When you are in trouble the only thing you need is someone to come to your rescue. As children of God we are blessed because we have our Father who is always watching us and saying, "Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other,” (Isaiah 45:22). The confidence that we have is that God will always be there for us.
I am thinking of the Apostle Paul. He was jailed and the Philippians paid him a visit. It is amazing that Paul was the one who was jailed and probably needed to be encouraged to stand strong. However, he turned things around and exhorted the people who had paid him a visit.
Despite being in chains, Paul never lost faith and instead his faith soared. To him all the difficulties he was facing were good for the furtherance of the gospel. To him the fact that he was chained because of Christ was making him happy because that was spreading the gospel without fear and much better than words.
As Paul continued to encourage the Philippians he said, "Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ..." (Philippians 1:27 NIV). I think that is where most of us as Christians fail. When we are faced with challenges, our actions tend to be more driven by emotions. We tend to act in anger, pain, sorrow etc. We end up saying things we were not supposed to say, do things we were not supposed to do because of the trouble being too much to bear. Whatever happens, we should remain godly.
When we come to God for rescue, we should come to Him with a clean heart. The Apostle Paul says God has not called us to uncleanliness but to holiness. Another Apostle, one of my favourite characters in the Bible, Peter testifies to this when he writes, "But just as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct;" (1 Peter 1:15).
Holiness the only way we can see God and we can be called God’s people. "Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” (2 Timothy 2:19). God only listens to the righteous.
With that foundation, whatever happens we surely shall establish our faith in God no matter how big are our troubles. Although I am not a fan of ’how tos' because they tend to grow into 'laws', allow me to forget about that for a while and consider how to work your faith when troubles surround you. I will draw lessons from Psalm 3, which David wrote when he was running away from his own son Absalom who was turning against him.
1. When you are faced with troubles, this is what you need to know and believe:
- The Lord is your shield - Whatever happens, know that God will always protect you
- The Lord is your glory - You are worthy before God and the troubles that you are facing do not mean that you are a worthless person as you or some may think. You are honourable.
- The Lord is your lifter - God is the One who can make you rise above every situation. Even when you are down, He will lift you up and keep your head up.
2. With that knowledge, this is what you need to do:
- Cry out to the Lord - This means that you need to call out the name of the Lord and He surely shall hear you. Although He sees what is happening, He needs you to call upon Him to your attention.
- Lie down and sleep - What this means is that you need to take a rest (relax). In other words, do not press those panic buttons. Sometimes you need to act as if nothing is happening and when you 'wake up' to your troubles you will realize that the Lord is sustaining you.
- Do not be afraid - The enemy delights at inducing fear on us when we are in trouble. Even when tons of troubles are all around you, do not be frightened. In the absence of fear, there is faith and vice versa.
- Ask God to save you - When you say "Arise, O LORD; Save me, O my God!" He surely shall answer your prayer. You need to call upon Him in faith to come to your rescue.
- Praise the Lord - The risk is that once He sets us free from our troubles we forget to give Him the credit. Give Him all the praise because salvation belongs to Him and He is the one who gives blessings to His people. When I read the history books in the Bible I realize that in most cases people would rejoice before the victory comes. That is a good lesson to learn and adopt.
Have faith in God. He loves us and does not want us to perish. All that He needs is for us to look at Him and be saved. "A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all," (Psalm 4:19 NIV).
*All Scripture quoted from New King James Version unless stated otherwise.
