We are members of BridgePoint and this past week our Pastor gave a sermon on Psalm 42. This Psalm isn't about Jonah but part of it sounds like what Jonah described in Jonah Chapter 2. Infact Psalm 42:7 and Jonah 2:3 are almost identical.
"-Panting, thirsting, eating tears... and people saying where is your God?"
It goes on...
"Deep calls to the deep, your breakers and waves have swept over me..." “Why so downcast Oh my soul?!"
It was a beautiful message and chapter. It seemed like a perfect note to tape down in my Jonah collection. Here's a link to the series on Chains. To hear this message, click on the sermon for week 3. It's about worry and depression.
I don't want to give the entire message away but Eric (the Pastor) points out 3 things that you can do in your storm. Having gotten to the other side of this thing, I can agree. These 3 things were eye opening to me as well and got me through my storm.
The first was to Remember - Make it a point to remember good times with the Lord. -When you knew he was present, when you knew he spoke to you, when you knew something happened and somehow it just had to be Him! Remembering might not sound like a big deal but you and I can barely remember what we had for breakfast or what happened yesterday. How much harder is it to remember a still small voice?
So when I told you in my last post to journal, I meant it. There have been times, even since I began journaling myself, that I forget or I begin to doubt again. -Then I look back at the blog and I'm like.... hmmm, I can't doubt that. He was there every step of the way.
If this activity makes you uncomfortable, check out some of my notes about journaling. Also, the Bible clearly shows examples of making it a point to remember. When we do communion, "it is in remembrance of me". We see it in feasts like one in the book of Esther; it was to remind the Jews about their deliverance. When people or towns were renamed after certain milestones, or when His people set up alters and stones- All of it, is so that they remember and so that others learn and know.
Whatever method of remembrance works for you, please begin it. You might not feel like you have anything to remember yet, but start looking. You will get something. Even as this Psalmist states in Psalm 42 "these things I remember as I pour out my soul..." It sounds so much like that song "Because He lives, I can face tomorrow..."
Nothing else will encourage you in a stormy season, like knowing that God was with YOU- has been and is still with you. You will need that reminder in a season whether it's now or later. Don't go any further without it.
Eric goes on to point out two more key things from this passage that will help you in a storm. I won't share them here because you might just need to hear it for yourself. Yet I can say that he is right. Those two things pointed out first in the scripture, also helped me in my season.
But you know I remember when I didn't have faith. I remember when I thought to myself "how on earth is a God that I don't even see or hear, supposed to be personal".
But I sat in that pew on Sunday and this passage, felt like it looked back at a Jonah season and blew a kiss to so many things that I learned; and am still learning. There was even a song that is played at the end, "Satisfied In You (Psalm 42) by The Sing Team" and I have been craving singing scripture and that dern guitar in my closet still calls my name, this song was another kiss, at me.
Then at the end there was a testimony from my Pastor's wife (which won't be included in the sermon) but it was so tender and beautiful and real. And it kissed the storms that we have in marriage and this "Power of a Praying Wife" study that we're doing on the side. Their testimony also reminded me that our "busyness" and our "insecurities" are sometimes blinding to the ways that we can reach out to our neighbors. Our head tells us one scenario, meanwhile another one is taking place that you can be a part of. And another kiss was blown…
Then at the end there was a testimony from my Pastor's wife (which won't be included in the sermon) but it was so tender and beautiful and real. And it kissed the storms that we have in marriage and this "Power of a Praying Wife" study that we're doing on the side. Their testimony also reminded me that our "busyness" and our "insecurities" are sometimes blinding to the ways that we can reach out to our neighbors. Our head tells us one scenario, meanwhile another one is taking place that you can be a part of. And another kiss was blown…
I know that part might not make sense to you. There were so many things that just seemed to marry together in a moment. True yes, they seem all about me and a place that I was in with the Lord. -But the Lord is also all about you and he will use everything in your life that you're willing to give him and then he will touch you in it. -Be it the storm or the kiss, if you let him. He is there. Every.single.time.
On Sunday, I was in the presence of it again. -Something real. People that were real, not perfect. Not glorifying storms but instead the great big God- that walks out on to the water and calls into our deep. In moments of brokenness, he comes down to sinners like us and loves us anyway…
If you’re in that storm. Come out to meet him in it [sermon and chapter] and be ready to take notes. Replace what you remember.
I pray that it whets your appetite for something more than tears and that tomorrow, you come back for a little more.
Bridgepoint @ 11:00am
10487 Harcum Rd. Gloucester, VA
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