One of the things I love about David is how candid he is with God. I’m working through Psalms right now and today we are on Psalm 13. David is not having a good time when he writes this psalm. He feels like God has forgotten him. He’s also acutely aware of the fact that if God doesn’t come through, he isn’t going to make it. He doesn’t understand why God is taking so long to respond to his desperate pleas.

So, what do you hold onto when this seems to be the case? I touched on this a little bit in my last post, but I think it’s worth looking at again. David concludes the psalm by saying,” But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.” Something strange happens to us when we’re in pain. Pain has a way of narrowing our view to where all we see is the agony of the present moment. In those times, it’s difficult to remember God’s faithfulness to us in the past. This is the well that David draws from to praise God in the midst of trial and sorrow.

How do you respond to pain? I’ll be honest with you guys, I’m a baby when it comes to pain. Just ask my wife (-; When I have a cold, you’d think I was dying. I hate being sick with a passion. It makes sense to me why women have the babies…I don’t think the dudes could handle it. On a serious note, when I’m in pain, I lose perspective. I don’t easily remember all that God has done for me and I start to believe that he isn’t going to come through this time. This is where I think we need some type of system to help us remember God’s faithfulness in the trials. Here are a couple of ideas:

1. Get some positive people around you. We all need people in our lives that remind us of God’s faithfulness in the past. Men and women who echo back to us what we truly believe to help us not lose heart. Our senior pastor at Seacoast, Greg Surratt, sometimes says, “A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you forget the words.” Who is that in your life?

2. Have a habit of getting in God’s word. If you know anything about me, you know I don’t think the Bible is just another book. I don’t think it’s just inspiring…I believe it is inspired. It is full of stories of God’s faithfulness and I try to read it or listen to it every single day. Charles Spurgeon said, “A Bible that’s falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t.” A agree with him on this.

3. Lean into prayer. My prayer life is messy. I don’t try to just offer up to God my cleaned up church self. I give him everything. I give him my disappointments, my insecurities, my selfishness, my fear, my ambitions, my regrets and everything else. I lean into it. I give it everything I have. This is the model that David set for us in the psalms and I believe it’s the way that prayer is supposed to be. Jeremiah 29:13 says, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” God is looking for men and women who will seek him with everything they have. It’s the only way to approach an authentic relationship with God.

Life is hard. There will be trials and storms. The worst thing about the trials and storms is what they have the potential of doing to your heart. They will tempt you to forget about the faithfulness and love of God. They have the potential to leave you desolate and hopeless. What’s your strategy to not let them rob you of your faith?