Have you ever prayed and felt like God was silent? I mean, you’re crying out, and as you’re crying out in prayer, it just feels like the words are just hitting the ceiling, kind of like hitting the ceiling and falling right back down. Because that’s what silence feels like. At times, it feels like God doesn’t hear us.
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See, the reality is, a lot of times when we feel like that, we start looking back at what we’ve done, and we go, “Well, I’ve done everything right. I mean, I’ve been faithful, and I’ve given, and I’ve prayed, I’ve trusted, I’ve served. God, I did everything right, but what I’m walking through, my circumstances, my situation, my difficulty, it hasn’t changed.” And the thing is, when everything starts going sideways, and God feels silent, do you know what we start looking for? A sign, right? A sign that just says that everything is going okay, something that we can point to, that we can see, that tells us that God is working, something that tells us that God is still there.
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But there’s a problem living and looking for a sign. In fact, I know someone, they were looking for a sign, and I know you’ve never done this, but they grabbed their Bible, and they opened it up to a random spot. See, you already know you’re guilty in the room. And they took their finger, and they put it on a verse, and they were like, “This is what God is gonna tell me, and it’s gonna change everything for me.” And the finger, where their finger was at, the verse was, a wicked and perverse generation seeks a sign. Real story. See, there’s a problem living with a sign. The problem is, is when we’re desperate, we start looking for signs, but we look for signs that tell us who God is. We start looking for our circumstances to define God’s character, and God, you are not, God’s character, and God, you would give me some sign to show me who you are and what you do. And so we start believing this lie that if things are going well, then God must be good. And if things are falling apart, well, then God has just forgotten me. Hey, if I get my prayers answered, then God loves me, and if I don’t get my prayers answered, maybe he doesn’t. And before long, we start letting our situation tell us who God is instead of letting God tell us who he is.
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And in Psalm chapter number 86, David does something different. This Psalm isn’t written from the palace. It’s written from a valley. David is overwhelmed. He feels under attack. He’s tired. And yet instead of letting his circumstances diminish his faith, David lets his circumstances shape his prayer. See, Psalm 86 isn’t a song of victory. It’s a cry for mercy. And if you wanna know where we’re headed with the sermon today, here’s the whole message in just a second. It’s not about David fixing his circumstances. It’s about David finding God in the middle of his circumstances. So that’s where true faith is tested. Not on the mountaintop, but in the middle of my mess, in the middle of your mess.
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Psalm chapter number 86, verse number one says this, “Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me. For I’m afflicted and needy.” I mean, you can almost hear the desperation in his words. He’s not praying lofty words. He’s praying real words. So something in us that we pray to God, we try and use all the right theological words. We use the right structuring in our sentences and we sound really good. Hey, do you know who’s not impressed? God.
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David just comes to God with real words and he says, “Hey, I’m hurting. I’m overwhelmed. God, I need you.” And I love his honesty and his transparency. David knows that God isn’t impressed by polished prayers, that he’s moved by honest hearts. David doesn’t come to God with pride. He doesn’t come to God pretending that everything is fine. He says, “No, Lord, I’m gonna come to you in honesty. I need you. I can’t fix this.” Verse number one, there’s a word afflicted. It means pressed down. David feels crushed under the weight of life, but even in that, he knows where to run. See, hear me, David, we always think about David. We think David sinned. There was that one time with Bathsheba, but the reality is when you look at scripture, David sinned multiple times. In fact, the one with Bathsheba wasn’t even his biggest one. But here’s the thing about David. When David sinned, David knew where to turn and where to run to, it was back to the Father. And in desperation, David knows where to turn and David knows where to run to the Father. And you’ll notice something. Notice something about his prayer. It’s not elegant, it’s real. As I said earlier, he’s not trying to impress God. He simply invites God in. Because that’s what prayer is. It’s not a performance, it’s a dependence. It’s not me using words to impress God in heaven. No, it’s me communicating with God in heaven that I need him. You communicating with God in heaven. That you need him. That’s prayer.
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Verse number two says this, preserve my soul, for I am a godly man. Oh, you my God, save your servant who trusts in you. This is so important for where we’re headed. Even when he’s weak, he’s still trusting. He’s not saying, Lord, I’m, you know, I wanna be a godly man, but God, I don’t know whether I should trust you or whether I should trust me. God, I don’t know what to do here. You know, he’s saying, Lord, I’m a godly man. I trust you. Even when it doesn’t look like anything makes sense, he still believes and he still trusts God.
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Look at the next verse, number three. Be gracious to me, oh Lord. For to you I cry all day long. That’s persistence. That’s where faith refuses to quit. Now hear me, he’s not demanding an answer. He’s not saying, God, I’m gonna keep on pressing you and God, I’m gonna keep on praying until you do this thing. No, his prayer and his persistence isn’t wrapped up in what he’s expecting God to do. It’s declaring his dependence upon God. That’s a big difference. Because for a lot of us, when we pray, we think about persistence in prayer and being persistent until we get what we want. And David is persistent in praying to God and communicating to him and also reminding himself that he is going to be dependent upon God. How this sounds is it sounds like, hey, I’m not giving up, Lord, until I hear from you. God, I’m not giving up until I see you. Lord, I’m gonna keep praying because I depend upon you. And what if you and I prayed like that? I mean, beyond the quick, Lord bless me in this day and Lord bless this food and God protect me on this ride. We’re really good at those prayers. But I mean the prayers where we get along with God and we say, Lord, I need you more than I need my own strength, my own wisdom, my own abilities. God, I need you more than I need you to answer some random prayers around me. God, I need you more than I need you to give me my wants, my desires and my wishes. God, I need you. That’s how David’s praying here. God, I need you more than I need the answer to my problem.
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David is showing us that prayer doesn’t have to be perfect to be powerful. Just has to be honest.
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Verse number four, make glad the soul of your servant. For to you, oh Lord, I lift up my soul. See what he said there? He said, make glad the soul of your servant. His request isn’t Lord fix everything so that I will be glad, so that I will be happy. He’s saying, Lord, if you don’t fix anything, would you just fix me on the inside? Lord, if nothing around me changes and all my circumstances say the same, Lord, would you just fix me on the inside? David isn’t asking for everything around him to get better. He’s asking for his soul to get better. He’s not asking God to change everything around him. He’s asking God to change everything within him. He says, Lord, even if nothing around me changes, give me joy again on the inside. Lord, I can’t control my situation, but you can restore my joy.
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That right there, that’s maturity. And maturity in the Christian life isn’t how many years you’ve come to church and how many things that you’ve done and the heritage of whether your family was in church for generations and generations or if your great grandfather’s best friend’s cousin twice removed was a preacher, that doesn’t make you spiritual. The maturity that David is saying is, Lord, even if nothing changes, Lord, would you just change me on the inside? Here’s what he’s saying. Lord, I don’t need the world around me to be different. God, the thing that I desperately need in this life is for you to make me different. That’s maturity, that’s trust. When’s the last time we prayed that? God, would you change me? Lord, would you mold me? Would you shape me? Would you make me different than what I am?
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I want you to watch what he does in the next verse and how this moves because the tone shifts. David starts reminding himself who God is. He said, well, why? Why does David remind himself who God is? Because sometimes before God changes your situation, sometimes before God changes your circumstances, he’ll change your perspective on everything and he’ll change your perspective on who he is.
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Look at verse number five, it says, for you, Lord, are good. Just that statement alone right there, there’s so much in that. Sometimes when I pray and I talk to the Lord and I say, God, you’re good, it just doesn’t feel enough because I want to find some other thing to say, but it’s how God describes himself. And so David is following that it says, for you, Lord, are good and ready to forgive and abundant in loving kindness to all who call upon you. Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer and give heed to the voice of my supplications. And here’s what makes this prayer so powerful. David isn’t just crying to God, he’s reminding himself of who God is. He says, for you, Lord, are good, ready to forgive, abundant in loving kindness to all who call upon you. This word loving kindness in Hebrew is hesed. It means covenant love, steadfast love, love that doesn’t move even when you do. It’s love that doesn’t change even when you and I change. It’s love that doesn’t run away even when you and I mess up. It’s love that doesn’t run out, though we’ve confessed the same sin over and over and over. It’s a loyal love that is unbreakable and undeserved. You can almost hear David preaching to himself. Don’t forget who your God is. He’s good, he’s merciful, he’s faithful, he’s loving, he’s kind, he’s gracious. He’s ready to forgive.
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We get to verse number seven. “In the day of my trouble, I shall call upon you, for you will answer me.” Did you see that?
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Did you see that? That’s faith before the answer. That’s confidence in God’s character, even when life doesn’t make sense. He doesn’t see the answer yet, he doesn’t know if God is gonna give him the answer, but he’s already thanking God for whatever God does, however God does it, however God moves, he’s already beginning to thank him. Watch me, that’s faith without sight. See, sometimes we think faith without sight is us deciding that we want something, that we want God to do something, and then just deciding all on our own, we’re just gonna believe God and he’s going to do it. No, faith without sight is trusting who God is and walking according to how God has told us to walk, regardless of our circumstances. And that’s what David is doing. David is saying, “Lord, I’m just gonna follow you, I’m just gonna trust you.” And maybe that’s what you need today. Hey, what if we stopped waiting for the answer that we desired and just praised and followed God for who he is? Because we’re all tempted. We’re all tempted to look at what we want and what we desire and wait for God to move on those things and then follow him. And sometimes your greatest act of worship and your greatest act of praise is to trust God before the miracle that you’ve been praying for and continue forward whether you see it or whether you don’t.
Look at verse number eight. There is no one like you among the gods, oh Lord, nor there any works like yours. All nations whom you have made shall come and worship before you, oh Lord. And they shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous deeds. You alone are God.
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Did you see the change in David’s prayer? He’s not just praying from pain anymore. He’s worshiping in the middle of his pain. And now what he had in pain and in his prayer is now this heart of worship and he’s pouring out worship to God. You can almost feel like David’s changing mid prayer. He starts the Psalm overwhelmed with everything around him and now he’s coming to the end of the Psalm in all of who God is.
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This is so powerful. Because when he remembers who God is, his problems, they shrink to the right size. See David’s prayer is God, I still believe you’re good even if nothing changes today. And I don’t wanna just push past that. That’s deep theology. That’s deep theological understanding because it’s trusting God for who God says he is, not what he seems to be or what he seems to do. It’s not looking at our circumstances and then defining who God is or looking for some sign to tell us who God is. It’s trusting what God says about himself from his word and proceeding forward in faith. And David is pouring out this prayer and this heart towards God. And you can see him letting go of all of the things that he wants God to do and he’s just wanting God alone.
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David begins by crying out and then reminds himself of who God is. And now watch what happens next because all of this becomes a personal commitment.
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David says in verse number 11, “Teach me your way, O Lord. I will walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name.” He’s not just asking God to rescue him. Because sometimes this is what we want. We just want God to come in to rescue us. And David is saying, “Lord, I don’t want you to rescue me. I want you to reshape me.” He’s saying, “Teach me, unite my heart. Help me to walk in your truth.” There’s so much here in this phrase. That phrase, unite my heart means bring all this scattered parts of me together. Teach me your way, I’ll walk in your truth. Unite my heart. Sometimes what happens to us is our heart. It just goes in so many different directions. I mean, we want God to do this thing and we want God to do this thing. And these two things are opposite of each other. And there’s so much turmoil happening within us. And David is saying, “Lord, I don’t want that. Lord, because when everything goes this way and goes this way and they pull away from each other, I don’t want to be pulled away from you. So Lord, would you just unite my heart? Lord, you bring all the scattered pieces together. Because Lord, a divided heart, it can’t follow you wholeheartedly.” And some of us need this. So I’m gonna be honest with you, some of us. We don’t need more strength to follow God. We need a united heart. We don’t need more strength in our own abilities. We don’t need better vision for where we’re headed. We need a united heart. We’re torn between trusting God and taking control. We’re half surrendered and half in charge, which really means we’re just in charge of our own lives, all while forgetting who God is and what God does.
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Look at verse number 12. I will give thanks to you. “O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify your name forever.” Here’s the beauty of all of this, of what we just read, David’s commitments. They’re not conditional. He doesn’t say, “God, if you fix this, then I’ll thank you.” Hey God, if you fix this, if you answer this prayer request, then I’ll serve you with my whole life. It sounds like some of the prayers that we pray. Hey God, if you fix this, if you do this, then God, I’ll be faithful. That’s not what David’s doing here. David is saying, “No, even before you fix this, even if you don’t fix this, Lord, I will thank you. I will trust you.” He says, “God, even if you don’t fix this, I’ll thank you.” Notice the word will. He said, “I will give thanks, I will glorify God.” That’s a decision and it’s not based on how he feels. Listen to me, the decision isn’t based on how he feels, it’s based on who God is. That’s real worship. Let me read you a couple of things that says this. Gratitude is not based on what God gives, but who God is.
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Job, when everything was taken away from him, what did he say? “Though you slay me, yet I will trust you.” This is the heart that we need. Hey, what if you and I, our prayer was, “God, I will thank you now, whether I see you change things in my life or whether you don’t change things in my life.” God, I will thank you now. I will thank you now. I will thank you now. God, I will thank you now. If I see you do the miracle that I’m praying for or if you never do it. Lord, whether you take the difficulty out of my life or not. God, I’m gonna thank you now because you’re good even when I feel like life isn’t good.
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Look at verse 13. “For your loving kindness toward me is great, and you’ve delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.” David remembers that if God has already cared for his soul that he can surely handle this situation.
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And did you ever let that really sink in? All the things that you and I worry about, all the stuff that we’re concerned about is so much smaller compared to the care of our soul and the salvation of our soul. Yet we still worry about them.
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We were going away on a family trip. This is years ago. We were traveling from Missouri to Knoxville and we were driving there. You say, “Why were you driving there?” Because we were gonna pick up another dog. We already had two Yorkies. We’re gonna pick up a third. You say, “Why? I don’t know.” And this wasn’t even a real dog, okay? I kid you not, this dog is like this big. It’s like three, but don’t say aww. It’s like three pounds and it’s so small that it doesn’t have a fully developed brain. You say, “How do you know?” Because if you call it, it just gives you this weird look. And my wife says that she’s smart and everything is good with the dog, but I have a different opinion, okay? But this dog is just a mess. But we went to the same breeder where we bought the other two dogs. And so we decided this would be really neat. We would take the two dogs with us on this journey and bring three dogs back. Yeah, no, this isn’t a good idea. But while we’re there, we get there the night before and so we stay in an Airbnb and we take the two dogs that we have and we’re gonna leave them in the Airbnb and go out for dinner. And you can tell the dogs, “No, we’re gonna leave.” And they do not like being in some place that they don’t know and we’re not gonna be there and they’re really freaking out. And we just kind of push them back, close the door because tough love is the best kind of love. Push them back, close the door, get in the car and we’re going to dinner. And my daughter says to me, she’s like, “You know, we bought them, we paid for them, we feed them, we give them water, we give them all this stuff, we buy them all these things. You would think that they would just fully understand that we are gonna come back for them because we have so much invested in them.
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And because I have to ruin everything being a pastor, I ruined that moment and I was like, Yeah, you know what? I think that’s how we are with God.” God who created everything, loved us so much that he sent his son to die for us. And you and I, we spend our lives worrying about the trivial things that are so much smaller than the salvation of our soul. And oftentimes in our bitterness and in our wants and wishes and desires and our selfishness, we decide whether God is good based on our life circumstance when what he has done for us in salvation is so much greater than anything he could do for us in this life. But it’s where we run.
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Here’s what David is saying, you’ve already cared for my soul. You’re surely gonna do and handle this situation. What David does is he looks to the promises of God that give him confidence for today and for tomorrow.
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Look at verse number 14, “Oh God, arrogant men have risen up against me and a band of violent men have sought my life and they have not set you before them. But you, oh Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abundant in loving kindness and truth.” Did you see that? He describes his enemies, arrogant, violent, godless men. The phrase in verse number 15, “Merciful and gracious.” That’s the same description that God used when he revealed himself to Moses in Exodus 34. It’s the same God. David knows this isn’t a new God, that God isn’t somehow working differently. This is the same faithful God who has been gracious throughout all time to generation and generation and generation.
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And I want you to understand this because this is so important to where we’re headed. When life changes, when your circumstance change, when everything seems to go sideways, remind yourself of what never changes, God’s mercy, his patience, his steadfast love, his mercy and his grace. Because the same God of Moses, the same God of David, the same God of the apostles, it’s the same God that we pray to today. And he works the same.
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Verse number 16, “Turn to me and be gracious to me. O grant strength to your servant and save the son of your handmaid.” And I want you to see what David says next.
Verse number 17, “Show me a sign for good, that those who hate me may see it and be ashamed because you, O Lord, have helped me and comforted me.” See, if we would have just started with verse number 17, which is really where our message is gonna be today, we could have really ended up in some weird theological places. Oh God, show me a sign for good. And then people wanna attach anything they think or feel, which when it comes to doctrine, thinking and feeling and how we wanna interpret things can really go sideways. We ought to just let God describe it. “Show me a sign for good” can really be taken out of context.
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But when we look at every verse throughout the entire chapter, when we see David say, “Show me a sign for good,” he’s not asking God to prove himself. He already believes God. In fact, he said he believes God even if God doesn’t do anything, he’s still gonna believe him. But even if God changes nothing, he’s still gonna trust him and he’s still gonna walk forward and he’s still gonna be faithful to God even if nothing changes.
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But David, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gives us this theological dissertation of God’s goodness all the way here to verse number 17.
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And it shows us he’s not asking God to give him a sign to prove himself. He’s asking God for a reminder. “Hey Lord, if you change nothing, would you just let me see your hand? Would you just let me see you at work?” Hear me, he’s not saying to God, “Fix all of this.” And that’s the sign that I’m looking for. He’s just saying to God, “If you fix none of this, God, would you just show me you’re in it? Would you just show me you’re there?” So what kind of sign was he looking for? I think he was looking for a sign of God’s presence. Lord, I know who you are, but I wanna see you in my circumstances. I think he’s looking for a sign of power. God, would you just remind me that you just still have the last word? Sign of God’s person of his character. God, would you show me your heart in this just so I can see you? And I don’t want you to miss this thought. He’s not asking God to prove himself. No. He’s saying, “God, I just want you to do something in my life that when I look at it, I know you’re the only one that could do it.” Because where you and I get caught, is we start looking at our life and it doesn’t add up, it doesn’t line up to what we want it to be, the way we want it to go. And when that happens, oftentimes we start doubting God and we start looking for some sign that everything’s gonna be okay. And David is saying, “No, no, no, God, I trust you no matter what. I don’t need a sign to know whether I should trust you. God, would you just do something in my life so I can see your hand at work?” I’m gunna be honest with you, I’ve done this. I’ve prayed for this. God, could I just see you?
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My family and I, we were living in Michigan. While we’re living there, we bought a house and honestly, the house that we bought is the nicest house we will ever own and the cheapest house we will ever own. You say, “How is that possible?” Because it was Michigan. And loved the house, enjoyed being there. When we moved into the house, we decided to explore the area because we only were there one weekend and we just really wanted to kind of get an idea of what it looked like. So we bought this house, not realizing that a quarter mile away, there were crack houses. Just over the road, the whole neighborhood drastically changed. He said, “How is that possible?” Because it was Michigan. And to show you that I’m not exaggerating, the reason that we found this out was because they were actually tearing houses down on some of those streets so that they wouldn’t become new crack houses.
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God called my family and I to Missouri and we’re gonna go. We’re gonna go no matter what, because God said to go. In fact, I remember praying when we were deciding whether this was right and if it was God’s will or not. I remember thinking about Peter being in the boat and he says to Jesus, “If that’s you, call me out there, because whatever you tell me to do, I know it will happen.” And I said, “God, if you call me, I know that whatever is going to happen afterward is going to be what you want.” We were walking into a difficult situation. We were walking into a church that was larger, but it was dead. And it needed to move from being dead to being alive and there were a lot of things that needed to change. I didn’t pray for anything in specific. I just said, “God, would you do something Lord? I just wanna know you’re in this.” Because we were already hitting some difficulties and we were moving anyway and to make matters worse, the roof. We needed a new roof on the backside and in fact, the shingles were telling us we needed a new roof because they were curled up. That’s how bad it was. We didn’t live there very long. I just said, “Lord, would you just do something?” And so I, in passing said to someone, “Yeah, we need to sell our house.” I hadn’t even accepted the position yet. And so they kind of heard the statement and really didn’t go anywhere in the moment. Next day they called me and they said, “Hey, we wanna buy your house. Can we come look at it?” And I said, “Absolutely.” He said, “Well, how much time do you need to be able to show it?” I said, “Listen, just come tomorrow.” And I get home and I tell my wife, “Hey, we’re showing the house tomorrow.” And she said, “We’re what?” See I’m a big vision person, I don’t think about details. I didn’t think how much we needed to clean the house, but we really did. They come through and they look at the house and it shouldn’t have sold. There’s no reason for it to sell. Like just two minutes drive would have been a better area, better return on the investment, a better everything. And call me the next day and say, “We want your house.” And they had no idea we were praying that God would do this next part because where we were moving, we couldn’t take all of our furniture because we were moving into a smaller house. And they said, “By the way, you know our living circumstances and where we’re living, we don’t have any furniture. Is there any chance you guys would be willing to sell your furniture?” I paused for a minute and then immediately said yes. They said, “How much of it?” And I, being a big vision person with no details, said, “All of it.” You see, did that let you know that you were supposed to go to Missouri? No, no, God called. We were going. I was just already starting to face some obstacles and some difficulties that I saw that were already forming before we even packed up a moving truck. And I just said, “God, I just wanna know you’re in this.” I could leave another time with my daughter. I was going through some difficulties and it just felt like there was so much happening all at once and my daughter and I, we have a close relationship. Like we know what the other person is thinking. Just last week, we’re on family vacation and we’re on a plane and I’m sitting on the aisle. My wife is sitting in the middle of my daughter sitting on the inside and someone walking to their seat just says something really, really, really stupid. And I look over past my wife and my daughter and I catch eyes and we’re just like, “Yeah, that was an idiot.” Now, Melody’s in the middle just being like Jesus and loving everybody, but we’re kind of the same, okay? We were at a conference together and while we were there, there was somebody just in the middle of worship. They’re just, they’re being so loud that they were being distracting and neither one of us wanted to look at each other because we both knew what the other one was thinking.
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While I’m walking through this difficult time of life, I start watching my daughter, this was years and years ago. I start watching her and I see that she’s just not in a good place spiritually. I know her, I know her thoughts, I just know how she is. And it felt like that thing on top of everything else that I was carrying felt like my world was just gonna break.
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I remember praying like God, somewhere in this Lord, could I just, it seems like everything is going sideways. God, could I just see something where I see your hand at work? Hear me, I didn’t pray for something in specific. I didn’t pray for him to sell the house, I didn’t pray for him to do this other thing. I just prayed, God, I just, I just wanna see you.
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So we took some kids to a conference, a youth conference, and we’re there in the middle of worship. And for some reason, I just look over and I see her worshiping God and I see just something in her and she just breaks. I remember her looking over at me and hugging me. I remember her giving a testimony later on to some kids about just dropping everything and just following Jesus. It was like God just tapped on my shoulder.
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And you didn’t pray for this. Hey, but I’m showing you, I’m still in the middle of everything that you’re going through.
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Hear me, this isn’t a wrong prayer. It’s not a lack of faith. I didn’t walk into the scenario saying, “God, I need you to do this, to show me this is who you are.” No, I believed who he was. I was following after him. I was ready to keep going regardless of whatever was going to happen.
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But sometimes we’re following him. And it seems like everything is just going sideways and we just wanna know and we just wanna see his hand at work.
Remember, if you don’t read all the verses and you just read this one, you can really take it out of its context.
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There was a situation before we moved here. Everything was good at the church and so everything was good here. But the moving process to getting here wasn’t easy. It’s probably the only person that really knew it was Pat Schmidt. And it was nothing that that church did or nothing that this church did. It had everything to do with picking the wrong movers.
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I’m gonna tell you about me. When I start to get cynical, I just keep getting more cynical. It’s like when I dig myself a hole in my own thoughts, I can just keep digging all the way until I get in over my head.
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And when God allowed us to use this to take this church that was going this way and bring it to going this way, there were still some things that I wanted to see him do. I wanted to see him do not because I wanted them, but because he was the one that put them in my heart to want them to begin with. And I was starting to feel like didn’t accomplish everything I wanted to accomplish or didn’t accomplish everything that I thought God wanted us to accomplish.
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And I was just struggling.
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And I didn’t know it, but my wife prayed. Lord, in everything we know we’re following you, we know we’re doing the right thing, but God, would you just, God, would you show us your hand?
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The next two Sundays, I saw what God put in my heart eight years before, what he wanted the church to be, what he wanted the church to do, that he allowed us to experience.
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See, that proved who God was, right? No, no, he already was who he was. I just got to see his hand. I got to see his power.
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Hear me, this might be you. You might be struggling. You’re asking God to not to prove himself. You just want to see him in your circumstances. Even if nothing changes, what you want is just to see him, that you would be changed on the inside. A reminder to know that he’s still near, a reminder of how powerful he is, a reminder that his promises never fail.
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He’s Psalm 86 teaches us that faith, faith isn’t the absence of struggle. Faith is a decision to keep seeking God in the middle of the struggle. And David shows us, hey, when life gets hard, pray honestly. But God feels distant, worship faithfully. When your heart’s divided, ask him to unite your heart. When you’re waiting for an answer, when you’re waiting for him to fix something, worship him anyway.
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Maybe this is where you’re at today and you’re just in a spot where you need God to do something. Hey, don’t look for some sign that God will do it.
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If you’re gonna ask him for something, just ask that you’d see his hand in your life. You’d see his hand in your circumstances because the way in which he worked in David’s life, in Moses’ life, in Jacob’s life, in Joshua’s life, in the life of the apostles, it’s the same God then that is now.
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And the reality is, is we see the Bible and we look at our life and somehow we take the two and we think they’re different. We look at this time and we look at our life and say, well, they’re just not the same. Yes, they are, but it’s the same God. We still serve him.
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And it might not be that you see the things that only your life changed the way that you want them to, but it could be that you have a front row seat just to see God go, hey, I’m in this, whether it feels like it or not, whether it looks like it or not, I’m in this.