Psalm 18:4-6 “The hangman’s noose was tight at my throat; devil waters rushed over me. Hell’s ropes cinched me tight; death traps barred every exit. A hostile world! I call to God. I cry to God to help me. From his palace, he hears my call; my cry brings me right into his presence—a private audience!" Today's episode talks about how hard it is when we feel the pressure closing in and we can't find a way out. It talks about how the enemy tries to isolate so we don't talk about what we are sad, mad, or angry about. It talks about how we need to prepare in advance for the enemies attacks when we are in a good place, so we can resist when we aren't. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
A Private Audience
Psalm 18:4-6 “The hangman’s noose was tight at my throat; devil waters rushed over me. Hell’s ropes cinched me tight; death traps barred every exit. A hostile world! I call to God. I cry to God to help me. From his palace, he hears my call; my cry brings me right into his presence—a private audience!"
I loved this verse because it is something most, if not all, of us can relate to. I also like it because it is in words and phrases that we can actually picture. Most of us can relate to a time when we felt like the hangman’s noose was tight around our throats. The situations could be different for all of us, but the feelings were the same. There could be many situations where we felt we were about to suffocate. Sometimes it is the people around us. They are choking all the life out of us, and we feel we may die. Sometimes, it is an illness that has us on the cusp of death, and we have nowhere to go. No matter the situation, it is still a feeling that is scary and unpleasant.
Then it says the devil's waters rushed over me. Which one of us hasn’t felt underwater before? This is such a strong feeling. Both the hangman’s noose and the devil’s water deal with us not being able to breathe. This is a common feeling. Things in our life get so crazy, and we feel like we can’t breathe. I just had the thought come into my mind, “Why do we let things get that bad?” Why don’t we turn to the Lord at the first sign of trouble, like we talked about yesterday?
This is a fair question for some of us. Some of us sit in our misery, and we complain, and we do what we can to fix it on our own, perhaps, but we do not bring it to the Lord. There are many reasons for this. We may not want to bother Him; we may think we aren’t worthy of His help, and we may be afraid of rejection. Whatever the thoughts are, we don’t bring our issue to the Lord, and we try to deal with it on our own. For all of us who do this, I would say, Yes, why did we let it get that bad? Why didn’t we turn to the Lord right away? Why didn’t we ask Him for help? Why did we suffer in silence for so long?
Oh, that is another thing we do. We are suffering, and not only do we not turn to the Lord, but we don’t tell anyone. We may think there are many reasons we don’t tell people what is going on, but there is really just one reason, and that is the enemy. He convinces us of all those reasons we think we aren’t talking about our suffering. The real reason we aren’t talking about it is because the enemy knows when we talk about it, we will be taking it out of the dark. When we talk about it, it will give others the opportunity to speak light into it. The enemy likes our suffering to stay hidden so he can heap on lie after lie. He speaks lies into our suffering. Lies that it won’t ever go away. Lies that no one cares about us. Lies that God must be mad at us, and that is why He is punishing us like this. Lies that God doesn’t love us. Lies that no one loves us. Lies that we are not worthy. Lies that we are not enough. The enemy stacks lies upon lies.
When we are struggling, it is easy to believe these lies. When we are struggling, we prefer to isolate and stay in the dark because the enemy convinces us the light will burn us. It is not our fault that we fall prey to the enemy; I mean, He has been torturing people since the beginning of man. However, we need to find a way to break out of the darkness. We need to prepare ahead of time for situations like this. When we are good, when things in our life aren’t as crazy, and we are living in the light, we need to build up our strength so that when the enemy comes, we can recognize the lies and dismiss them. Don’t even let them enter our brains.
Think about anyone who is good at their job. They have to anticipate problems that may come up and then prepare for them. What do you think would happen if a basketball player never practiced free throws until he needed to use them? He wouldn’t be very good. If we only call on God when we need Him, and the rest of the time, we ignore Him, how well do you think that will work out for you? He will come as it pains Him to see His children in trouble. It’s not that God won’t come whenever we call. However, if we are walking with Him in the good and the bad times, then He can help us steer clear of some of the wrong turns that we might make without Him.
The verse above talks about how death traps barred every exit. Have you ever felt like this? Have you ever felt as if there was no way out? Every way out seemed to end in death or at least defeat. I know I have felt like this. There was a point in my marriage where I really didn’t want to go, and I also knew I couldn’t stay. I had tried all things and couldn’t see any other way. I prayed to God often. I reminded Him of the covenant He had made with Tony and me. I begged Him for a better way. I had been Catholic my whole life. I knew the church’s stance, God’s stance on marriage. Matthew 19:6 “So they are no longer two but one flesh. What, therefore, God has joined together, let not man separate.”
I knew all of this, and yet I knew in my very being that I couldn’t stay how things were, and it didn’t look like things were going to change. I felt exactly as this verse says. Death traps barred every exit; if I stayed, it wouldn’t be good for anyone in the house; if I left, it would be breaking a covenant I made with God. The thing about God is that He is a waymaker. I couldn’t see a way to stay. I begged for one, but I couldn’t see one. God made a way, though. God completely changed Tony and I. He performed a true miracle in our marriage, and now we are doing great. Not perfect, as we are still human, but we not only love each other, but we want to spend time together and be with each other.
God can do this in your life too! It’s not just me that God did this for. You can read about God making a way for His people in Exodus 14. The Israelites were on the banks of the Red Sea with no way to cross it. The Egyptian army was pursuing them and about to overtake them. They looked around and had nowhere to go. All exits were blocked. They were doomed. Or, they would have been doomed if they weren’t God’s children. But God had promised to save them, and He wasn’t going to let something as small as the Red Sea get in His way. So he parted it, and His people walked across it on dry ground. God will do this for you too! All you need to do is ask and keep asking. God will rescue you as He rescued my family and as He rescued the Israelites. Just ask!
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, you are amazing how you work all things for our good. It is miraculous how you always manage to save us from ourselves. We love you tons! We thank you for all you do for us. We are sorry we don’t always come to you first. We are sorry we suffer in silence for so long. I am sure that it breaks your heart to see us suffering like that. Please help us turn to you first from now on, Lord. We ask all this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I would like to ask for your prayers once more for a safe journey home today. I want to remind everyone of mentoring tomorrow night. If you would still like to sign up, you can do so at walkboldlywithjesus.com or CLICK HERE. I would love to see you on Zoom tomorrow night. Also, if you really are not a Zoom fan but would like to develop a more intimate relationship with the Lord and walk more boldly in your faith, I encourage you to sign up and then watch the videos. You won’t have the small group time, but you will get all the teachings, mentoring notes, and activities. Pray about it and see if it is for you. I look forward to meeting you here tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!
Today’s word from the Lord is, “My children, I am the song within you, and gently, my message must go out to the world. Let it be a melody that touches each heart that you meet. Again I am the song within you. I am the joy that fills your heart. I am the hope that must be spread to one and all. My children, I am all that you need. I am the entire well-being of your soul. So go out there, my children, and spread the message of the song.”