When the Going Gets Tough

Have you ever gotten mad at God?  There are times where things just don't seem to fit together like you thought, or you did not get the answer from Him you expected, and life just is not going at all smoothly.  I'm not talking about something superficial like you didn't get that new car you asked for.  I'm talking about gut wrenching issues, agonizing hurt, after long periods of time pleading.  Something that just makes you drop to your knees and scream, Why Lord?

You may be wondering, why Lord. why do the evil succeed?  Why do they get away with it?  How long, oh Lord, must I deal with this or that situation?  Why is it that I never seem to come out on top, Lord?  Why is it that I have been alone so long waiting?  Have you not heard me?  Can't you see that I am hurting?  Why have you not delivered me? 

I think many of us get to these desperate heart aching points in our walk where we just cannot see or understand the plan God is working in or through us.  Times where we almost can't find any words to express the anguish that we are feeling or the desperation that we are experiencing.  What are we supposed to do?  How are we to carry on when it just seems like the world is falling in on top of us and the bottom has dropped away?

I've been facing such situations recently, so as much as this is sharing with others, it is also a little therapy for myself here.  All those types of questions are swirling around in my head, and I am asking and pleading, wondering when is it going to end?  What am I supposed to do?

I got a word before the intensity of the situation I am in ramped up several hundred degrees. 

Galatians 6:9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

When we are upset and troubled, even wounded deeply to our core, we still need to carry on in a way that is pleasing to God.  He made a promise to us in that verse.  We can't let our pain become so great that we begin hurting others.  We need to keep our focus on God and doing what is right, treating others as we ourselves want to be treated, doing our jobs to the best of our ability, being honest, not being a gossiper, etc etc...  If we do those things, we have a harvest coming.  We might not know when it is or how it is, but we can rest assured that it will come when it is ripe and ready and perfect for us.

I wish I could say that I have been a perfect soldier in this, but really, it is kind of a hard thing to do.  We are hurt and upset and do some things that don't necessarily help, or think we can do something about it and forget that God is the one in control.  We can get caught up in our emotions and reap some consequences we'd rather not.  That is the hard part about the "faint not" in that verse.    We can make things worse when we get like, I got this God.

I think that when we get past the initial "WHY GOD WHY?", we can settle back and look to the word for the practical applications of "how, Lord, how?"  Maybe God will bring some useful verse to remembrance like He did for me with the above verse, or we may stumble upon a teacher on the radio or TV that has a message that speaks to our situation, and we should of course look through the word and meditate upon what it says.  The instructions on what to do can be found there.

Another hard thing that we should be learning to do in tough situations is learning to trust God even more.  It is all well and good to trust God when things are going well, but when things happen and appear to be at their worst, that is when we really need to knuckle down with some serious faith and determined faith that says, despite what I am seeing and feeling, I know that that harvest is out there getting ripe and I have no doubt that if I do as the word says, the blessing is promised to me by God, and God keeps ALL his promises.

I Am SOOOO MAD!!!

Romans 12:18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.

Boy, this is a hard saying.  Sometimes it just no longer lies within me to keep my peace.  tonight was one of those nights.  My nemesis thorn in the side for the last 9 years crossed the line.  I let them know in no uncertain terms that they had done so.  I asked the boss to intervene and asked that it go up the chain of command.  9 years and nothing has changed, nothing has been done. 

People have praised me for being able to put up with so much for so long, but there are limits.  We all have our limits.  Some days our fuses are a bit shorter than other days and it takes less to light those fuses, and they burn faster.  It was just the wrong day to try pulling passive aggressive stunts on me; the wrong day to swear at me and make false accusations in half under your breath but loud enough to hear tones. 

As I sit and look at these verses in Romans 12, it gets harder though.  What God is asking me to do in the word is beyond me at times.  it is not what I want to do.  It is not what I feel like doing.  I'd like to be able to go back behind the woodshed and open up a can of whoopass.  That is not what the word says to do.  Oh Lord help me in my weakness. 

This little segment of Romans 12 starts out with this admonition, 17 Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.  When we get mad, we are not supposed to act like the world and try to do something to the other person in a sneaky or underhanded way.  No backbiting.  No lying in wait to set them up.  We must be honest in our dealings.  Ephesians 4:26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:


We go past our opening verse now to verse 19: Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.  Along with the part of not returning evil for evil, we should not avenge ourselves.  Perhaps snapping back in anger was a bit of that, I'm not sure.  Telling the boss?  It is what we should do in the situation.  Taking it silently for so long is sometimes beyond me, so I must ask for God's spirit to infuse me the right things to do. 


Verse 20: 20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.  This verse parallels the word of Jesus when he said,  Matthew 5:44  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;  Oh, that is so hard and I try so hard to be like this. This kind of attitude can only come through the Spirit of God.  It does not lie within me to do so. 


This part about pray for them I am hit with in this situation.  This person has been my sworn enemy from almost my first day at the job and for reasons that have nothing to do with me.  In thier head I am somehow at fault for some percieved wrong years in the past that he cannot seem to let go of.  It strikes me at the moment that when we pray for people, especially our enemies, we begin to see them as Jesus sees them, a lost soul in need of a savior just as we were. 


verse 21 concludes: Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.  This is hard too, but we cannot let evil people and their ways get the better of us.  Being the humans we are, we can only appeal to the holy Spirit to empower us to not be overcome of evil.  It is also the Holy spirit that will reveal ways and empower us to to good to overcome the evil.


I don't wish any ill will toward this person, but I do pray they would just go away or change.  One or the other.  I suppose with Gods sense of humor, I would be the one through which this instrument of change should come about.  Things cannot remain as they are though.  I am at my limit of being able to live peacably with this person.  I've tried the doing good to them.  I'm tired and wanted to rant a bit and end up led into a lesson of how I should be acting in this situation.  Praise the Lord. 

Wait a Minute

People in this day and age are so impatient.  We can’t even stand to wait 5 minutes in line at the bank.  Oh no!  we have to wait one minute because we got caught by the red light!  We get an angry look on our face because the lady in front of us at the McDonalds drive thru is taking more than 5 seconds to make her order.  If our web pages do not come up instantly, we mumble and groan about how “slow” our computers are.  We sure are a bunch of spoiled brats.  We got to have everything right now because we want it right now.

We have turned ourselves into slaves because we have no patience to wait for things.  What?  Save money for a while so you can get a car or a house?  NO WAY!  We just buy it on credit and we can have it right now.  Thing is, we tie ourselves down for 7,8,10 years to get a fancy new car, and by the time we actually own it, it is a junker, and we have paid more than twice what it was actually worth.  Why, we could have bought 3 cars in that time if we had waited and saved.  People are so impatient though that they don’t care that they are giving away their future, as long as they get what they think they want right away.

Human beings use the same impatience when they consider God.  They expect God to be some sort of genie in a bottle who instantly poofs out their current lustful desires; and when they don’t get their way right now, they use it as an excuse to proclaim that there is no God.  They have become so self-important that they think that they are the center of everything and everything exists to please and exalt them.  Instant gratification is all that matters, and they expect everyone, including God, to cater to their every whim.

The Bible tells us a different story though.  We think of Abraham.  He was 75 years old when God called him, promised him children and that his seed would be innumerable.  His wife did not get pregnant the next day… or the next week… or the next year… or the next decade.  It was  25 years later when God finally fulfilled the promise he had made.   Abraham & company got a little impatient along the way and Ishmael was born.  The world is still living the consequences of that impatient act.   Abraham stuck it out though, waited, and eventually God fulfilled His promise and a son was born to Abraham.

We see David, a young shepherd anointed to be King of Israel, yet, he was not immediately king.  He ended up being servant to the current king, spending a long time in service, even passing on opportunities t take matters into his own hands to make himself king. It was no short amount of time between anointing and crowning.  Yet, David waited and acted properly. 

In I Corinthians 13 we are given a description of what real love is.  The first thing that God tells us about love is that love is patient.  If we love God certainly we can be patient and wait upon Him.  We should certainly owe him that much since he has certainly been extremely patient with us.  Many times in scripture we are told to wait on the Lord.  Psalms 27:14 for example.   Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.

Now waiting does not mean sitting around and doing nothing either.  While we wait on whatever it is we are waiting on, we are also to be living our lives in accordance with the Word.  The Lord over time could very well just be training us to be able to properly handle the promise He will fulfill in us.  David as a young shepherd wasn’t ready for kingly duties.  But, after years of being patient, and obedient, God led David through many trainings and trials, testing him and teaching him.  When David had been faithful and was fully prepared, THEN the Lord made him king.  If we are not willing to be patient and obedient, we may never have our full potential given to us by God.  As in the parable of the talents, God may take our blessing away and give it to another.  Don’t let this happen.

Psalms 62:5 My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him.