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| www.realmagick.com by Josh Horton |
(Webster’s)
Trouble- (N) 1) Distress, affliction, danger, or need 2) A source of distress or difficulty 3) Inconvenience: bother 4) Pain, disease or malfunction
Trouble- (v) 1) To stir up: agitate 2) To afflict with discomfort or pain 3) To distress: worry 4) To inconvenience: bother 5) To take pains
“Ponder This”
A) Trouble (N) – Is this happening against you
What do I mean by that? In the noun form of the word trouble as it is defined; is it happening to you? Is the trouble you are facing against you personally?
B) Trouble (V) – Is this happening because of you?
This is really explanatory. Did you cause the trouble?
I am going through some things in my own life that begs these questions to be answered. Trouble is never easy or pleasant, but it is necessary. Without trouble to move us, we become dormant and complacent. The question is; are we troubled or are we troubling others?
There have been tons of blogs and post talking about trouble so let me assure you this one is NOT like that. This post is about reflecting on your own self and seeing where the problem really lies.
If I were to ask you about anything that you recently went through or are currently going through that was/is trouble, every person reading this would say yes! I am going through trouble. If I were to ask you the cause, all of us would say because of something or someone who brought it to us. The truth in reality is that we are probably the main cause of our own trouble. That is if we are truly honest.
I can hear you screaming; but they said, they did, they started it, you don’t understand I’m… __________? Hmmmm!
As I stated earlier I am going through trouble and allot of it at the present time so I’ve had time to go through the stages of trouble.
Stages
1) Pain/Hurt
2) Anger
3) Worry/Fear
4) Depression (Pity Party)
5) Enlightenment
Has anyone else been through these stages?
Honestly I am so very tired of trouble. I hate it, I despise it and I dread it. However as I get older the words of Job ring in my ears. Job 5:7 yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. That’s really encouraging isn’t it? Yet in the tone of the verse there is a deep truth that resonates across all plains of life. Who knew trouble better than Job? I hope no-one else ever does. In reflection of his trouble I can see plainly that I don’t really have any.
Trouble builds character better than any other way God could use.
It was certainly true for Job and it is true for us. You might say; well Job didn’t cause his trouble, and you would partly be right. I think in some ways he did. Plainly he went through all the stages of trouble and not all that well I might add.
1) Pain/ Hurt – Job 1:20 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped
Job started out really good. He did the only thing a grieving man could do, and that’s fall down in utter despair, confusion and pain. I don’t fault him there because I couldn’t bear what he did.
2) Anger- Job 3:1 after this Job opened his mouth, and cursed his day.
Now this is where most of us start, with anger and cursing. We revert to our sin nature when our lives become hotbeds of trouble. Yet, the issue of trouble is never dealt with. At this stage we still cannot or we refuse to see our part in the party, so to speak.
3) Worry/Fear – Job 3:25-26 for the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me. I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quite; yet trouble came.
Now we are starting to see what God saw all along in Job. Did you notice he said the thing (I) greatly feared is come upon me?
How many times has trouble come to us because of fear? We never want to look at our culpability because it is far easier to blame someone else, to attribute our pain to sources beyond our control. Yet, I would venture to say that we are the cause of many of our troubles.
4) Depression (pity party)- Job 6:1,2 But Job answered and said, Oh that my grief were throughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances altogether.
Wow, what a pity party going on there. Be real here, have you ever thrown one of those. I have, more times than I can count. To God we must sound like sniveling brats sometimes. Oh God, I’m worried my bank accounts dry. Never mind I spent all my money on me, that’s beside the point, I’m in trouble God, will you help me? The light company is going to turn off my lights tomorrow. Or, how about this one? God I’m in pain, I was lifting a box I know was too heavy. Even though I knew I should have waited I was in a hurry, now my back is out, will you heal me?
Before you turn me off and consign me to perdition, hear me out.
Some of our trouble comes from our own lack of pondering our steps.
Is God a God of compassion? Certainly He is, but will He allow us to walk out the trouble sometimes? Absolutely! It doesn’t mean He is against us, rather He is for us. There is something we need to learn. If it’s finances, He would be teaching us to be good stewards. If it’s pain, other than something that we had no control of, He is teaching us to ponder our steps.
We cannot fear trouble or our lives will be a huge waste of time. Trouble is coming. The question is what you are going to do about it.
Which leads to the last point?
5) Enlightenment Job 42:5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
Before this, Job was religious. He had heard about God, but by chapter 42 and several lengthy conversations with God later, Job realized that God is indeed in control of everything. Job realized, compared to God, he was nothing. Do you see how merciful God was to Job? God has the very same compassion for us. He doesn’t delight nor take pleasure in our trouble, but He does use it in us to show us His heart, His character, His strength. We always try to blame people for our trouble, or circumstances. What we need to do as Job should have done, is to stay in that place of worship to begin with. Job started off doing the right thing, going to the right person. Then he let outside influences, people or things, come in and distort his view.
Will this make trouble easier to bear? I doubt it, not as long as we live in these flawed and decaying bodies. What it does is give us hope that God is with us, always. That He is working good in us, even if He allowed the enemy to touch us or consider us. There is a strength that comes from within when we let go of blame and let go of our reasoning and just give it to God.
Remember this song? Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there!
(Words& music by Charles A. Tindley, 1926)
Whatever your trouble, whatever your pain release it today. I know it’s not easy. We hold onto trouble with a death grip. The freedom, the enlightenment comes in letting it go.
I know today, that I am dusting myself off; I’ve been in this pity party long enough. I’m getting up and I’m going to God. Not complaining, not murmuring, not bitter, and not full of grief. I’m going with faith that He is God and He will welcome me. He said that He compasses us with songs of deliverance. Psalms 32:7 if I’m not in the same room with Him and I’m over there feeling sorry for myself, I believe that makes the trouble my own doing.
So I encourage you to get up today, dust off your backside and run to Jesus. Run to Him with your trouble, run to Him with your pain. I don’t know if you noticed when reading Job, not once did God rebuke Job for hurting over the loss of His children or his possessions. Not one time did God rebuke Job over the pain he had had at even being born. What God took issue with was, in how Job responded to God and how He felt God’s character was.
I know that trouble is hard, I’ve lost people, and I’ve lost possessions. I’ve been brutally wounded by people and words. I’ve been betrayed by my own. I know trouble, but I also know mercy and I know Grace. God is the source of all of that!
Again Run to Him, run hard, and run fast. Don’t stop until He catches you up!
See you there!
I’m hid with Christ!
Shawn
Searching Gods Heart 