Psalm 119:153-160 Troubles

A Devotional by Margot Ciocco

I spent the morning working on a post for Monday June 3rd filled with links to posts you may have missed. I will be taking the month of June off from posting but I don't those of you who count on and look forward to these post to be left hanging in the wind. In that post you will find links to 20 post that I wrote but some how missed getting seen.  I re-read them and thought you would enjoy them.

We are down to the last three sections of the longest Psalm in the Bible. It is an acrostic poem in which each section corresponds to a succeeding letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da9W_-Y68bA&feature=share&list=PLAE37DF69613BB3F3

Psalm 119:153-160

New International Version (NIV)

ר Resh

Take a good look at my trouble, and help me—
    I haven’t forgotten your revelation.
Take my side and get me out of this;
    give me back my life, just as you promised.
“Salvation” is only gibberish to the wicked
    because they’ve never looked it up in your dictionary.
Your mercies, God, run into the billions;
    following your guidelines, revive me.
My antagonists are too many to count,
    but I don’t swerve from the directions you gave.
I took one look at the quitters and was filled with loathing;
    they walked away from your promises so casually!
Take note of how I love what you tell me;
    out of your life of love, prolong my life.
Your words all add up to the sum total: Truth.
    Your righteous decisions are eternal.

We look at trouble as if it is a negative thing. It is a tool that causes us to turn to God, to think beyond our comfort zone, to overcome, to grow up and be responsible. We can create our own trouble by foolish choices, or be caught up in the troubles caused by others, and some troubles are beyond our control. No one asks for floods, or earthquakes but sometimes we find ourselves having to dig our selves out of messes that we did nothing to deserve. Troubles can be big or little nagging things. The question is will you just throw up your hands in dispair and have a pity party, or will you look to Jesus to lead you through. 

I think of the words of Isaiah 43: 

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;

    I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
² When you pass through the waters,
    I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
    they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
    you will not be burned;
    the flames will not set you ablaze.
³ For I am the Lord your God,
    the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;

Right now what ever it is that has you in a panic - God says do not fear!
I love these lines from today's passage. "Your mercies, God, run into the billions; following your guidelines, revive me."

Stop running, stop panicing, stop worrying, stop spinning the problem through your brain in yet another way. Just Stop - and turn to Jesus. He has not forgotten you, but you have turned to every possible solution before you have turned to Him. He alone has the answers and can give you the plan you need to walk through this situation that troubles you. He desires to give you His peace. He desires to lead you like a shepherd, and to love and protect you like the apple of His eye.  

Take some time to think back of other times that God has delivered you. Think back and thank Him for those time. Doing so you build up your own faith and you please God who love a cheerful and thankful heart. 

I am not making light of your situation. You may have been dealing it for a very long time, you are probably weary and exhausted. 
Take your situation to Jesus and release it into His hands. Look around you, is there someone you can encourage or help or bless. You are not the only one struggling, and the seeds help you sow into the lives of others grow up. You reap what you sow. If you need help...so help. If you need understanding... sow understanding to others, if you need provisions...share your excess with others. 

Don't forget the revelation and things that God has spoken to you or shown you in His word. Hang on to His promises and be a doer of the word. 
Make up your mind to trust and to overcome. Believe that He will lead and guide you step by step. You just need to ask. 

Who are your antagonists? They are the people who add to the negativity and unbelief or faithlessness in your life. They are the people who would hold you back from moving forward in God's plans and purposes. Don't let them cause you to swerve from the directions that God has given you. You might need to distance yourself from some of them. Often they are the people closest to you, who will be most effected if you move beyond your comfort zone to live fully alive and to reach for the dreams or the mission that God has given you. 

Prayer:
I pray you will turn to Jesus that you will give him those parts of yourself that you are still trying to hang on to and control. I pray that you will experience Hi Holy Spirit leading you safely through the mine field of troubles and problems. I pray that you will look back on this and remember the deliverance and provision of a God who loves you and who will not forsake you. 

The good, the bad and the desperately ugly

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio 

Photo by my son, Niah Ferlito

Genesis 50:20 (NIV1984)

²⁰ You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.


In this passage it is good to know the story behind it. Joseph is now the number two guy in the world super power of his day. Has just buried his father and his brothers are worried that he might now take revenge on them for the many years of hardship that he suffered because of their jealousy and wickedness. It was betrayal of the highest degree. His own brothers tossed him in a pit and were going to kill him but decided to sell him to slave traders. 
Most of us could understand how he might still hold a grudge against them. 


I think of the story of Corre TenBoom who forgives the guard that was responsible for her beloved sisters death while in a concentration camp. A camp they ended up in not because they were jewish but because they felt compelled as believing Christians to help their Jewish neighbors. 


So you are probably thinking that Joseph and Corre were super duper believers. How does one go through the hardship of loosing family, friends, the dream of the life you had planned, to end up in prison, or as a slave? How is that possibly God's plan.
If you go back to verse 19 you see a bit of Joseph's heart and character. "¹⁹ But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?" It is God who judges the hearts of men. It is God who looks at our motives, our fears, our failures. Joseph knew that he could not see the whole picture - and so he left judgement in the hands of God. 


We don't know if and when a heart will turn to Jesus and be saved. That thief next to Jesus on the cross was a bad dude who deserved to be punished for his wickedness. Yet he decided in that moment to believe Jesus was actually who he claimed to be. You talk about a death bed conversion - minus the comfy matres, pillows and blankets.  We just don't know when people will break and finally be able to receive the Lord. Saul was persecuting Christians one day and ran into Jesus as a blinding light and a voice from heaven on the way to trouble and murder more Christians. He in that instant realizes he was on the wrong road and God uses him to take the gospel to the gentiles. Why him? He was a jurk, a killer, educated, powerful bad guy. Why bother to transform and save him?


I suppose part of going through hardship and the loss of the life we thought we were supposed to have is to realize who we belong to. To know that God walks with us in the dark valleys. In those places where the people we should have been able to trust have betrayed us. In the places where some accident takes away our ability to function and do the things we loved doing. We might even have made poor decisions and choices that have cost us dearly or harmed someone else. We feel guilt, shame, grief, and the loss. We could blame others, ourself and even God. We could live our life as a miserable bitter retch or we could turn to God and say "I don't know how this mess can possibly bring you glory but I give you all of my life the good, the bad and the desperately ugly - I give you permission to use it in ways that I can't even see or understand at this point. I choose to trust you." 


I think that Joseph and Corre and others who have sufferer have a choice to make. Will you choose the path of self pity and bitterness, or will you choose the path of trust and forgiveness. Both found themselves in horrible conditions and yet were able to trust God even when everything made no sense to them. They stopped asking the why's and started looking for opportunities to depend and rely on God right in the middle of all the badness. 

Corrie at one point helps the other women to give thanks for the flea infestation in their bunks. Because of the fleas the guards came in less and left quickly and they had a bit of privacy to pray together and talk about the truth's of the Word there in their flee infested chambers. 


Often it is the difficulties that we face that mold and shape us into Gods person. Joseph is able to save a nation of people and his estranged family from famine and death. He went from prison to guy in charge in one defining moment. But was it really one moment or was it a life time of trusting God and making the best of the bad hand he'd been dealt. 


Prayer: Lord, We choose to forgive, and if we don't know how to forgive, we choose to be willing to forgive and to allow you to begin to work forgiveness in our hearts. We choose to surrender our life to your plans and purposes. We choose to thank you for the blessings that are often in disguise. We choose to thank you for those difficulties that cause us to realize we have no where to turn but to you. We choose to suspend judgement on what is going on and to watch and see what you do with it in time. We give you the good, the bad and the desperately ugly of our lives uses it somehow for your glory and your fame.  

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” 

― Corrie Ten Boom