Praise for the Past and Doubt for the Present

What do you do when you have done everything right, yet everything goes wrong?

You know what God has done in the past; He has no favorites, and He never changes. Yet what worked yesterday does not work today. Everywhere you turn, there is another problem, another attack, another defeat. Where is God when everything goes wrong? Where do you turn to? Who do you turn to?

When life is drowning you

Always turn to God’s word when confusion, doubt, and fear sweep over you, threatening to drown you. We find in Psalm 44 a study of opposites, where praise is followed by doubt.  The psalmist starts by stating all the mighty things God has done for their ancestors in the past, how God had driven out the pagan nations before them as they entered the promised land. They had grown up hearing the stories about their enemies being crushed. Their ancestors told how it was not by their own swords or strong arms that gave them victory. It was Father God’s hand and strong arm, and the blinding light from His face that helped them. Because of God’s love for them, they knew that only by His power could they push back their enemies. Only in God’s name could they trample their foes.

 Now, fast forward to today’s doubts

 The psalmist said that God has tossed them aside, that He no longer leads them. They retreat and are plundered. They felt God had sold them, causing them to be mocked and the object of scorn. They have become the butt of jokes, being constantly humiliated. All this without cause. They had not forgotten God; they had not violated their covenant with Him. Their hearts have not deserted or strayed from God’s path. Yet the darkness of death covered them instead of the brightness of victory their ancestors had known. 

Doing everything right

The attack is so strong that they collapse, lying face down in the dirt. What can you do in the middle of this attack when you think God does not hear, when all you hear in return for your cries is silence? Oh, beloved, God is never silent; He has written a whole book of His love and guidance to us. We only must pick it up and read His answer. In Romans 8:35-39 NLT, we find the question, "Can anything separate us from God’s love?" Let us examine what the author of Romans believed could separate people from God. He starts with the question, “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?” Then he answers his questions with NO! “Despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. We are to be convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.” So, to answer the question they posed in Psalm 44, just because you are faced with challenges, attacks, whatever it is negative in your life, this does not mean God has forsaken you.  Psalm 23:4 reminds us that even though we walk in the shadow of the valley of death, God is with us, and we should fear no evil. So beloved, if wherever you are right now is not a good place, victory cannot be seen, and defeat is imminent. Hang on to the truth that God has not forgotten you, He is there by your side, you are never alone.

This too shall pass

Anytime I found myself in the middle of something not nice, a place where I would never choose to go. My mom would say, “This too shall pass; nothing is forever.”  Where you are today will not be where you are in the future. How long will it last? Only God knows, yet I have learned to keep my hand in the hand of the one who knows everything. Jesus Christ himself.