DOWNCAST, DISTURBED, and DISTRESSED

“Why are you downcast, O my soul?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise Him.”

…......

“Men say to me all day long,

'Where is your God?'”

Psalm 42. 5, 3

We are not commanded to stop being downcast and disturbed.

We are promised to be given freedom and power to overcome the circumstances that cause us to be such.

Downcast and disturbed is a regular, on-going, oft repeated experience of all who follow Jesus, like “all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.”

This Psalm is a brief reminder of what to do every time we suffer these conditions.

“Put your hope in God.”

And we get hope by coming to God in prayer for the promises He gives us about our sufferings.

The point here is that we come to God with honesty about our painful condition, whatever it may be.

Phil. 1.27--Whatever happens...

Romans 8.18, 28--...present sufferings...all things...

James 1.2--...whenever you face trials of many kinds...

1 Peter 1.6--...suffer grief in all kinds of trials...

1 Peter 4.12--the painful trial you are suffering...

There are many, many sufferings...

But there are many, many, many...

many, many, many!!!

promises of wisdom and power!!

The promise of hope draws us to prayer. We come with troubling experiences to discover the wisdom and strength that hope promises.

As we pray, we find promises that abound in grace from Christ and even greater grace for experience with Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

Prayer is not begging God to do what we want. Prayer is the time of confessing our need and its effect in our hearts and then searching the Scriptures to find promises that apply to our present sufferings. God will give Scripture that provide wisdom and power for our situation .

Faith that believes, trusts, and follows the promises receives wisdom and power to face and defeat the downcast, disturbing effects of whatever circumstances we go through.

We do not have to be strong and overcome.

We have to come in our weaknesses to God in prayer and we will receive “grace to help in (any and every) time of need.” Hebrews 4.16.

In prayer with the promises of God before us, we are given power to overcome all things that happen to us.

Promises for Power are found in Prayer.

In Prayer, we find Promises for Power.

We find Power as we Pray for the Promises.