So what should be our response when we experience those moments of utter darkness and despair? When words fail, our hope has fled and our foundational beliefs laid bare for all to see. What have we built our hope upon? If we have based it on our own abilities and resources then we have built our houses upon sand. This life is not the paradise we long to experience. Heaven is promised but not until we pass from this life. And by the way, just as goodness cannot always be attributed to God's favor, suffering cannot always be linked directly to our sins. It is the height of foolishness to attribute all of our circumstances to our own decisions. God's thoughts and ways are not my ways and how He chooses to fulfill His will through me is not always something I will understand.
"Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God." (Psalms 42:11) The psalmist who wrote Psalm 42 is openly wondering why his despair has become the new reality of his life. Yet he realizes the importance of the following actions as proclaimed with the words, "I will still praise Him". Those words point to a determined response to trust the God of deliverance and hope. This doesn't translate into the lifting of the heaviness of our hearts and it certainly doesn't minimize the suffering and pain we are experiencing in our trials. It is a re-focusing, an emphasis in our minds of who God is and what His promises mean in our life. It is in these moments that we cannot rely on our emotions for they are laser focused on what we are experiencing. Our minds must focus on the character and promise of God, not on us. His presence, promised in His Word, will never leave us, nor forsake us, from the moment of our surrender to His Kingship until we are ushered into the world to come. There will never be a single second where He will not be present in our lives, and that includes our deepest points of pain and loss.
Does this mean that we will not become discouraged. Of course not! But the way out is not found in our solutions, or the wisdom of this world, it is found in the Words of our God. Praise is the vehicle that transports us from our pit of despair into the joy of Jesus. We praise Him despite our circumstances. God is the one who heals. God gives us the joy of knowing He is with us in our most desperate times. Even in our shouts of pain, our Father is there. His desire is to be our comforter and our source of peace in times of trouble.
Psalm 34:1 helps us to understand this pathway to peace, "I will bless the Lord at all times-- His praise shall continually be in my mouth." Since we have established that God's promises are the light that will lead us out of our darkness let's look at some more promises from scripture.
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." (Romans 15:13)
"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." (2 Corinthians 12:9)
"Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
Prayer and praise are not a magic antidote to seeing our circumstances adjusted to our desires. Prayer and praise are the doorway to unlocking the power of God's comfort and promises in the storms of our life. Is this a natural way of thinking? No. God knows our hearts, He knows we are easily led astray, not only by the world we live in but in our own minds as well. So here is my closing verse, a warning from God to not heed our own understanding.
"The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to Him, and He is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14)
