Moving Through The Darkness • Psalms Week 9

Moving Through The Darkness  
Psalms • Week 9 • July 4, 2021
Teacher: Dr. Joe Scruggs

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Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths Most do not fully see this truth that life is difficult. Instead they moan more or less incessantly, noisily or subtly, about the enormity of their problems, their burdens, and their difficulties as if life were generally easy, as if life should be easy. — Scott Peck

Leviticus 18:1-4 NIV

The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘I am the Lord your God. You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the Lord your God.

There is a great market for religious experience in our world: there is little enthusiasm for the patience acquisition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness. — Eugene Peterson

Go to God with unfettered honesty and complete openness about your problem and struggles; even your frustrations with God.

Psalm 77:1-9 NIV

I cried out to God for help; I cried out to God to hear me. When I was in distress, I sought the Lord; at night I stretched out untiring hands, and my soul refused to be comforted. I remembered you, God, and I groaned; I mused, and my spirit grew faint. You kept my eyes from closing; I was too troubled to speak. I thought about the former days, the years of long ago; I remembered my songs in the night. My heart mused and my spirit inquired: “Will the Lord reject forever? Will he never show his favor again? Has his unfailing love vanished forever? Has his promise failed for all time? Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he in anger withheld his compassion?”

Develop a much more thorough understanding of the word, **"deserve”. **

Accept the mystery.

God doesn’t owe us explanations.

Don’t put God in a box.

Isaiah 40:27-31 NIV

“Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God”? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

They will run and not grow weary,

They will walk and not be faint.”

Trust and Obey

“Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human looks upon a universe in which every trace of God seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken and still obeys.” — CS Lewis

Keep praying; even though it's hard.

If we are focused on our internal feelings, we’re not focused on God.

Psalm 77:10–15 NIV

Then I thought, “To this I will appeal: the years of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will meditate on all your works and consider on all your mighty deeds.” Your ways, God, are holy. What god is so great as our God? You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples. With your mighty arm you redeemed your people, the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.

2 Timothy 4:7 (PHILLIPS)

The glorious fight that God gave me I have fought, the course that was set I have finished and I have kept the faith.

2 Timothy 4:8 (PHILLIPS)

The future holds for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the true judge will give me in that day and, not of course only to me, but to all those who have loved what they have seen of him.