Hard Times part 4
I want to take two verses from two different psalms and link them together. Psalm 25:17, "The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses" and Psalm 34:6, "This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles." I think you can see where I'm going with this. Hard times come. The troubles of our heart get enlarged. And, look, to me that phrase "the troubles of my heart" really speaks to the things we care about in this life. The people we care about. Sometimes it's so hard to see someone else going through hard times. Like, when my kid is sick, or hurt, or whatever... and there's nothing I can do to fix it... that's the hardest thing for me. Not being able to help. Not being able to do anything except just be there. Which, by the way, IS doing something. Just being there for someone is doing a lot. But I think as much as we can be selfish sometimes, it's even bigger and more important when we're focused on others. When we're praying for others. When we're distressed about others, and then we give that to God. Let God and let go, right? I think it's so powerful when we look past ourselves and focus on others. Focus GOD on others. No that He doesn't know what's going on. Of course He does. But just breathing God into a situation. Crying out to Him and giving Him the room, and the opportunity to move in a situation. And that's where the second verse comes in: When we cry out to God... He answers. Even if it seems like He doesn't. Because, let's be real, no answer IS an answer. This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of his troubles. Let me say it another way, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:13). Unfortunately, it seems like this particular verse has been used to scare people into "accepting Jesus as their personal Savior" in order to "avoid hell when they die." I think it's a lot more practical than that. I think we should call on the name of the Lord any time we need to be saved from anything. Invoke His name in any and every situation. And I think we can do that without even saying "God" or "Jesus." I think we can pray in Jesus's name simply by loving people. I think we can be saved out of our troubles by saving others out of their troubles. I truly believe that whatever we want to feel... we need to do. If you want to feel forgiven, forgiven someone. If you want to feel loved... love someone. Receive it and release it. Breathe it in and breathe it out. Let what's inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. Hard times WILL come. In this world we WILL have tribulation. BUT. We can be of good cheer. Because Jesus has overcome the world. We can stop worrying so much about what WE'RE going though by helping people with what THEY'RE going through. Sometimes we enlarge the troubles of our own hearts by focusing so much on what's going "wrong" that we miss out on what's going right. Sometimes we get stuck in our own hard times when all we need to do is invite God into the situation and help others with their hard times!