I'm Not Doing Well- Darkness // Sunday, September 13, 2020

Sunday, September 13, 2020

I’m Not Doing Well - Enveloped in Darkness

Psalm 88:  15 - 18 (NLT)  I have been sick and close to death since my youth.  I stand helpless and desperate before your terrors.  16 Your fierce anger has overwhelmed me. Your terrors have paralyzed me. 17 They swirl around me like floodwaters all day long.  They have engulfed me completely. 18 You have taken away my companions and loved ones. Darkness is my closest friend. 

Lessons to be learned:

1. Struggles can last so long and go so deep that it impacts our thoughts and emotions.

Psalm 39: 12 & 13 (NLT)  Hear my prayer, O Lord! Listen to my cries for help! Don’t ignore my tears. For I am your guest — a traveler passing through,  as my ancestors were before me. 13 Leave me alone so I can smile again before I am gone and exist no more.

2. Our expectations of God and poor theology can set us up for deeper turmoil.

Job 1: 8 - 11 (NLT)  …the Lord asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil.” 9 Satan replied to the Lord, “Yes, but Job has good reason to fear God. 10 You have always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property. You have made him prosper in everything he does.  Look how rich he is! 11 But reach out and take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!”

3. Darkness is the best place to learn about the grace of God.

2 Timothy 2: 13 (NLT) If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is.

4. Advancement and growth come through suffering.

James 1: 2 - 4 (NLT)  Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 3 For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. 4 So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete,  needing nothing. 

John 1: 5 (ESV) The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 12: 46 (ESV) I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.