Surviving Stressful Situation

Surviving Stressful Situations

Ps. 27:7-14Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me. 8When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.9Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. 10When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up. 11Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies. 12Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. 13I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. 14Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

Each of us has had moments where we were tested beyond our comfort zone. This is not an easy place to be. Know however that there is a blessing tucked away in the encounter. When working out, there is always that place we call our threshold. At this point we can either press forward past the pain or turn back to our comfort zone. It at this point where you need someone to push you! Lady Cowan and I were in the gym and I saw two guys working out had a lot weight weight on the bar! The guys were telling him to push and he got it up then the guy said give me one more! He had just giving his all but he said one more! The guy took it back down and as he was trying to get back up he was screaming the guys were say push push push and the when he could not push it any further he helped him take it to the top! The spotter motivated him to go a little further past that threshold of pain towards accomplishing what he wanted to accomplish.

This is what God does for you and I. When we think we have reached our threshold of pain, when we are stressed out, maxed out, and we want to return to our comfort zone, God will send us a word that shows us a picture of what we are going to look like and it gives us what we need to push past our place of pain. This is a place of intensity and enormous pain.

David discovered you can survive stressful situations, You can be

blessed when your about to break down. .

God will come in a give you a revelation so you will know even if it hurts, there is a healing on the other side painful situations. You can’t give up now! The blessing is at this point of pain. God blesses us at our breaking point.

What is most impressive in this Psalms is no matter what, David continues to talk to God. David tries to get us to see that it is alright to desire that your prayers be answered.

I.            Keep Praying!

Many of us have been at that place where we need God to work it out for us right now. We know God moves in his own time, but we need a breakthrough right now!

It is always ok to be honest with God. Psalm 27:7 says 7Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me. – Like David, it is alright to say this thing is hurting you. It is not that we doubt him, but we believe this thing is more than we can bear.

Jonah was in the belly of whale and it was at his breaking point that God stepped in. Hannah was at her breaking point when she began to pray. They thought she was drunk, but it was at this moment that God stepped in on her behalf. You will find out that some of your most powerful prayers will come when you fill stress out! It is when your broken that your prayers are most sincere.

Even Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane at his lowest point, desired that his bitter cup be removed. Many of you have been there, you didn’t know how it was going to work out, but you realized that in these moments your prayers were more powerful.

To overcome breakdown, depression, and stress

*Realize the power of being persistent. – Psalms 27: 8 says 8When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek. – We have to be consistent when seeking God.

*Know that God is Immutability– Psalm 27:9-10 says 9Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. 10When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up. – Immutability deals with the unchanging God. Even though things around us are changing, we know God is the one constant that we have in our life. God is the same day after day. He is not a man that he should lie. If he said it 5yrs ago, he means it today. God is immutable and always there.

*We need instruction – David needed instruction. Psalm 27:11 says 11Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies. – David had a lot of enemies around him and he realized that he needed a word from the Lord. He needs to know what God’s instruction is for his life.

A. We need a relevant word– We need a word that can make since of what is happening in our life. What we are going through, we don’t need a cliché for. We need a real word that can meet us right where are

B. We need a Revelation of his will-What is it that God needs us to do right now? We don’t want to miss what God has for our life. We don’t want to miss what he he is doing right now!

C. We want to react in wisdom– We want to move. We want to make sure we are doing what God told us to do. We don’t act a fool just because we have enemies. We can’t come down on their level. If we act like we want to act, we would end up in jail. So we want God to give us what we need so we can react in wisdom.

D. We need divine intervention– Psalm 27.12 says 12Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. – It has gotten so rough; we need God to step in right now! Your money and your degree can’t get you out of this. It is just like a miracle. Divine intervention is God’s involvement in human affairs. David is saying circumstances are all around him, but he knows God can divinely intervene.

God can work through circumstances. God will work in it-He can work in the thing. He will use the thing to bless you.

Ex- Somebody has a sickness and you are asking God to intervene. God might give the doctor the wisdom to prescribe the medication to heal you or work the procedure. Don’t curse the doctor or get mad at the person. God can use them to bring your miracle. He will use your doctor, your lawyer, or your teacher. God can use the circumstance to bless you.

God will go over it (the circumstance). – Over transcends the facts. God will rise above it and blow people’s minds. People will ask how it happened and all you will be able to do is say it is a miracle.

He will work without it. – God will just move it all together. He will move it out the way. We don’t care how he God blesses us as long as he does.

While I'm praying I don't give up

While I'm Praying I don't give in

II.      Keep Pushing!

Psalm 27:13 says 13I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

Be willing to stay in there no matter what God allows to come. Now if God allowed it, then it must there to bless you. One of the most powerful things about coming to a place where your broken is that you will discover what David discovered. David says he was about to faint or give up. He was about to fold or resign, but he saw something. David saw the goodness of God moving in the land of the living. This is the providence of God. God is actively involved in the lives of his people. He is not just standing by saying he will just let things happen. No matter how difficult the pain, God is moving in it. No matter how tragic your situation, God is moving in it. You have to have the right perspective. It is about how you look at a thing. If you look at your problem crazy and it will look at you crazy. David says he believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. David says it is really about :

Our Faith – In verse 13, David says though he had circumstance, he yet believed. Though he has drama in verse 12, he still believes. Anyone can have faith while all is well, but what will you do when the bottom falls out? When the bottom falls out, this is when you say, “Yet I believe.” If they lay us off, we will still believe! If things don’t work out the way I want them to, I will yet believe.

Our Focus – You can see what’s wrong or see God moving in your situation. They’re stuff you see now, you could see 5yrs ago, because you were not mature enough to see it then. All you could see is what they were doing to you. Now you can see God in it. You can tell now that all things work together for the good of them that love the Lord and who are called according to his purpose.

Our Future -When our faith is right, my focus is right. Where did David see it? In the land of the living. Because you intelligent, all you got to do is use deductive reasoning. David says he had drama around him, he yet believed, and then he saw God move in the land of the living. This means the drama in verse 12 was designed to destroy him, but he could see now because he was there. We are in the land of the living. Some people can’t see it, because they haven’t been through enough stuff yet. When you have been through stuff that could have killed you, you give God the glory, just because you still here! We are alive to testify about it. What was designed to destroy us was also designed to develop us. This why you got to hang in there and endure hardness like a good soldier! Count it all joy! Be not weary in well doing. In due season you will reap, if you faint not!   There is no need to be alive and acting like we are dead. Live folk make noise! Some people come here DOA, but there are some that thank God that he woke them up this morning and started them on their way.

You Keep Praying

You Keep Pushing then Davis tells us to

III.            Keep Waiting

Psalm 27:14 says 14Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

David says, I told you to wait. David says while you wait, God will strengthen our heart. There is a sense that the heart is the essence of a person. When we say we love you with all of our heart, it doesn’t mean our physical heart. It means we love you with the essence of who we are. The heart, the soul is who we are. The essence of who we are has been threatened by our experience. Even though externally we look like we have it all together, internally the essence of who we are is under attack. Though we come in looking well put together, we are about to break apart inside.

David says because of this, he needs God to strengthen his heart. He needs to be restored. He needs God to do what no one else can do. Like David, we are about to break down. Has thou not heard or known that the everlasting God faints not. He gives power to them that doesn’t have might…Those that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

David says wait on the Lord. Wait has a lot of meanings.

Deals with being productive– It is the productive sense, it means to serve. When you wait, you keep doing you. Produce without excuse. Keep singing, keep serving, keep showing up for work etc… Don’t let it break you down. Keep producing.

Deals with being Prudent-Deals with wisdom. God allows us to make wise decisions. When my things don’t make sense, let me make sense. We still believe he is more than the whole world against us.

Deals with Pursuance– This means to pursue him. It deals with being reliable. We go through reaching for people that can’t help us. David says though enemies are around him, he still wants to reach for God’s glory. That maybe was what the woman with the issue of blood was doing. She had reached for doctors that could not help her, but she realized that Jesus was coming by, so she reached for him. Maybe the blind man on the side of the road was feeling this way too. They told him be quiet, but he got a breakthrough, because he pursued God. What about the man whose friends tore the roof off the building to get him at Jesus’ feet.

Deals with Anticipation. When you are waiting with anticipation, you wait on a revelation. Don’t wait ignorantly. Your posture is grounded on a revelation.

Ex- A person at a bus stop is waiting, because they have a schedule that says their bus picks up from there around that time. They are waiting looking for the bus. If they hadn’t had a schedule they would not have come to this spot. They wouldn’t have come around there, if they didn’t think what they were looking for was coming around this way. Stand in your spot. If he promised you it is coming. It is coming. Every day, we must wake up looking. Don’t wait with your lip stuck out. Wait giving God the praise.