We all at some point feel empty. Even Jesus one day felt empty! Emptiness is a gross feeling. Its a feeling that may start out as lonely, or discouraged, or defeated. Its usually a negative emotion that lingers. The reason it lingers is because we allow it to. When we are lead by our flesh, we prefer to look at the bleakest outcome as if it was ours. We think about all the reasons we deserve the negative outcome: we don’t pray enough, we have not read God’s word enough, we don’t serve God enough, etc. That’s how the devil rolls. He rolls in negativity. He loves discouraging people so they become desperate and do something or say something they will regret. Emptiness comes just before desperation. But for those who believe in God, desperation can be intercepted by trusting in God’s lovingkindness! Consider the psalmist:
“1 How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? 2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me? 3 Consider and answer me, O Lord my God. Enlighten my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death, 4 and my enemy will say, ‘I have overcome him’, and my adversaries will rejoice when I am shaken.”
Quite a hopeless picture he paints! It looks like he has been stewing in fear of his enemies for a long time. Have you ever been going through a problem you thought was never going to be resolved? There has to come a point where enough is enough, right? He seemed to have tried everything he could to rid himself of these negative emotions and nothing was working for him. He even tried to counsel himself and it had no effect.
I believe there are times when the faithful are going to be called upon to dig a little deeper to experience God’s grace and mercy. When you first come to believe in Him it may seem easy to access Him, but as your faith grows, God calls us to a deeper level of relationship with Him. In verse 1, David is asking God, “How long will You hide from me?” I believe David was seeking God before the time he wrote this psalm, but it was possibly a more superficial level of pursuit. I believe, maybe this was a moment that God really wanted to get David to dig deeper within himself and really show His desire to call upon God. And look at the result:
“5 But I have trusted in Your lovingkindness. My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation. 6 I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me.”
Whenever you dig a little deeper in your pursuit of God, faith will arise. Truth will become believable once again. When you wallow in your miserable circumstances truth doesn’t matter to you. Your pain and suffering are all that matter at that time. That’s why its necessary to know God’s word. The truth found in these pages are unlike the truth the world will offer you. The world will tell you everything will be fine, your getting stronger through this, you this, you that, you you you. The world’s truth focuses you on you. But the truth found in the Bible tells you to focus on Him and others. As we focus on Him and others, He will take care of our pain.
Focus on His lovingkindness. You can trust His lovingkindness! His lovingkindness is better than life! His lovingkindness will keep you through the situations you go through, BUT, please use those situations as times to focus on Him! Then you can watch Him work all things for good. He will prove Himself to be faithful. Allow your negative situations to grow your faith in Him! Maturity comes through suffering.
Remember, you can trust in His lovingkindness! Be blessed!
The Wholly Blog 