Resources for life's struggles - Audio

Imagine the largest and most powerful army in the world marshaled against you. They are poised to overrun you and your cities leaving death and destruction in their wake. So far they have ravaged the countryside and are now surrounding your capital city. This was the predicament in which Hezekiah found himself. For days the Assyrian army mocked and jeered that God would not protect him. Hezekiah did not succumb to this pressure and remained vigilant. In one night, God destroyed the enemy marshaled against them. It is after this miraculous display that the psalmist penned the 46th Psalm. Bro. Hughes draws three resources from this psalm to use during times of trouble. The first point deals with fear. Fear is one of the most powerful forces in life. It comes from many sources. The bible tells us that fear is a tormentor. In verse two the writer says even though the earth may quake. When life comes to pieces and everything in life is shaken, we can rely on the refuge and place of hiding that God has provided. For every fear, God has a hiding place for us. The second force that shakes us is weariness. Life can wear us down. We all need something that can keep us going when life overwhelms us. God provides a method to refresh ourselves in times of pressure and weariness. God's answer to weariness is a river. A stream that refreshes. A source of power and replenishment that no one knows about. We have something that the world does not know about that will sustain us in all the pressure and demands of life. We can wait out anything if we have a supply. Finally the Psalmist addresses one of the most troubling issues of life: Worry. When things get tough, we worry. We stress, We fret. Worry is a very real problem that comes to everyone. God has an answer for worry and that is simply: Be still and know that I am God. In the Hebrew Be Still means literally "Take your hands off" Human nature is to fix things. We will try to fix things. God does not need us to fix it. If we look close enough, it is usually our hand print on things that trouble us. God does not need our help. The answer to most of life's problems are Let God be God. The revelation is that God is God and we are not. God is not constrained by our situation. These three things are resources for life's struggles.