TROUBLES TROUBLE AND MORE TROUBLES
by Ronnie Mutina
I remember when I was a kid one of the most often used statements was, "When I get home, I’m telling Mom, and you’re going to be in trouble. However, this is not the particular sense I want to look at. Job said, "Man that is born of woman is of few days, and full of trouble" (Job 14:1). What is the meaning of this word, ‘trouble?’ Webster defined it as, to agitate mentally and spiritually. The Hebrew word is roqez, ro’gher, which means commotions, disquiet, which means to take away the peace or tranquility of, anger, fear, noise, rage, and wrath.
Paul told Timothy, in 2 Timothy 3:1-5, that this would get worse. He wrote, "This know also, that in the last days perilous (dangerous) times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors heady, high – minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away."
Doesn’t most of this define trouble? Of course it does! People seem to be in total unrest each and every day of the year. Saved people seemed to be dragged down by the world’s problems and day to day living. We have put ourselves in a position to have a great fall. We’ve decided, in ways, that God’s ways are wrong, so we will make our own way. This attitude is the key to failure.
What the world of Christians has to remember is that we are fighting against things we cannot see. Paul encouraged the church of Ephesus to "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of HIS might." How do you do that, would be a question we might hear. If you look in Ephesians 6, there is a total outline of how we do it. It starts of with, "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."
Satan is a huge factor in the troubles of this world and the spiritual troubles we have. He spends most of his time causing problems in saved people’s lives. Why? The answer would be because, the lost people are already his. They are guaranteed eternal death and total destruction. Restlessness and not being content is a sure sign that Satan is hard at work. However, we allow him these freedoms. As a child of God we have the right and the power to put him in his place.
How do we Satan in his place? We do it the exact same way our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ did it. We use Bible scriptures and show him we are in control. In the book of Psalms, we find many great things. However in Psalm 9:9-10, we find the way to handle troubles. "The Lord will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. And they that know Thy Name will put their trust in Thee: for Thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek Thee." There are things in this text that show us how to overcome troubles, consistently.
THE LORD IS OUR REFUGE
In this passage, we find that HE is called ‘a refuge’ twice. He is a refuge for the oppressed, which means the afflicted or hurt, and He is a refuge in times of trouble. He is there to help us when we are hurt and dejected. He is there when the troubles seem to never end. He is there for the people who truly seek Him. The problem is, we never seek Him and His advice or guidance. We want to handle all of it ourselves. The reason why is simple; we don’t think He can handle it. If we do think that He can handle it, it’s not on our time scale. This is the downfall of many of us as Christians.
THOSE WHO KNOW THE LORD AS THEIR SAVIOR SHOULD THEIR OUR TRUST IN HIM.
Do we really trust Him? The first thought that would come to your mind is, well yes, I trust Him. I put my faith and trust in Him when I was saved. There is a big difference in the Lord being your Savior and you allowing Him to be your LORD. A Lord is one you follow, obey, and seek at all times. Many of a child of God does not allow Jesus to be their Lord. We don’t seek Him daily, but wait until we have trouble in our life to seek Him. What’s wrong with this picture? If He is able to save us, then why wouldn’t He take care of us? Having the Lord as our Lord and Savior is a key to help over come troubles. If anyone tells a lost person, "If you accept Christ as Savior, all of your troubles will be gone," you need to stay clear of them, because they are liars. In many instances we find that people who allowed the Lord in their lives had a lot worse troubles than they already had. Take Job for instance. He was faithful to the Lord, but Satan took everything Job had, children, wealth, cattle, etc., away from him to try and make the point that Job was not as faith to God as God knew he was. Not one time did Job deny the Lord. In fact, He depended upon the Lord more, and declared himself not worthy of even life. Key answer to Job’s solution; "For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that HE shall stand on that latter day, upon earth" (Job 19:25). What a statement! He had troubles, but depended upon God to help Him. Even Job’s wife told Job to "Curse God and die." She sure didn’t have the faith Job did. Job trusted God.
THE LORD WILL NOT FORSAKE THEM THAT SEEK HIM.
"Seek ye the LORD while HE may be found, call ye upon HIM while HE is near" (Isaiah55:6). "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and HIS righteousness" (Matt 6:33). Over and over we are told to seek God, but yet we choose not too. This is the beginning of troubles. If we seek God, then we find refuge from all troubles. Granted, we will still face troubles, but it is better to have HIM on our sides to help us through the troubles of this world.
If I had any advice, for anyone going through tough times, right not, I would tell you, Seek God and HIS direction. After all we can fall upon the 23rd Psalm where the Psalmist said, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;" That’s a comforting solution to every man’s problems. However, the only way to have that solution is to have HIM as your Savior. The solution is simple to seek, we just need to do it.
May we always seek God’s refuge in, not only times of trouble, but also in our whole life. Amen.
