R³ Devotional - Day 140

When I was young and first learned about King David, I would think, Wow! This man was courageous, artistic, shepherd, master in rock shooting, royalty and a warrior after God's own heart. I would imagine a strong man with a crown and the best armor that could ever be. In my mind, he was like a Christian Superman from historic times.

As I grew in age and in my walk with the Lord, I was able to learn more about him and realize it was not all courageous, fancy warrior king stories. He lived through tough times too, not everything was sweet or about winning. As we read Psalms, we get to know he was a man that also had lowest points in his life. We have a glance of what he felt and prayed while he was enduring the consequences of his sins, or when he was oppressed by his enemies. 

In today’s Psalms, both authors share their sorrow and mourning for what they are going through. You can sense their tiredness, their souls are weary, there is despair; yet through their trials and suffering, we find the psalmists having HOPE and CONFIDENCE in God. Even PRAISING Him! To be honest, it’s a combination of feelings and actions that sometimes we think is not possible when we are walking through hard times.

Real: Life Principles

• God LOVES us, is with us and hears when we cry our hearts out: In time of trouble, sorrow, or when we are dealing with the consequences of our sins, we usually feel lonely and down. These psalms show how the authors felt the same way, yet they always had that confidence to look for God in prayer and pour their hearts to Him and waited in Him.
  
  
• Our souls long for God: This is something permanent in our lives, our souls need God, just like our bodies need water and food to keep running. Unfortunately, it is a lot more noticeable in hard times. That’s when it hits us and just like Psalm 42:1 says: “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God”.
  
  

Relevant: Life Applications

• In good and bad times, always keep close to God: Search for God daily in prayer, through reading his scripture, come to church regularly. He is a loving father and wants to be with us ALWAYS. Our souls crave Him! When we are close to Him in a daily basis, we can be better prepared when hard times come. King David is an example of how he could be “on top of the world” but also had to walk through valleys. Don’t wait to hit rock bottom to be close to Him.
  
  
• Wait in the Lord: During hard times we might face something many of us dread: Waiting. Just merely waiting during hard times can tear us apart and fill us with desperation. When we learn to wait in the Lord, we open our hearts to his guidance during difficulties. We train up our patience, can experience hope and trust God he is working in something far greater than what we might understand now.

Ready: Life Actions

• This one is hard even for me, but it’s worth doing it: Plan your time with God. It can be as early in the morning, just like Psalm 5 says, search for God not only in prayer requesting Him something, but also reading His word, getting to know Him better.
  
  
• On hard times we feel the need to share what we are going through: Before sharing it with someone else, always share it first to the Lord, pour your complete heart out to him.
   
• Praise the Lord amid hardships: I know it sounds strange and hard to do and a lot of weeping will be involved (at least for me it has been like that!). But as your heart is broken and you take time to praise the Lord, maybe through a song, bible journaling or just prayer; you take the time to acknowledge who He is, praise Him for who He is, and put your trust on what He is doing in your life.

Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God. Psalm 42:11

God bless you today and always!