Getting Back Up When Life Has Knocked You Down

July 23, 2012 — Craig T. Owens

The Bible never presents life as some sort of pie-in-the-sky, walk-in-the-park, everyday-is-always-rosy picture. If it did, we would reject the Bible because our experiences would immediately tell us otherwise. Instead, the Bible realistically portrays the challenges, and the pain, and the heartache, and the disappointments of life. But as it does so it also shows us that God’s way is the only way out of our sorrow and into His joy!

In our P119 Spiritual Workout series, we saw the bookends of the section daleth (Psalm 119:25-32) are:

I am laid low in the dust (v. 25) → You have set my heart free (v. 32).

How do we get this freedom when we are knocked down and laid low in the dust?

The Jews saw the Hebrew letter daleth as a door. Specifically, a door through which humble people stepped into a greater realization that He is God, and I’m not … that He has the answers, and I don’t … that He is in control, and I’m not. So part of going from down in the dust to a free heart is humbly acknowledging that you need God’s help!

In verses 26 and 27, the psalmist recalls his past history, and in so doing he is reminded that God has always been there. God has never left him nor forsaken him, so here’s what the psalmist resolves to do:

  • Teach me = I learned something before, so let me learn again.
  • Let me understand = help me to discern, distinguish; tell things apart. This word is used for things that are divinely disclosed; in other words, they’re things you and I cannot figure out on our own.
  • Meditate = talk with my soul about these new things the Holy Spirit has disclosed to me.

In verse 28, the psalmist says that his soul is weary with sorrow (or as the King James Version states it: my soul melteth for heaviness). The only way to overcome this is to ask for God’s help to energize us to go forward.

In the final four verses of this section you can sense the psalmist’s strength returning as he makes these bold statements:

  • keep me from deceitful ways (v. 29a) = keep me from lying to myself (NLT).
  • be gracious to me (v. 29b) = give me the privilege of knowing Your instructions (NLT).
  • I have chosen (v. 30a) = I have determined (NLT).
  • I have set (v. 30b) = I am long-sighted (on God), not short-sighted (on my problems).
  • I hold fast (v. 31) = the KJV says I have stuck to it!
  • I run (v. 32) = I will [not merely walk, but] run the way of Your commandments (AMP).

So when you are sad/disappointed/injured, run TO God. Don’t cling to your own (old) ways of thinking. Let Him take you from I am laid low → You have set my heart free.

If you have missed any of the messages in our P119 series, you can access them all by clicking here.

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Bommerang

March 8, 2011 — Craig T. Owens

A kind man benefits himself, but a cruel man brings trouble on himself. (Proverbs 11:17)

There are those who [generously] scatter abroad, and yet increase more; there are those who withhold more than is fitting or what is justly due, but it results only in want. (Proverbs 11:24)

The people curse him who holds back grain [when the public needs it], but a blessing [from God and man] is upon the head of him who sells it. (Proverbs 11:26)

Pretty straightforward…

If you want others to help you later, help others now.

If you want God to bless you later, bless others now.

If you want people to honor you later, be honorable now.

Boomerang!

It will only come back to you IF you throw it first!

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A Name Change

November 24, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

I was reading the biography of Jabez this morning. His whole life is told in just two verses, but what an insightful snapshot we get.

Here’s the part that stood out to me today: Jabez means one who causes pain or causes others to grieve. How would you like to go through life with a name like that? The Bible doesn’t give us the details as to why his mother gave him this name, but he seemed stuck with it. Everywhere he went throughout his life, people said,

“Hey, here comes Pain-In-The-Neck!” or

“You remind me of something bad!” or even

“Why don’t you do us all a favor and leave!”

Jabez wanted a name change, and God granted his request.

I wonder…

You can try to run from your reputation, you can try to change the way you think, you can try to act differently to see if people will treat you differently, or you can ask God to change your name.

God is in the name-changing business. And when He changes your name, it’s so much more powerful than when you try to do it.

When the Bible says, “Jabez cried out to God,” the root word means to encounter. Jabez encountered God. Jabez went face-to-face with God, and God granted his request.

If you want a new name, a new reputation, a new outlook, get face-to-face with God and He WILL grant your request.

(For some other significant name changes recorded in the Bible, check out this list.)

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Who’s Your Promoter?

July 5, 2010 — Craig T. Owens

Check out this verse where God speaks to Joshua:

Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know I am with you as I was with Moses.

Self-promoted leadership requires that I know what the current whims of the people are, and then I cater to those special-interest whims. But people are fickle, so I have to be constantly reinventing myself. I have to wear the right mask for the right group. I have to become a slick politician, giving the right speech to the right special interest group, promising them what they want to hear. I have to pander for votes to stay in leadership.

God-promoted leadership requires that I have faith in God alone. No focus groups to find out what people want. No advisors whispering in my ear. No masks, no special interest speeches, no pandering for votes. God knows the hearts of the people, and if He has called me to be a leader, He will equip me to be His leader.

Joshua was a God-promoted leader. When he was on the eve of his first major campaign as the new leader of Israel, he gave just one speech: “Let’s get ready to go.” A self-promoting leader would have given one motivational speech to the priests, one pep talk to the generals, one persuasive speech to the troops, an encouraging speech to the stay-at-home moms, and possibly one more convincing speech to those who wanted to pursue an alternative strategy.

The results of God-promoted leadership?

  1. So the Israelites did just as Joshua commanded them (Joshua 4:8).
  2. That day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they revered him all the days of his life (Joshua 4:14).

Who’s your promoter?

My prayer is that I always allow God to be my promoter and that the Holy Spirit will convict me anytime I try to promote myself.

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Mine!

March 3, 2009 — Craig T. Owens

I often joke that the first word infants learn to speak after “mama” and “dada” is “mine!” I usually joke that this is an indication of the sinful, prideful nature that is inherent in all humans.

But what do you think about when God says, “Mine!”?

He does say this, and He says it about you. God says, “You are Mine!” Not only that, but God wants us to say back to Him, “God, You are mine!” David expresses this I-am-God‘s-and-He-is-mine mentality in a great prayer in 2 Samuel 22. Forty-four times in just 51 verses David uses the personal possessive pronoun my.

David is thankful for the reality that God is close to him. He calls God my Rock, my Fortress, my Deliverer, my God, my Shield, my Salvation, my Stronghold, my Refuge, my Savior, my Support, my Lamp.

David says, “I am aware that God hears my voice and my cry, and He sees my distress. He delivers me from my enemies, my foes, my disaster. He rescued me because He delighted in me! Why? Because of my righteousness and the cleanness of my hands.

“God makes my way perfect, He makes my feet like the feet of a deer so that I will not stumble. God trains my hands and strengthens my arms for battle. You stoop down to make me great. You make my adversaries bow at my feet; You make my enemies turn their backs in flight; I destroy my foes. You delivered me from the attacks of my people. You set me free from my enemies; You exalted me above my foes.

“Therefore I will praise You, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing praises to Your name. The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God, the Rock, my Savior!”

Why does God want me to say, “Mine!”? Because it‘s only when I know that I am fully His possession that He is fully exalted. God loves to bless me when I acknowledge that “I am Yours and You are mine!”

Right now God is saying to you, “You are Mine!” Have you said “Mine!” to God today?

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