Getting a Grip When it all hurts Part 1 040114
1 Peter 5:6-11 ESV
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, [7] casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. [8] Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. [9] Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. [10] And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. [11] To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Wonderful words of encouragement and admonition. But what do you do with it when it all hurts, when there is no sense of hope although you know there is a reason to? What do you do when you read this and walk away empty and hollow?
First you realize that Satan will do all he can to create that hollowness and deepen it. Whether through the world or the flesh he will use every means he can to deepen your despair. We're not cut out to fight him ourselves but we must call upon - cry out for God to save us from this sense of hopeless sinking. We must let God fight that battle for us and that is not easy.
Satan will do everything in his power to cast you down and to crush you. One of his ploys is to isolate you from the Body. We all know that in times of trouble people seem to withdraw, run, move away not wanting to be too close to the one in distress. Now we can't blame them and we also know that we withdraw as well. We, for whatever reason (shame, embarrassment even fear) want to hide away and curl up in a ball and disappear.
Satan wants us to be isolated - he doesn't hunt the herd but rather the solitary and wounded. So when you are wounded and in despair it is making the situation worse if you curl in a ball in a corner.
Satan also wants to chase us into greater distress. That's why he is roaring. He wants us to run from him to where the rest of the pride is. The pride is in the deep grass waiting for us to run into the middle of them so they may take us down. We must not run. We must slowly move in a safe direction and the only one who can show us that safe direction is God.
Satan also wants to get us to murmur - to complain about God as the Israelites did in the wilderness. He wants us to complain about God and His treatment of us. He wants us to deny God's goodness, His lovingkindness, His whole character. He wants us to accuse God of wrong doing, of meanness, of hard heartedness or the typical - He's not fair.
All this and more Satan desires to do. It is very very hard to stand in the face of a roaring lion but by the grace and power of God, we must. Like Daniel we must stand among the hungry beasts and trust in God. We must by the grace and mercy of God resist running - resist isolation - resist shame - resist murmuring.
None of us are the only believers who suffer. Some suffer more and some less but suffering is suffering and when we are suffering ours is the only one we feel. But Peter seems to indicate that knowing that we are not the only ones who suffer will be of benefit to us. That's a hard thing but a true thing. God is at work in the lives of countless believers and we should praise Him for that fact. The starving, the oppressed, the persecuted are all trusting Him for so much more than the rest of us and they are holding fast - they've got a grip - faith.
Faith - faith that He can relieve us of our suffering. Faith that it is meant for His glory. Faith that it is meant for our good. Faith that even if it kills us, as it does many, we will then be with Him, at peace and forever without suffering.
Heaven is not a consolation prize for those whose suffering kills them. Heaven is the glorious reward that awaits those who are His and barring His coming prior to, death is the ony way to heaven.
I'll write more on this passage as I am able - but have faith my friends God is with you and for you - He wants to display His glory through, in and by your circumstances. It is hard - at times is seems hopeless but I have to ask myself: For what am I really hoping, treasuer here or treasure there? The comfort of the world or the comfort of His grace. It is a real battle - get a grip on His truth and providence and do not let go.
Showing posts with label isolated. Show all posts
Showing posts with label isolated. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 27, 2024
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Melancholy - Moving Forward 020614
I hope you've gotten a better appreciation for the soul affliction of melacholy. Whether you suffer it yourself or know someone who does it is a tough thing to deal with. But God is faithful and He will not let us face trials that we can not bear. I know that sounds hollow, but it's true.
One key to our spiritual life when the affliction of melacholy is present is to keep it simple. Pray simply. Read the Word simply. It is not time to try for lofty heights or profoound depths of sirituality. It is time for rest and trust and, well, simplicity.
I often simply pray the Model Prayer or the 23rd Psalm or another Psalm that toouches my need. I often simly read Pslams of Proverbs to take in what spiritual nourishment I can. As an old Puritain once wrote, "Do it s you are able in order to do it better." Be gentle with yourself.
One thing to remember is that our feelings are twisted up by the affliction. We have to really work to remember thaat what is true is true regardless of how we feel. I've found that quoting (reading) passages of assurance like those found in Eph. and Rom. can make a real difference. I just read them over and over not like a chant but to fix my mind and keep it from wandering to the worries melacholy brings with it.
If you are involved with someone struggling melancholy you have a powerful ministry to be about. Tenderness, patience and taking care of yourself are critical. You can not "fix" it but you can be a source of comfort and encouragment. It will take a lot out of you but God will supply your need. You will at times, feel helpless and hopeless yourself and the things I've mentioned above will benefit you as well.
Perhaps the gretest thing you can do is to pray for and with your friend of family member. Pray scripture with them, pray comfort for them, pray piece for them. They are not defective they are afflicted. One friend descibes their depression as a bad case of the ful that never ends.
I haven't mentioned medications yet but I need to. My motto is, "Trust God and take your medications." God in His providence has provided some wonderful treatments for melacholy and we would be foolish to not take advantage of them. You want to be on the right med' that allows you to engage and address the melacholy. I tell those I minister to, "You are not responsible FOR your melacholy but you must be responsible IN it."
The med's don'c cure anything but they do alleviate the melancholy so that we may, to one degrree or another, function responsibly. Remember the quote above, "Do it as you can......" That's what you want your med's to do.
I'll revisit melancholy form time to time and am still open to questions and dialogue but that's about it for now - I'm "Doing it as I can........"
My prayers are with the melachoy and those who care or them. You are not alone no mattter how alone you feel. God is certainly with you and you are in the hearts and minds of many many others who suffer as you do.
May God lead you to the warmth and light of His grace more and more, day by day.
Michael
One key to our spiritual life when the affliction of melacholy is present is to keep it simple. Pray simply. Read the Word simply. It is not time to try for lofty heights or profoound depths of sirituality. It is time for rest and trust and, well, simplicity.
I often simply pray the Model Prayer or the 23rd Psalm or another Psalm that toouches my need. I often simly read Pslams of Proverbs to take in what spiritual nourishment I can. As an old Puritain once wrote, "Do it s you are able in order to do it better." Be gentle with yourself.
One thing to remember is that our feelings are twisted up by the affliction. We have to really work to remember thaat what is true is true regardless of how we feel. I've found that quoting (reading) passages of assurance like those found in Eph. and Rom. can make a real difference. I just read them over and over not like a chant but to fix my mind and keep it from wandering to the worries melacholy brings with it.
If you are involved with someone struggling melancholy you have a powerful ministry to be about. Tenderness, patience and taking care of yourself are critical. You can not "fix" it but you can be a source of comfort and encouragment. It will take a lot out of you but God will supply your need. You will at times, feel helpless and hopeless yourself and the things I've mentioned above will benefit you as well.
Perhaps the gretest thing you can do is to pray for and with your friend of family member. Pray scripture with them, pray comfort for them, pray piece for them. They are not defective they are afflicted. One friend descibes their depression as a bad case of the ful that never ends.
I haven't mentioned medications yet but I need to. My motto is, "Trust God and take your medications." God in His providence has provided some wonderful treatments for melacholy and we would be foolish to not take advantage of them. You want to be on the right med' that allows you to engage and address the melacholy. I tell those I minister to, "You are not responsible FOR your melacholy but you must be responsible IN it."
The med's don'c cure anything but they do alleviate the melancholy so that we may, to one degrree or another, function responsibly. Remember the quote above, "Do it as you can......" That's what you want your med's to do.
I'll revisit melancholy form time to time and am still open to questions and dialogue but that's about it for now - I'm "Doing it as I can........"
My prayers are with the melachoy and those who care or them. You are not alone no mattter how alone you feel. God is certainly with you and you are in the hearts and minds of many many others who suffer as you do.
May God lead you to the warmth and light of His grace more and more, day by day.
Michael
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Melancholy 020414 Help
Melacholy isolates. Isolation is not good.
But it"s tough to be in groups when one is afflicted with melacholy.
Their funny isn't funny.
Their sadness is too much.
Their smiles are frightening.
Their happiness is sorrow.
Everything is twisted into a knot of pain and darkness.
But - isolation ins't good.
We need each other.
Just being with someone
Quietly
Tenderheartedly
Compassionately
Just being with someone can help
The temptation though is to try to "fix" the melancholy
Resist that
Encourage using tangible things
Simple things
Avoid the high and lofty.
Read then scripture
Gentle scripture
Tender scripture
Read softly
Lovingly
Once, when I was in a particularly tough time I found that emails, texts and even brief phone messages were powerful tools. I was alone but not forgotten. People were praying for me thinking of me even rooting for me. It made a quiet simple difference.
But it"s tough to be in groups when one is afflicted with melacholy.
Their funny isn't funny.
Their sadness is too much.
Their smiles are frightening.
Their happiness is sorrow.
Everything is twisted into a knot of pain and darkness.
But - isolation ins't good.
We need each other.
Just being with someone
Quietly
Tenderheartedly
Compassionately
Just being with someone can help
The temptation though is to try to "fix" the melancholy
Resist that
Encourage using tangible things
Simple things
Avoid the high and lofty.
Read then scripture
Gentle scripture
Tender scripture
Read softly
Lovingly
Once, when I was in a particularly tough time I found that emails, texts and even brief phone messages were powerful tools. I was alone but not forgotten. People were praying for me thinking of me even rooting for me. It made a quiet simple difference.
Friday, March 8, 2013
Lord - I am afraid and feared.
Afflictions, be they spiritual, financial, health or whatever always give rise to fear. It's natural, in our weakness and frailty to fear - especially when our sight is restricted and we can't see ahead. We, certainly with help from the enemy, conjure all the worse case scenarios.
They haunt us and steal our peace. they're divert us from the Word and prayer and all those blessings God provides to strengthen us and calm our hearts. We are threatened by the possibility of drifting away from the only true source of life and hope.
But, in these times, we also come to realize that our afflictions give rise to fear in those around us. Our testing, our refining confronts those around us, I write of other believers, with their fears as well. This has the common result of isolating us from the encouragement and comfort God desires us to have through them. We miss being comforted with the comfort He comforts them with.
Their prayers are blessings, their hesitation to get intimately involved crushes us. We are told of their prayers for us and some will pray with us but then they are gone and we are alone. We are grateful for their prayers but we are none the less overwhelmed with a sense of abandonment, real or imagined.
We want our affliction to be, well, appreciated and acknowledged in all its sensed magnitude. We want someone sometimes anyone, to share our pain and fear but apart from our loving Lord it seems a thing only to be wished for, ached for. As I once heard a small child had said, "Sometimes we need Jesus with skin on."
Our Lord is utterly acquainted with all our griefs and yes, that is sufficient. But I don't believe He intended to be the only one. Too many verses enjoin us to share one another's burdens, to comfort one another, to be present with one another in affliction. But, this is not common to our experience.
This is, I regret to say, because of their fear that they might become too intimately involved in the affliction. Sadly, perhaps, they believe it will cost them too much. Perhaps they fear they might "catch" the affliction. Worst of all, it may be that they fear having to give up their comfort and that they do not believe they can do.
I am afraid and feared. Like the woman in Mark who has to fight her way to Jesus merely to touch the hem of His garment, the afflicted are often prevented, by others, from getting close, from touching Him.
Many of you face this struggle in you affliction. It's tough and troubling. But sometimes, as I think I am learning, He wants us to turn to and trust in Him alone. We must not allow the deceiver to distract us by criticism of others - not even dismay about others - certainly not anger at others.
In the garden we see Jesus in just this situation. He takes His closest with them and they, so overcome with their own fears and fatigue - sleep. Jesus is disappointed - I am sure He was dismayed and hurt. But He understood their frailty and returned to the Father, the only hope and source that will not hinder, will not fear, will not sleep as we struggle in our afflictions and pain.
Father, keep my heart sweetly in You even in the fear and affliction. Keep me from harsh thoughts of those who fear me and my need. Help me - no, make me as understanding and compassionate as my Master. Keep my mind and heart focused on You alone and let me be surprised by those You send to comfort and encourage me - for Your glory and my good in You.
Amen
They haunt us and steal our peace. they're divert us from the Word and prayer and all those blessings God provides to strengthen us and calm our hearts. We are threatened by the possibility of drifting away from the only true source of life and hope.
But, in these times, we also come to realize that our afflictions give rise to fear in those around us. Our testing, our refining confronts those around us, I write of other believers, with their fears as well. This has the common result of isolating us from the encouragement and comfort God desires us to have through them. We miss being comforted with the comfort He comforts them with.
Their prayers are blessings, their hesitation to get intimately involved crushes us. We are told of their prayers for us and some will pray with us but then they are gone and we are alone. We are grateful for their prayers but we are none the less overwhelmed with a sense of abandonment, real or imagined.
We want our affliction to be, well, appreciated and acknowledged in all its sensed magnitude. We want someone sometimes anyone, to share our pain and fear but apart from our loving Lord it seems a thing only to be wished for, ached for. As I once heard a small child had said, "Sometimes we need Jesus with skin on."
Our Lord is utterly acquainted with all our griefs and yes, that is sufficient. But I don't believe He intended to be the only one. Too many verses enjoin us to share one another's burdens, to comfort one another, to be present with one another in affliction. But, this is not common to our experience.
This is, I regret to say, because of their fear that they might become too intimately involved in the affliction. Sadly, perhaps, they believe it will cost them too much. Perhaps they fear they might "catch" the affliction. Worst of all, it may be that they fear having to give up their comfort and that they do not believe they can do.
I am afraid and feared. Like the woman in Mark who has to fight her way to Jesus merely to touch the hem of His garment, the afflicted are often prevented, by others, from getting close, from touching Him.
Many of you face this struggle in you affliction. It's tough and troubling. But sometimes, as I think I am learning, He wants us to turn to and trust in Him alone. We must not allow the deceiver to distract us by criticism of others - not even dismay about others - certainly not anger at others.
In the garden we see Jesus in just this situation. He takes His closest with them and they, so overcome with their own fears and fatigue - sleep. Jesus is disappointed - I am sure He was dismayed and hurt. But He understood their frailty and returned to the Father, the only hope and source that will not hinder, will not fear, will not sleep as we struggle in our afflictions and pain.
Father, keep my heart sweetly in You even in the fear and affliction. Keep me from harsh thoughts of those who fear me and my need. Help me - no, make me as understanding and compassionate as my Master. Keep my mind and heart focused on You alone and let me be surprised by those You send to comfort and encourage me - for Your glory and my good in You.
Amen
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