When It Gets Real For You

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.- Psalm 23:4 (KJV)

If you understand struggle, you understand that it can get real tough to take it.  It can get tough to keep going.  It can feel like you just cannot make it.

You may not see a way to make it through.

Reflect on what God has to offer you during your struggle.

. . . for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me

He is Present with You
. . . for thou art with me; 
God will not  forsake you during hard times or while you are down.
He is present.
He is attentive.
He is aware.
He is active.

He has Protection for You
. . . thy rod and thy staff they comfort me
His rod and staff can help to clear the way as well as ward off attackers.
His rod and staff can nudge us along the way to greener pastures beyond the valley of the shadow of death and they can be used to rescue us from being caught in the bushes or going astray from the flock.

He has something to offer us.  Do not let what you are undergoing lead to your undoing.

He can help you make it through, even when it gets real for you.

Going through Hell with Help from Heaven

The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; 
and sayeth such as be of a contrite spirit.
- Psalm 34:18

Being brokenhearted can leave you in the dumps.  The damage done to you can leave you feeling like totally damaged goods and all out of sorts.  It happens to a lot of us.

Fortunately, the Scriptures assure us that the Lord is near to those of us who feel broken and contrite.

Can you imagine going through hell without any help from heaven?

It is hard enough to catch hell as a Christian.  We have fellowship with the Lord and communion with Him.  We have fellow saints, brothers and sisters worldwide praying for us and fasting for us in unity.  We have the Lord's Spirit indwelling within us due to our conversion.  We have all that, but we still catch hell and it can break us down.

We can have all of these things to our advantage and still remain vulnerable to satanic attacks and demonic forces that seek to do all sorts of damage to us and our relationship with the Lord.  Yet, we still have more than those who have no relationship with God.  We can catch hell and still know that God is watching over us and He still loves and cares for us.

Though we may catch hell here on earth, we still have:

• Hope: We have the Lord's will on our hearts.  His will being fulfilled gives us hope that what we may go through is part of the bigger picture that will lead to us having a better perspective and bolder praise.  We go through hell, but we have HOPE.
• Help:  We have the Lord's Word to provide us with His words of comfort and displays of His miraculous power and lovingkindness as well as longsuffering throughout time.  He extends his hand of mercy and grace to help us when we least deserve it, especially since we cannot earn anything from Him on the merit of our own goodness.  It is good to know that we have His HELP.
• Heaven: We have heaven on our side.  We have the Lord and His angelic forces, His almighty power that encompasses all things created on earth and in heaven.  I oftentimes wondered why God and the "sons of God" did not launch a full court press on Satan when he walked into the heavenly realm in the Book of Job.  However, as I learn more and more about the attributes of God, I realize that Satan (Lucifer) was summoned just like all of God's other angels in order to stand before Him.  He was subject to God, even in his fallen state. God has all power over all things, even the hell that we go through with help from heaven.

Keep this in mind as you endure what you have to face in this life.  it could be at work or school, in your home or your family.  No matter where you go through hell here on earth, you can depend on help from heaven.

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Discover more about the type of help that God offers us all.  Read my article Praying with Trust and find some simple ways to continue in Christ with deeper faith.  Also, view facing Your Fears in Faith.  I believe that both of these articles can help those who are hurting and are in need of healing that only the Lord Himself can provide.

The Message for the Messenger of God

The messenger is to devour the Word.  He is to take it in so much as to fill himself with it.  As he is filled by the Word, he is to taste of its sweetness which is like honey.  He must then prepare himself to regurgitate the Word that he has taken in as God's message to His people.

In the Book of Psalms, we are told to taste and see that the Lord is good.  The metaphorical reference is that we can ingest and digest God's goodness.  How do we do this? In most cases, we will experience this by taking in His Word. 

By reading His Word, we get an inside look at God's heart for mankind.  God offers us His Word as a direct message to both our hearts and souls.  We experience His goodnes when we engage in the reading and study of His Word.

As we read His Word, we come to recognize how God is and what God does and says.  We become exposed to the numerous incidents of God's interaction with man by seeing His relationship with Israel unfold through the Scriptures.

God uses the Scriptures to communicate to the ones with whom He has a relationship and those who seek a relationship with Him.  He carefully crafted sixty-six books to demonstrate His relationship with man, including Moses and the Prophets.

We are encouraged to read the Word with the enticement that once we taste of it that we will see that the Lord is good.  We will see that He is so good that we will feel the urging to echo the same sentiments as the psalmist and share it with others.

The Word is for both the messenger's filling and fueling.  

• It is his filling for his own satisfaction.  It is good for him to partake of it.  
• It is his fueling for the people's sake, taking the Word to them with the utmost urgency.  

He has tasted of it himself and knows of the value it contains.

Just Jotting in a Journal

 For ever, O LORD,

thy word is settled in heaven.

- Psalm 119:89

How can a young man keep his way pure?
By living according to your word.
I seek you with all my heart;
do not let me stray from your commands.
I have hidden your word in my heart

that I might not sin against you.

-Psalm 119:9-11(NIV)

Look at the Word of God.  Look into and seek the things that God wants to share with you.  Oddly enough, the Word tends to strike us right where we are in our lives.  Whether we are up or down, happy or sad, it touches us and it speaks to us through the Spirit of God.

Start keeping track of your daily inspirations from God and His Word.  Jot down in a journal or notebook how God speaks to you daily.  Keep track of it.  Refer to it on your down days or just during your down time. 

Write openly and freely about what the Lord says to you with the Word.  Keep your journal as your own private sanctuary for you coming before the presence of God with the burdens of your heart and soul.  Let loose and see what God does with your thoughts, expressions and feelings.

For Any Who Have Felt Broken into Pieces

Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly. - Psalm 31:9 (KJV)

My eyes grow weak with sorrow; they fail because of all my foes. - Psalm 6:7 (NIV)

 
Many people have asked me why I wrote my inspirational book of poetry Broken Pieces.  I can't help but smile because it is dear to my heart.  I was down.  I was down and reading both Jeremiah and Psalms intensely as my daily devotion.  I was starting to think that the Word was even getting me down as I read the weeping prophet and David's pleas for God to not turn His face from him and to incline His ear to him.  That's when it hit me.
 


God does not leave us helpless.  That is especially comforting for those of us who reside on this side of the cross.  He offers us the Comforter, His Holy Spirit.  We have God dwelling within us.  He knows our moans and groans as well as what they truly mean to us.  He is with us.  We are not without comfort when we have the Helper.
 
I had to share it.  I could not keep such a blessing to myself.  I found poetic inspiration and let it spill onto the page.  I felt the Spirit driving me to write and complete Broken Pieces as a testimony of all that God can do with our broken pieces.  We are all right as long as we stay in the clutches of the Potter's hands.
 
In His Hands
A poem from Broken Pieces by Bruce Jackson

In His hands,

I am but clay

At the mercy of the Master’s touch.

As He crafts me into His desire,

He shapes and molds me to His liking.

He forms me with His hands

And designs me as His workmanship.

He knows the flaws of my very existence.

He cuts away that which is useless.

He creates in me a clean heart

And purifies me through the fire,

Testing how well I will hold together.

He names me and makes me a new creation.

He touches me with His breath

And I live.

I am His masterpiece in the making.

I am but clay in His hands.

Where God Could Exist

What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home
 - Joan Osborne

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
— Oscar Wilde (Lady Windermere's Fan)

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? - Psalm 139:7 (NIV)

We spend a lot of our earthly time debating on whether God exists or not.  We tend to make a big deal about the possibilities of God being the Almighty or just some "supreme being." The truth of the matter is that we just cannot keep debating what natural occurrences make obvious.  God does exist.

Where?

If your only notion of God's existence is in heaven, then you are gravely mistaken.  You may also want to check your thoughts on how you view God.  You do understand that Jesus said it this way: "God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:24, ESV).  We have to see God as a spiritual being who occupies any and all spaces possible.

Psalm 139 tells us that we need to be mindful of our feeble efforts to flee God's presence.  He's all over, no matter where we go.  He's here and there.  Let it be understood that we may not fully understand everything about God, but do understand enough to know that His omnipresence means that He is just as real in your life as He is in mine.  He isn't any less present during your hard times just because i got my prayers in earlier than you.  He can still show up for the both of us.

Psalm 139

For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.

1O Lord, you have searched me

and you know me.

2You know when I sit and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar.

3You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

4Before a word is on my tongue

you know it completely, O Lord.

5You hem me in—behind and before;

you have laid your hand upon me.

6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,

too lofty for me to attain.

7Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

8If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths,^a you are there.

9If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast.
-Psalm 139:1-10 (NIV)

Used to be Useful

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
- Hosea 11:1 (NIV)

The prophet Hosea does not seem like a likely candidate to offer a prophecy on Jesus Christ.  Nevertheless, this biblical prophecy about the Messiah emerges from the object lesson emerges from this minor prophet.  God uses Hosea just like he can use any us to accomplish anything that He desires to do.  I learned after reading Andrew Murray's God's Plans for You that God can use us in all sorts of ways.

Those of the faith are the "called out." God calls us out from among the world to stand out among the world.  He causes us to live differently.  He calls us out to make us useful. 

God calls on us to use us.  After making us useful, He can choose to use us for His glory.  He can call on us and He should be able to count on us.  If God gave you an assignment like He did with Hosea, could He count on you to through on it?  Would you bring glory to God by how you handled it?

Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.- Psalm 115:3 (NIV)

The Message of the Messiah

"Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us." - 1 Corinthians 5:7 

The message of the Messiah comes from Old Testament prophecies.  The biblical books of Joel and Micah contain messianic prophecies.  Psalm 22 is a messianic psalm.  The prophecies of the Old Testament are fulfilled through the promised deliverer born in Bethlehem, the city of David.

Isaiah is probably the one prophet who offers insights into the coming of the Messiah that most Jews clung to during the days of Jesus Christ.  He wrote of the tribes of Israel turning from God as harlots of idolatry.  His chapter on the suffering Savior depicts the man of sorrows who was bruised for our iniquities.

Numerous books explain salvation for the unsaved to understand.  C.H. Spurgeon's personal salvation story in My Conversion offers a great look at entering into Christ's rest.   Max Lucado wrote He Chose Nails and 3:16.  Additionally, Andrrew Murray's Absolute Surrender conveys the message well, too.