Be Strengthened in God

I was reminded today that feelings are real but are not always true indicators of reality.  There is the possibility our feelings can present a skewed perspective because they make us the centre of our story rather than the LORD God who created us and His goodness.

Jacob's response to unexpected news from his sons is an example of this in Genesis 42:36:  "And Jacob their father said to them, "You have bereaved me: Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin. All these things are against me."  Jacob was overwhelmed when he heard Simeon had been incarcerated in Egypt and the presence of Benjamin (Jacob's youngest son) was required for his release.  He felt personally attacked and overstated the facts he knew to be true, for he put Simeon's imprisonment at the same level of Joseph whom Jacob believed was long dead.  What Jacob didn't realise is that Joseph was alive and he was orchestrating the reunion of their whole family to deliver them from starvation.  Jacob was focused on all that was against him rather than God who was for him, and we can do the same.

David also experienced a situation where all things were against him.  While he sojourned in the land of the Philistines to escape from the hand of king Saul, a band of Amalekites raided Ziklag, burned it with fire and kidnapped all the wives and children of he and his men.  After this shocking discovery David and his men wept until they could weep no more.  The despair of the men turned to anger towards David.  1 Samuel 30:6 says, "Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God."  David was deeply afflicted by the troubling situation:  his wives had been taken captive along with the wives and children of all his men, and he was largely responsible for them residing in Ziklag and going to battle alongside Achish!  But David's great distress prompted him to strengthen himself in the LORD his God.  This trial was painful and troubling, but he chose to focus on the LORD God and sought Him instead of fixing his mind on all the things that were against him.

This is the way bad feelings and distress can do us much good, to prompt us by faith to choose to look the LORD God who is for us rather than all that is against us.  Whether our enemies are real or imagined, knowing nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus gives enduring hope and strength to endure.  This is infinitely better than the power of positive thinking that depends on us and is limited by our own strength.  It is good we know we are helpless and unable to do anything so we might seek and rely on the LORD to do everything as we submit to His rule and guidance.  Both Jacob and David endured deeply troubling situations and saw the goodness of God in the land of the living.  May all followers of Jesus also look to Him in trouble and testify of His faithfulness, for we have tasted and seen the LORD is good.