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Challenge
THE
GOOD NEWS PAPER
August 2007
Prayer
Letter of Challenge Literature Fellowship (Aust.) Inc.
Psalm
4
I
don’t know about yourself but there are often times when you
feel in a tight spot, pressured and under the hammer, to coin a
phrase. David as always in his psalms is able to speak very honestly
and transparently about his tough and difficult times and I think
that we can learn a lot from how he deals with these situations in
our own lives. David was obviously under great pressure of some kind
and dealing with some sort of persecution, pain, illness and or both
and he was crying out to the Lord in the urgency of the hour. So
right from the opening verse when David starts to talk about God’s
care and protection his instructions are first of all to look to the
Lord, verse 1.
When
David says, “hear me when I call O God of my righteousness,”
he is really bringing home an urgency of the need to pray in
difficult times and secondly there’s an urgency in the tone of
the way he cries out to the Lord. It is sad to say that often for us
as the Lord’s people, instead of turning to Him in difficult
times in prayer, we choose to abandon God, the Scriptures and indeed
the importance of praying. It does seem strange to me to take that
sort of approach because what we really need to understand is that
God is a righteous God as David says and everything He does is right.
In
fact David goes on to say, “You have relieved me in my
distress.” The literal translation of that is that God has
given him room to move after he has been pressed in and extremely
limited in his movements. That’s really a literal translation
of what he is saying when he found himself in distress. The other
important thing to understand when we pray to God in difficult times
is to know that God will deal with whatever the circumstances are in
a right way rather than allowing us to get focused on the wrong
things and becoming rather bitter and beaten over the whole issue.
The
other thing that’s really important in the scheme of things is
that when we pray in difficult times, and hopefully that’s not
the only time we pray, it gives us a bank of experience on which to
call upon. So when we look to the Lord, we can look to the Lord on
the basis of past deliverance. Now recognising that in the past He
has worked righteously and has relieved our distress means that we
can have confidence that He will do the same in our present
situation. One writer has said that in the Christian life we are
either coming out of a storm, in the middle of a storm or we have a
storm coming up. Whilst that may seem a somewhat pessimistic view the
reality is that the Christian life is not easy and there are times of
testing and difficulties when things simply don’t go right. And
I think last but not least in this opening verse we can see that
praying in these difficult times stops us looking at ourselves. Often
when things go wrong you will hear people saying something like this;
‘I don’t know what I’ve done for this to happen in
my life.’ That sort of expression really means that the person
somehow or other feels that blessing in their life is determined by
having some sort of tick list that guarantees them a blessing.
I
think we forget that there are times when we can do the right thing
and still it seems that all hell breaks loose. I wonder how you would
feel if you were Job when it seems that within a matter of paragraphs
he lost his family, his health and all of his possessions and it
seemed almost his life. But Job was able to say that he came into the
world with nothing and that he would leave the world with nothing.
But in all of that he kept his focus on God and worshipped Him.
Then
secondly what’s really important when we are in a
difficult time especially when it’s inspired by the enemy is to
recognise that these things come as God allows them. It is best for
us to confront the enemy, verses 2-3. David realised that ignoring
the problem wouldn’t make it go away or indeed, solve it. So
David first of all confronted the ringleaders of those who were
oppressing him. There are times even in families where there are
difficulties and struggles which need to be confronted. We can see
this also in the Christian church where there are those who are not
happy with the direction in which the church is going or the way in
which the pastor is preaching, or what have you. And there may be
other areas where people are just simply looking to make life
difficult because you own the name of Jesus and want to count for Him
particularly in the work place for example.
Well
David is saying to us that it really is important to look at
confronting the ring leaders involved in this situation. And then
David is not shy in communicating the error and the faults in what
they are doing. You can’t get it any clearer than what he says
in verse 2; “how long will you love worthlessness and seek
falsehood?” I know that we live in an age where we are
called to tiptoe through the tulips on lots of these issues but there
are times when we need to confront the enemy and allow God to bring
the victory as we do.
But
then thirdly, David clarified God’s remedy in verse 3
when he says; “But know that the Lord has set apart for
Himself him who is godly; the Lord will hear when I call to Him.”
That is a wonderful verse of encouragement to any of us who know and
recognise that God is pleased to bless the praying saint. David not
only clarified what was God’s remedy in terms of dealing with
the enemy but also took great comfort in knowing that God would hear
him when he called.
And
then fourthly David took time to encourage his friends, verses
4-5. What do we do when emotions start to get out of control?
Well David gave us some key pieces of advice in understanding how to
deal with difficult circumstances that put enormous pressure on you.
First of all David said that we are to worship the Lord and stand in
awe of Him, verse 4. Then we are to walk with God, don’t let
sin have dominion over us. And then he encourages us to wait on God,
that is to prayerfully search our own hearts and to take inventory of
anything that might be in our lives that needs to be dealt with. Then
we are to be still and be honest with ourselves and then with God
that we have sinned. And then we are to consecrate ourselves to the
Lord, verse 5. The idea here of offering the sacrifices of
righteousness is really another way of saying that ‘Lord we
want you to set us apart that we may be used for your glory and
honour.’ But then last, but not least we are to commit
ourselves to the Lord as David says at the end of verse 5 to put our
trust in the Lord.
Now
what is important in doing all of this is to avoid the situation
where we exhibit what we call an unrighteous anger, where we really
express anger in a way that is not God-honouring. The classic example
of this was the most recent shootings in Melbourne where a bikie gang
member obviously just lost it completely and he was filled with rage
and anger and the end result of it was that two people were killed
and a number of others were seriously injured. That is exactly what
God wants us to avoid when we are dealing with difficult and
pressured times.
Then
fifthly we should praise the Lord, verses 6-8. I know
that is such an easy thing to say especially when we are wilting
under the weight of continual discouragement. I think anybody who is
worth his salt and really means business with the Lord will know
times of discouragement. I know that I certainly do. But how should
we respond when we feel down and despondent about things? Well first
of all we need to learn to praise God. And I think the psalmist says
it so well when he says; “You have put gladness in my heart”
in verse 7, “more than in the season that their grain and wine
increased.” So this is all about praising God and as a
result joy and gladness are the outcome. And I think this is why
Nehemiah says in chapter 8, verse 10 that “the joy of the
Lord is our strength.” Keeping a close walk with the Lord
is critical in dealing with times where we are under extreme testing
and pressure and upset.
But
also we need to praise God not only for His joy and gladness but we
need to praise God for His peace. In verse 7 it says; “I
will both lie down in peace and sleep.” I know when I get a
little stressed or under pressure one of the first areas that seem to
suffer is the idea of peaceful sleep. It seems that our minds become
this movie screen on our bedroom wall and we are unable to gain that
much needed peace of mind and heart. The word peace here means not
only the absence of conflict but rather the adequacy that we need for
life, that confidence and fullness that comes from the Lord to live
life in the way that He would have us to do so. And then we do need
to praise God for His rest because when sleep comes it is such a
beautiful blessing and encouragement so that we can wake up the next
morning refreshed and renewed in the Lord. That’s why he says
in Psalm 3; “I lay down and slept for the Lord sustained
me.”
And
then last but not least we need to praise God for His safety, care
and protection. I know that when we go to Africa every year on a
mission’s trip it is so comforting to know that there are the
Lord’s people around the world praying for our safety and care
and protection. My mind pictures this sense of the mission team being
surrounded by the loving sustaining arms of the Lord as we go into a
squatter camp or a prison or into a refugee housing area and doing so
with confidence because we are in the ever secure everlasting arms of
the everlasting one.
— Carl
Carmody, Editor of Challenge
Praise
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Praise God for the safe return of the Impact Africa Team and for His
protection and provision of all their needs.
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Praise God for His guidance and help for the team here as they busily
put together the various editions of the paper each month.
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We also praise Him for the team of volunteers who come in to wrap and
prepare the paper for delivery each month and for the faithful folk
in the churches who oversee the use of the paper in church
ministries.
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Please praise with us our wonderful God who cares for us in all of
our circumstances whether they are pleasant or even sometimes not so
pleasant.
Prayer
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Some of the Impact Africa team are still overseas. Please pray for
their safe return, for strength and safety as they travel both in
Africa and as they return home soon.
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Please pray for our regular writers that they will be refreshed each
month as they prepare their articles and others as they write their
testimonies that what they write will really speak to the readers of
the papers and draw them to the Lord.
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Pray for a successful distribution of Challenge in Harlem, New York,
U.S.A.
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Please pray for staff appointments: a new editor and promotions
director for Australia.
Challenge
Literature Fellowship
PO
Box 978, Cloverdale 6985
Phone
(08) 9453 3311 Fax (08) 9453 3006
Webpage:
www.challengenews.org — Email: info@challengenews.org
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