Thursday, November 7, 2013

What to do when our faith Fails

Read Psalm 77.

Asaph was in great distress.  He described his praying as crying aloud to God with untiring outstretched hands.  The troubles he faced prevented him from sleeping.  As he tossed and turned, he began feeling alienated from God.

This caused him to question God's care for him.
"Will the Lord spurn forever and never again be favorable?
Has his steadfast love forever ceased?
Are his promises at an end for all time?
Has God forgotten to be gracious?
Has he in anger shut up his compassion?" (vv.7-9)

When the pressure upon us pushes us to the edge, when we feel that we have gone as far as we can go, and God has not responded with the help we so desperately need, what are we to do?

Asaph changed his focus from his problems to remembering the power of God.  He made a deliberate decision to recall and meditate what God had done for him and how He had delivered His people in the past.  He reviewed the mighty power the LORD displayed at the Red Sea (Exodus 14).  He realized it was his weakness, not God's, that brought on this spurt of unbelief.  It was strengthening for him to remember the facts of his faith.

If God can do that for millions of people and wipe out the world's most powerful army of the time, then what how small (not insignificant) and solvable are the problems we face?

"Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh.  Is anything too hard for me?" (Jeremiah 32:17)


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