Sunday, July 6, 2014

What to Do when You’re in the Middle of a Mess

Lots of people find history boring because it happened to others and we doubt that history’s lessons can apply to us personally.


But guess what, in the Beginning God. The God who created the heavens and the earth in the beginning is the same God now and tomorrow and for always. What has happened to all those who came before us can and does happen to us now and here. Here’s an example I share with you now.


This morning, I woke up full of anxiety and worry about a situation that I’m going through. I’m more or less able to deal with stuff that I’ve been doing my whole life but when I find myself dealing with something that I feel ill-equipped for or a situation that I feel uncomfortable with, my propensity is to want to flee from it.


Yes, I want to flee from difficulty but that will not enable to win or to walk in victory. So my personality, my propensity is my enemy when difficulty arises. I went to church in a mood of not wanting to leave the refuge of my bed on this Sunday morning. I took my shower, shaved, and dressed in a state of struggle against myself and went to church this morning at the 9 AM service whereas I habitually go there at 11 AM because I needed for prayers to be said over me. Boy, am I glad I did go this morning to the 9 AM service! They had a guest speaker this morning, Al Force, the youth pastor for the whole state of Florida for my Pentecostal church. He gave a killer message that went straight into my starving soul. He spoke directly to me. The message he gave was the title of this blog post.


God now wants me, requires that I pass it on to you because many of you don’t come to my church but many of you are heavy laden and labor under anxiety and in today’s world, the enemy works overtime to discourage us all. Heck, he worked me over this morning to keep from going to church and seeking relief and assembling with people. I also added other references and ideas because I’m in a mess and I’m busy encouraging myself as well. I’m living what I am talking about here.


So without further ado, here goes.


“What do you do if you find yourself in the middle?” In the middle of what? In the middle of a mess that you know that you simply are not well-able to handle. “What do you do in the Middle of a Mess that you just can’t overcome?” He gave the solution almost immediately. “Look up and Worship God in the Middle of your Mess!” In the Beginning, God. That’s how Genesis 1.1 begins. When all was darkness, God says let there be light, and there was light. One sentence command from out of God’s voice overcame all that was dark. God was seated on His Heavenly Throne when he said that.


According 1 Samuel, chapter 30, God was seated on His Heavenly Throne when David encouraged himself in the Lord and inquired of the Lord and the Lord fully empowered David to overtake the Amalekites who had taken David’s two wives and the families of David’s 600 soldiers and burned everything behind. And David and his men after inquiring of the Lord marched for three days and found an Egyptian who had been with the raiding party and the Egyptian led David and his troops to the encampment of those raiders and recovered all the people and the goods that had been raided and carried off.


Because that’s what we need to do now because it’s the last thing we feel like doing. When you’re up to your eyeballs in trouble, when you’re in the deep pit, you worship God right in the deep pit you’re in. Don’t focus on your trouble.


Does this make sense? No. It doesn’t.


You’re being told now to do what doesn’t make sense in the natural. But guess what? The spiritual authority of God rules over the natural. You’re being told to suspend your natural sense, put your faith in the spiritual, in what does not make sense because that’s what rules. What gets to happen when you do this, when you put your faith in what doesn’t make natural sense?


When you obey the World, what the Bible says to put faith in rather than what your own understanding says for you to do, regardless how ridiculous that looks in the natural? You win. God wins the battle for you and does so in time, due time. Yeah, but my creditors are coming after me! You say. I fear that sometimes. Yes your creditors and those who come up after you are coming after you and not after God.


But then, what can you do about it in your own strength? Kill yourself? Your life is not your own. Your battle is not your own. It is God’s.
Let’s put it your way, if you have to depend on yourself to win this battle that is bigger than you, you’ve already lost hands down. So now, you really got nothing to lose, do you? And meanwhile, while you’re torturing yourself.


God’s waving down at you from His Throne, saying, “Hey, look up here. I’m here and I’m still God.” Let me challenge you, worship God regardless what shape your life circumstances are in. If you’re doing great, worship God in your good situation. If you’re in that huge mess, worship God from that huge mess you’re in.


BY TRUSTING HISTORICAL PRECEDENT IN THE LIFE OF DAVID IN HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD, YOU LEARN HOW TO HELP YOURSELF IN PARTAKING OF HIS FAITH SO GOD INTERVENES IN BATTLES THAT YOU THOUGHT WERE YOURS TO HAVE TO FIGHT.

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