Thursday, October 3, 2019

Dealing with Trouble - Martin Wiles


I took my troubles to the Lord; I cried out to him, and he answered my prayer. Psalm 120:1 NLT

Trouble arrived in a way it never had before.

I’d seen trouble before—but not like this time. The trouble came in the form of financial meltdown. My wife and I had experienced financial challenges before, but this time was different. Before, she could work and help with the income. This time, she couldn’t. Health problems made it impossible—and her disability case lingered on the desk of someone who had more than they could handle and wasn’t worried about our situation.

Every two weeks, my paycheck arrived, accompanied by my wife’s reminder that there wasn’t enough money to go around. Some things wouldn’t get paid unless unexpected money rolled in. Unlike my wife—who likes to keep her troubles to herself—I don’t mind sharing. So I told my boss, work peers who were friends, children, church folks, family, neighbors, and a pastor friend. Help came from various places, and somehow our bills got paid.

And my wife and I helped ourselves as much as we could. We downsized, selling everything we didn’t need and that wasn’t family heirlooms or made by my father. My wife had a yard sale and busied herself selling on Facebook. Eventually, what we had to sell ran out, but the bills kept coming and the money kept dwindling.

In all of our financial drama, we didn’t forget to do what the psalmist did: cried out to the Lord. Pleas filled my prayers, and God answered in numerous and unexpected ways.

Troubles are perplexing. They may signal God’s discipline for unconfessed sin in my life, or they may not. Troubles come to the evil and the good, so being one way or the other doesn’t seem to affect their arrival.

The difference is focus. As a believer, I choose to think God controls the troubles—their arrival, their intensity, and their duration. I also believe crying out to Him makes a difference. Doing so may not make the trouble go away, but knowing He’s in control and seeing His answers gives me a peace that’s beyond understanding.

Although my wife and I spent many months in our current crises, we never lost our sense of peace and joy. We knew we were living in God’s will, believed He loved us, and faithed that He’d supply our needs.

When troubles come your way, cry out to the One who can do something about them.

Prayer: Father, we call out to You when troubles overwhelm us and we see no way out.




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4 comments:

  1. I sure hope those troubles go away for you super soon. Thanks for joining the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop.

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  2. I was sort of thinking about this in my last week's Thankful Thursdays post as I pondered the new season I'm in. Each season in life has been a learning experience for me and I've now been able to look back and be thankful for each one, whether they were peaceful seasons or full of troubles and grief.

    But despite what this life may bring and what I may be feeling at any moment... even if my world seems to be falling down around me, I know that God is good and I cling to Him. I sometimes lose sight of what's important, but He always gently brings me back to Him. I can say that the trials I've been through have made me a much stronger person.

    I especially know how tough financial troubles can be, having lost our own home to foreclosure back in 2008. But even so I've never been without a nice warm place to rest my head each night. So praise God! I know the Lord is the only reason that I've been able to come this far in life.

    But anyway, I'll stop rambling :)

    I do pray that you find joy in this storm and that God will bring you out on the other side with more blessings and abundance than you ever thought possible!

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  3. Our circumstances never dictate our faith and God is always good!

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  4. Nothing is impossible for a faithful heart
    With my current post I can relate to the feelings you shared

    Please do visit

    https://scraps-from-life.blogspot.com/2019/10/devotion.html?m=1

    ReplyDelete