And I Am Helped...

This morning, I was reading in the Psalms and was greatly encouraged by Psalm 28:6,7.  I am so thankful to God for having the Psalms written down for us to be able to read about the heart of hurting people before Him.  God, in His perfect patience and mercy, knows that we are needy people, but He doesn't just leave us 'needy'.  Psalm 28:6,7 says, "Blessed be the Lord! for He has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy.  The Lord is my strength and my shield; in Him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to Him."  In Him, David's heart trusted and in Him, David was helped.  I believe that this is true for us today.  In Him our hearts can trust because He is so worthy of trust.  In Him we are helped, because He is the only One who really can help.

Matthew Henry puts it this way in his commentary on Psalm 28:

II. He encourages himself to hope in God for the perfecting of every thing that concerned him. Having given to God the glory of his grace (v. 6), he is humbly bold to take the comfort of it, v. 7. This is the method of attaining peace: let us begin with praise that is attainable. Let us first bless God and then bless ourselves. Observe, 1. His dependence upon God: "The Lord is my strength, to support me, and carry me on, through all my services and sufferings. He is my shield, to protect me from all the malicious designs of my enemies against me. I have chosen him to be so, I have always found him so, and I expect he will still be so.’’ 2. His experience of the benefits of that dependence: "My heart trusted in him, and in his power and promise; and it has not been in vain to do so, for I am helped, I have been often helped; not only God has given to me, in his due time, the help I trusted to him for, but my very trusting in him has helped me, in the mean time, and kept me from fainting.’’ Ps. 27:13. The very actings of faith are present aids to a dropping spirit, and often help it at a dead lift. 3. His improvement of this experience. (1.) He had the pleasure of it: Therefore my heart greatly rejoices. The joy of a believer is seated in the heart, while, in the laughter of the fool, the heart is sorrowful. It is great joy, joy unspeakable and full of glory. The heart that truly believes shall in due time greatly rejoice; it is joy and peace in believing that we are to expect. (2.) God shall have the praise of it: when my heart greatly rejoices, with my song will I praise him. This must we express our gratitude; it is the least we can do; and others will hereby be invited and encouraged to trust in him too.

I like how Matthew Henry says that 'not only God has given to me, in his due time, the help I trusted to him for, but my very trusting in him has helped me, in the mean time, and kept me from fainting.'  How many of us today feel like 'fainting?'  How many of us have regrets from 2011?  How many of us have set new year's resolutions to do better this year?  With all the things that we are facing this coming year, are we taking those to the Lord, or are we just trying to make it through another year with minimal damage?  David in this Psalm is encouraging himself to look to the Lord when trouble comes.  He is reminding himself that God is his strength and shield and that God is the One who helps. 

And this is true for us all today.  If you are wondering where and when help will come for your weary soul, draw near to the Lord and He will draw near to you.  Remember Psalm 28 as well as Psalm 120:1,2 "I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth." I am convinced that one of the main reasons we all feel like 'fainting' or weary and that God feels distant is directly related to the amount of time we spend with the Lord in prayer and Bible study.  Just as Jesus taught us in John 15:5, " I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."  When we don't spend consistent time with the Lord in prayer and Bible study, it is like we are cut off from the vine.  Our hearts can wither and feel dry because our life blood has been slowed.  Now, I am not talking about salvation.  He who is a believer in Christ and has asked Him to be his Lord and Savior has been permenantly attached to the Vine, Christ, and will never be cut off.  Also, the true believer cannot be cut off from the Vine due to how they are feeling or their sin (Romans 8:38,39).  Most times, when we are not consistently spending time in God's Word, the truth, we are tempted to allow our feelings to dictate our responses to life and circumstances.  Therefore, a question arises, how well do we 'know' the Lord?  How well do I know Tim Tebow?  I know of him, but I don't know him.  Getting to know someone deeply requires lots of time with that person and lots of giving of ourselves to that person, whether they are a spouse, a friend or family member.  We don't just wake up and really know someone we've just met.  I desire to 'know' God and not just know 'of' Him.  In His grace, He had His Word written down for us to be able to get to know Him better. 

This year, may we resolve to further deepen our fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ by trusting Him to help us be more consistent in our walks with Him.  We just might find that things that felt insurmountable in our lives aren't that big of a deal after all.  They may still hurt and suffering may continue, but our responses to these will be grounded in the truth of who Christ is and who we are in Him instead of how we are feeling.  Feelings are deceiving, but God's Word stands forever true!

Are You A Saboteur?

What?!  I've never sabotaged anything in my life...right?  The dictionary defines sabotage as: any undermining of a cause.  Any undermining of a cause, eh?  What is the cause of my life?  2 Corinthians 5:9 says, "So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him." (emphasis mine)  Could I possibly sabotage the cause of my life, the aim of my life?  The Bible answers that question with a resounding 'YES'.  Sin is deceitful (Hebrews 3:13), so when we choose sin over righteousness, we have just sabotaged the aim of our lives...to please God.  "Well, of course, you say, that sin is the problem and we need God's help to eradicate it in our lives, but am I a saboteur?  That sounds harsh!"  We can be saboteurs of a great many things in our lives without even thnking about it in those terms.  As I mentioned before, when I choose sin over righteousness, I have sabotaged the purpose of my life by not bring glory to God or pleasing Him.  What about everyday problems that I face, do I sabotage them as well?  When I was in college, I would go on cycles of depression.  I wasn't depressed all the time or for great lengths of time, but for short, intense bursts of time.  What I found in those moments was a craving for that feeling of something being wrong.  There were a lot of reasons for my depression at those times, but what I took away from those experiences was a desire for the heartache that I felt.  It became a 'security blanket' for me as I approached life.  I didn't have hope.  I didn't have purpose.  I didn't want them, I wanted the heartache.  When I became a believer, I had to really deal with that issue.  It was an idol in my heart because I felt that I needed to feel that way to be safe.  I could shut people out of my life when I was feeling that way.  It wasn't until I saw the glory of God through Jesus Christ and His redeeming work in my life that I began to deal with this deep rooted heart issue.  Is it still a struggle today?  Not much at all, but I am sinful and still in need of Jesus to keep me from despairing all over again. 
Are you feeling something similar right now?  Are you a believer in Jesus and in despair?  Have you sabotaged hope and purpose because it is 'too good to be true'?  Psalm 121:1,2 says, "I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth."  Where do we find hope and purpose in this fallen world and even in our despairing hearts?  Lift you eyes to the Lord who made you and formed your inmost being.  He is our help!

The following article is something that I was able to identify with and hope that Dr. Welch's wisdom and God's truth will lift your eyes today, even in the midst of our ongoing sabotage.

Hope Sabotaged

By: Ed Welch

Published: Oct 06, 2011

I first noticed it when an up-and-coming executive was caught embezzling money. He knew the system. He didn’t need the money; he didn’t even care about money. And, he knew he would get caught. His embezzling had nothing to do with stealing and greed. Instead, he was moving quickly toward dizzying heights of success; hope was rising too—and he had to kill it. In the confusing world of fallen humanity, everything can be turned upside down and backwards. In his case, hope was a threat that had to be eliminated.
No hope…

It happens more than you think. There are many hope saboteurs out there.

• • Do you get uncomfortable or even panic when your circumstances improve?
• • Have your hopes been dashed and you are committed to not having that happen again?
• • Do you believe that somehow you are unworthy of “success”?
• • Do you predict doom and gloom and then help it on its way in order to prove your prophecy true?
• • Have others assured you that you are a failure and rather than try to prove them wrong, you assume they are right?

Beginner hope saboteurs are like Eeyore—pessimists. They forecast the worst. The pessimist says: “There are enough ups-and-downs in life, so let’s assume the worst—prepare for the worst—then the worst might not feel quite so bad.

Those who live with depression are the more advanced pessimists. Just try to speak words of encouragement to some depressed people and you will discover that they seem to become more depressed!

Here is one rule that hope saboteurs live by: success creates higher expectations, so undermine any gains before anyone notices. Some aren’t satisfied until they have hit a new bottom. There, they feel comfortable, safe and at home.

Odd, yes. But this makes complete sense in a godless world. Apart from God, things will indeed get worse. Why postpone the inevitable? Why pretend that all will be well? Ecclesiastes explores such a world and its natural conclusions.

Hope…

But if we have come to know Jesus Christ, who died and is now the resurrected, living King, then hope-killers, along with their Eeyore brethren, are blind. Even in the midst of suffering, victimization and our own sin, the King will accomplish good and his reign of peace will be eternal.

So, a follower of Christ is a person who has hope. That, of course, takes a lot of explaining. After all…I might die today….the church that I attend might be gone in a year… I could lose my job. Uh oh, my inner Eeyore is coming out. But the church-at-large will grow in breadth and depth, Christ and his followers will be vindicated, and we will see the lover of our souls face-to-face.

We are people of hope, and this hope cannot be sabotaged. We must proclaim it well to a world that is almost persuaded that hope is a fantasy.

What We Can Learn From Other Biblical Counselors...

“How come you have been so successful at this business of counseling,” he asked?

I responded something like this. “Dave, all I can tell you is that I work with Divine authority. I listen to what people tell me about their lives and then I engage them with the Word of God. As they respond positively to the Lord, I coach them in the implementation of the Word to bring course correction and work hard at training them to walk in His way.”  - Dr. Howard Eyrich (Biblical Counselor for over 40 years)

Biblical counseling can be seen as a daunting task.  Daunting because we (the church who are all called to be counselors) can buy in to the notion that it is up to us to fix other's problems.  When we begin to think that, we remove the power of God's Word in the hearts of other's lives and rob Him of glory.  It is not up to us, we are the messengers whom God called and promises to equip.  He is the one who is at work in the hearts and lives of His children.  In His grace and mercy, He chooses to use broken people to help other broken people.  Praise God!  Much like evangelism, we are called to proclaim God's Word, the Gospel, to a dying world and it is up to the Lord to draw and save.  God owns the results of salvation and of helping hurting people in the midst of their problems.  When we can have this right perspective, helping others isn't so daunting after all.  It is exciting to see what God is going to do next!  To get to see Him work in front of our fallen eyes is a blessing.  We can then engage hurting people, get messy with them because we want to see the glory of God work mightily in our own lives and in the lives of those we are trying to help.  What a great God we serve!

The Biblical Counseling Coalition's blog, Grace and Truth, has been posting a series going of lessons learned from biblical counselors.  From two years into their ministries to 40 years.  Great lessons that all lead to the grace of God and His work in the lives of others.  I recommend them if you are wanting to get some helpful tips and some great encouragement from them.  You can find them at: Grace and Truth Blog  There are also other posts that are super helpful and I hope that you are encouraged by the variety of counselors that have contributed to this blog.

Self Harm

Amy Baker, a biblical counselor with Faith Biblical Counseling Ministries, gives some perspective on the problem of cutting/self harm.  Lord willing, this will help us to care for those who are struggling in this area.  Check it out at: http://blogs.faithlafayette.org/counseling/2011/08/cutting-bleeding-the-pain-away/