when You’re ready. I don’t want to thwart what You’re doing. In the meantime, I trust You’re at work in the lives of all involved in ways I may never understand.
Focus on What’s Beautiful
Focus on the beautiful things on this side of the ‘God at Work’ sign.
With the birds, celebrate the waking of the new day. Look your loved ones in the face and take in every precious moment. Stay present. Engage your senses in all of God’s moments. Savor. Acknowledge God’s nearness in every detail of His creation.
Though we may feel as if we’ve failed, in Christ, we believers are complete. [4] and no situation can change that. We died, and our lives are now hidden with Christ in God.[5]
Lord, in You I’m okay, even if this situation is never resolved. I’m free to enjoy life’s moments with You, in spite of any unexpected situation.
Take Time to Draw Near
But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; (Psalm 73:28a NASB)
Lord, my heart is ready to be glad. In you, I rejoice always, even when life takes a turn which threatens my sense of well being. Through it all, my eyes are on You. My faith is growing because of this hard reality in ways I would have never thought possible. I draw closer to You every day because of it. I don’t need this situation to work out to be okay.
You are enough.
My life is oriented from things above where I’m seated with You. My comfort is not the most important thing. Please continue Your work while I wait.
Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary. (Isaiah 40:31 NASB)
Joy in the Journey is about the gladness of God’s nearness in the midst of life’s adventures.
Subscribe below to get email notifications of new posts. We post a few times a month. Thank you for reading.
Novels by the Author:
What happens when a professor figures out how to send messages to his younger self to try and avoid the suicide of his best friend? Did he change more than he bargained for? Beyond Time
By finding two undelivered letters in a old shack deep in the woods, Cassie and Daniel unknowing set off a series of events which uncover a plot to wipe out a whole family Hope Remains
