We have for example Peter who was impetuous and failed in some big ways when he was tested. He denied even knowing Jesus when Jesus was being tried, and not just once but 3 times. We know that like him, we all fail.  Failure in our own lives help us to see our own humanity and become aware more of God’s grace to us. We are not to just play it safe to avoid failure but to face it and learn from it, just as Peter did. Abraham lived a free life of faith but he also had failures that are normal for us, as we walk out the Christian life. Abraham left his home and security in obedience to follow God’s call, and it meant a new way of life, a walk of faith. He listened to God and not those around him.

We may be asked to step out of our familiar, to follow the Lord in a new call on our life, maybe relocate, a new ministry etc. If success in the world is more important to us than obeying God, then we will find we become imprisoned and lose our freedom. We are all much like the teen who is leaving home for the first time. As he makes decisions and tries to find his way with so many options, he has some failures. But the important thing is what he learns from it and that he sees how much he needs God’s grace. Even though he will have failures, he is growing and learning and becoming. Maybe the question to him and to ourselves is, what did we learn through failure? Perhaps it breaks our strength in ourselves and teaches us to rely on God; or it makes us more compassionate for hurts and failures of others. If our failures bring us to surrender everything to the Lord, it has accomplished much. It says in Psalm 34:18, “The Lord is close to all whose hearts are crushed by pain, and He is always ready to restore the repentant one.”

Hope your day is full of sunshine and praise. I have to wait another month for my implants, but I did get my crown yesterday.  Our grandson, Joe, stopped in for supper last night and good to have time to catch up. Today Al gives a service at Assisted Living, and I have Exercise, crafts, soup supper and Lenten service.

I was reading Eugene Peterson’s take on Psalm 77 written by Asaph that has to do with self-pity. The first 10 verses are full of self-pity as he cries aloud to the Lord and verbally shares his misery and hurt. He can’t sleep as he mulls over his troubles and remembers the good old days when things were better. He is upset and questions if the Lord will reject him forever and forget to show mercy and acceptance to him. He sees God as angry and wonders if He will be compassionate again. He sounds like he is in a swamp of self-pity.

But the next 10 verses are a radicle switch, and we aren’t privy as to what caused the change. But he began remembering what God has done in the past, His wonders and works and deeds. He switches his focus to the Lord and meditates on Him, rather than his troubles. He particularly remembers the Exodus from Egypt and how the Lord supernaturally saved His people. He ends up singing of Gods might and power. What a change! He offered his self-pity to God and said, “I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work and meditate on your mighty deeds. Your way, O God is holy. What god is great like our God?”

King David came to my mind first as he describes so well all his feelings, happy and sad, and in Psalm 16:9 he said, “I’m happy from the inside out, and from the outside in, I’m firmly formed.” Another translation says, “But you will find joy in the Lord and praise the Holy One of Israel.” Along with great joy, David also had times that he felt depressed. One time when David and his army returned home, they discovered the Amalekites had raid their town and taken their families and possessions away.  David, along with his men wept with sorrow until they could weep no more. But we are told he responded by finding strength in the Lord and encouraging himself and was able go with his army to get everything back. Sometimes we need to give ourself a peptalk and encourage ourselves in the promises of the Lord, letting go of our negative talk.

Another example was Job who lost everything, including his family and his livestock and possessions, and must have felt devastated. And yet he refused to curse God and he remained faithful. In our times of devastation, we need to remember God’s faithfulness for even the things we don’t understand at the time. Job was rewarded twice as much after his time of testing.

Joseph must have felt pretty down when he was sold as a slave and put in a pit and later in prison. And yet he made the most of it and God rewarded Him. I wonder when we are going through dark times if we are willing to pray that God would work good out of our circumstances, and then make the best of it, believing that we would see the light again.

Abraham and Sarah must have had many sad times as she couldn’t get pregnant, and every month was a disappointment. She had to wait until she was 90 years old to birth a son of promise. And there was Esther who must have been filled with sadness and fear with the prospect of all her Jewish friends and family being annihilated. The list goes on and on.
Let us learn from the many examples in scripture and respond with hope and even joy.

Challenge for today: When you feel down and depressed, let go of negative talk, remember His faithfulness to you, make the best of it and let hope arise.

The apostle Paul writes often in his letters about freedom. He mentions it ten times just in his letter to the Galatians.  He says in Gal.5:!3, “For you were called to freedom, brother. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” A free life is a gift and not something we earn but something that is free for all who receive it. We’ve probably all met people who we have met that just sail through life freely and lightly, even when going through hard times. It is beautiful and speaks volumes even though they may not say a lot. We also, can live free only because of God’s actions and our part is to respond. On our own we can’t live a life of freedom.

 Next Job’s body was attacked and full of painful sores, so much so that he used broken pottery to scrape himself as sat in ashes. At that point his wife told him to renounce God and die. Some encouraging word and from the one closest to him!  But he responded with that we not only receive good from the Lord but we also have to accept misfortune. To add to his problems, his friends accused him of sin as the cause of all those terrible things happening to him. How about those times we are misunderstood by our friends, our motives are maligned and we feel helpless to defend ourselves. We may have to just sit tight for a while until God reveals to them what is really going on. Job had to listen for days to all the accusations but the Lord ended up defending him and having him offer prayers for his friends who judged him. We know from the familiar story that God also restored everything and twice more to Job.

  When we go through those hard times, let us know that God is doing a deep work in us; He sees and walks with us through it all and has our good in mind. Let us not lose hope but remember that one day He will restore us with far more than we have endured in our suffering.