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Suffering And Hardship
Pini56:
Hi all,
I have noticed a lot of people have testimonies of suffering and hardship and I feel that this Psalm sums up what some people have been going through.
1 O Lord, God of my salvation,
I have cried out to you day and night.
2 Now hear my prayer;
listen to my cry.
3 For my life is full of troubles,
and death draws near.
4 I have been dismissed as one who is dead,
like a strong man with no strength left.
5 They have abandoned me to death,
and I am as good as dead.
I am forgotten,
cut off from your care.
6 You have thrust me down to the lowest pit,
into the darkest depths.
7 Your anger lies heavy on me;
wave after wave engulfs me.
8 You have caused my friends to loathe me;
you have sent them all away.
I am in a trap with no way of escape.
9 My eyes are blinded by my tears.
Each day I beg for your help, O Lord;
I lift my pleading hands to you for mercy.
10 Of what use to the dead are your miracles?
Do the dead get up and praise you?
11 Can those in the grave declare your unfailing love?
In the place of destruction, can they proclaim your faithfulness?
12 Can the darkness speak of your miracles?
Can anyone in the land of forgetfulness talk about your righteousness?
13 O Lord, I cry out to you.
I will keep on pleading day by day.
14 O Lord, why do you reject me?
Why do you turn your face away from me?
15 I have been sickly and close to death since my youth.
I stand helpless and desperate before your terrors.
16 Your fierce anger has overwhelmed me.
Your terrors have cut me off.
17 They swirl around me like floodwaters all day long.
They have encircled me completely.
18 You have taken away my companions and loved ones;
only darkness remains. Psalm 88. NLT.
This is the way I have felt many times in my life, maybe some of you have as well, I would like to know any that have and what promise of scripture has helped you get through these times, so we may all be encouraged in these difficult times we are all facing.
This is one of many Psalms that has helped me get through over the years.
1 I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
You refused to let my enemies triumph over me.
2 O Lord my God, I cried out to you for help,
and you restored my health.
3 You brought me up from the grave, O Lord.
You kept me from falling into the pit of death.
4 Sing to the Lord, all you godly ones!
Praise his holy name.
5 His anger lasts for a moment,
but his favor lasts a lifetime!
Weeping may go on all night,
but joy comes with the morning.
6 When I was prosperous I said,
“Nothing can stop me now!”
7 Your favor, O Lord, made me as secure as a mountain.
Then you turned away from me, and I was shattered.
8 I cried out to you, O Lord.
I begged the Lord for mercy, saying,
9 “What will you gain if I die,
if I sink down into the grave?
Can my dust praise you from the grave?
Can it tell the world of your faithfulness?
10 Hear me, Lord, and have mercy on me.
Help me, O Lord.”
11 You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing.
You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy,
12 that I might sing praises to you and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever! Psalm 30. NLT.
I would like to hear from anybody that has something to share along these lines.
Peace to all. Regards, Geoff.
lauriellen:
Hi Geoff,
what beautiful scriptures you posted. yes, i have felt EXACTLY that way many times....it just seems like i look around and see so much sufferring. it is difficult for me to understand 'why' it has to be that way, but I know that it is all for a purpose.....Gods purpose that is far beyond my ability to understand most of the time. guess that is why 'faith' is said to be the 'hope' of what we can not see....=/
this scripture is one that i personally cling to, and i had verse 4 engraved on my sons headstone:
Rev 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of Heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God with men! And He will tabernacle with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God.
Rev 21:4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And death shall be no longer, nor mourning, nor outcry, nor will there be pain any more; for the first things passed away.
bless you,
lauriellen
Deborah-Leigh:
Dear Geoff
Truly you have identified our trials and tribulations in called out compassion and issuing forth the encouragements so necessary to our endurance. Thank you.
I wrote this yesterday ahead of seeing your post this morning. I post it now in testimony that you are indeed discerning the spirit of trials and tribulations we are blessed to be enduring.
We are compassed about by dogs and wolves of avarice, intelligent contriving greed and malevolence. We are compassed about by sharks smelling the taste of our blood poured out by You my God. Our souls are in our blood spiritually shed and promising the feeding frenzy of sharing out our garment that is taken from us leaving us naked before Your eyes oh Mighty God. We are become a laughing stock, a tribute to avoidance and ridicule and the joke of scoffers who share in the gloating over the humility of the down trodden that revels over the prize of their gleeful vindications. To them too shall You visit death upon them and they know it not. They believe they live forever and their joy is in their drunken glory over ill won victories that litter around them the defeat of souls and fortunes not covered by their dark deeds with their appointments of diplomatic immunity for the club who is in their ranks and files.
Lord we do not rank in their approval catalogues. Our humility and recognition of You is an enemy of their pride and lust. Our journey has been fair and mild to bring fortune to others and prosperity to those who are robbed by the carefully appointed systems that disguise good for evil and evil for good. We stand condemned and declared guilty Oh Lord and my heart and soul faints under the darkness that You have caused to dwell upon the peoples in high places that govern and dwell upon earth to satiate their lusts with our blood and vindicate their thirst for satisfactions with our ruined lives. You God are my light and hope.
Job spoke to his “friends” and you confronted him. Hezekiah spoke with You and You blessed him but when he showed his good fortunes to his visitors, You caused him to lose all he had shown off yet remain in Peace and Truth the rest of his days. With this he was satisfied, yet with Job, you recompensed him his fortunes and say nothing of giving him Peace or Truth. In fact you say that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man, that Job became, to enter into your Kingdom.
So Hezekiah is your favorite? You spared his life and took away his wealth for he showed it off to his visitors and for the rest of his days he dwelled in peace and truth. Did Job have as much?
Now we have visitors that come and see our poverty of spirit and our defenselessness of soul. Will you transfer our destituteness to them who are drawn by the wealth they desire to obtain? What will you do dear God of my spirit, soul and flesh? Lord keep and reserve for us Peace and Truth please Lord. We are compassed about by the dogs of war and the gluttons of wrath as in the days of Herod and Caesar. Lord hear my cry. This is our agony. Lord You alone provide for our home and our peace in the night when we lay our heads down to rise again refreshed in Your Spirit and Your cause for us to be Your Children protected from the evil one as requested by Your Son my Lord dear God. Before Your Throne in gratitude of Your Spirit Lord that is thwarted by non, before Your throne of Grace in an hour of need, suffering and thankfulness that You are Great, Powerful and Merciful.
Show then the greatness of Your Power and the extravagant elegance of Your Mercy Dear Father…..There are non like You. Cause us to come forth from the middle of Your fire. You are no other God who can cause this to happen.
Have You marked us Lord for since our birth we are scorned, rejected, ridiculed and taunted. Lord, for what Purpose but your Glory is our suffering. Praise to You for our endurance is of Your Long suffering made manifest in our souls burning for Your Mercy and Peace. For a great cause You displayed Your Power in Shadrach Meshach and Abednego. Yours oh Mighty Father is the Power and the Praise of Your Name above all Names Your Son Jesus Christ With Whom You Are One.
It is You Who Direct our steps Dear Father.
Arc
Pini56:
Hi Lauriellen and Deborah,
Thank you for your Testimonies. Sometimes it's hard to explain our lives in testimony and what we have been through. Some people can easily, like you Deborah, who can explain in their own words what they have experienced in their walk with the Lord. I admire that. What I do most of the time, is show by the scriptures what kind of life I've had. In this post I will use my own words to show what I have been through. Believe me this will be brief.
To quickly tell you what has happened in my life, this is it: At the beginning of my walk I had everything, wine woman and song was my daily food. After five years of Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll, all of a sudden I lost everything, first the girlfriend, then the car, the new coach of the footy team told me to leave, then my job, the loss of my father which happened when I was younger also weighed me down at that time. Then to top it all off I had a Schizophrenic breakdown. I was in hospital for three and a half months. No one visited me in all that time, except my immediate family, not even the Paster of our church, my friends deserted me, I felt God had too. After I came out of hospital I had had enough. To get out of hospital, I basically had to deny the Lord, I wondered why they were keeping me in their. I had been telling the Doctor that the Lord had told me some things and I would always try and explain these things to him. When I had said maybe the Lord didn't speak to me, a day later they reduced my Medication, it made me see some light, but later I tried to explain again what the Lord was telling me. What a mistake, the Medication went up again. It depressed me, but I soon realised if I didn't mention the Lord at all, even though they questioned me about him, my Medication quickly came down and I was out of there within the next three weeks. I think the Doctors marvelled at my silence. For the next two or more years I was so depressed, I didn't want to see anybody, I laid in bed all day and all night, usually sleepless, sleeping rarely and only getting up for dinner. That was my lot.
For the next ten years I was in and out of work, in and out of Churches, in and out of friendships, on and off the Pension, in and out of hospital, in and out of debt. The struggle was to much to bear. I was living with some friends, I got ill and they kicked me out. I thourght I was going to be homeless, but my mother came to my rescue and allowed me to stay in her home. So I decided enough was enough and did not try to look for a job again and went on the Pension for good.
My mother brought home a little puppy one day and it was my constant companion for fifteen years, it used to be at the window when I came home, always to greet me, it would climb up my leg to get to my face and lick me. In those fifteen years I laid in bed a lot. Most of the time I would sit in my room and smoke, drink coffee and dream of riches. I was a very heavy smoker. At night I would go tenpin bowling and from this made many friends. I have actually bowled two 300 games. By the way I overcame the habit of smoking and gave it up. I used to smoke up to a hundred cigarettes a day. I had my first cigarette when I was seven years old. I've been off cigarettes for well over ten years now.
You might think that I forgot about God. No Way. I had been through so much with the Lord that I could not let go, he wouldn't let me. I remained faithful.
After my dog was put down, we had to, I was devastated. To me the dog showed more love to me than any human. But I also knew that God loved me very much because he afflicted me constantly throughout my life. It was a revelation, a knowing, even though it was tough.
Then the Lord told me to leave my mother's home and move in with this Christian older couple. The Lord set me down amongst the wolves. This couple had a church going in their home every friday night. They had constant prayer going, speaking in tongues, deliverance from demons, healing's, singing songs, they had the lot. Then they decided to take control and become a real church and start collecting tithes. They required that everyone living their had to attend this church or they would be booted out. I got booted out. I had nowhere to go, again I thourght I was going to be homeless. The Lord has always rescued me, a friend who was part of this group took me in and had built for me a large room at the back of his double garage. I lived their for seven years. The double garage soon became a two bedroom unit and another friend moved in with me.
This friend and I became very close and we attended this small church in the hills and met many good people. I went to the Pastors Cell group. We became very friendly and played golf together as well as tenpin bowling. I became prominent in the church. I would go to the prayer meeting before church, I would read from the Psalms and the Prophets in church every morning and do intercessory prayer mid week. My joy was full. Little did I realise that I was building my house on sand.
I eventually I went off my Medication at this time because I was feeling really well and thourght I may have been healed but the Lord had other ideas. One night I didn't sleep at all and was talking to the Lord the whole night. He said Geoff, amongst telling me a lot of other things, are you willing to go into hospital for me. I said yes. Well that week I did, some things happened and they took me to hospital. The first night I was in their I slept like a baby. I did exactly what they said and took the Medication. I preached the Gospel. Many were called by the Lord in those two and half weeks I was their. Its funny but the Doctor and nurses thourght I was normal. I heard some of them wondering why I was their. They felt there was nothing wrong with me. But thats not the point. Again no one visited me from the church not even the Paster, although he rang me. My dear old mum was the only one who visited me, except my friend who brought in my clothes at my request. The Pastor told me later that it was too hard for him, he asked me to forgive him, which I did. My mother eventually died, only recently, God rest her soul. The one thing my mother said to me that always stayed with me. I asked her once why she didn't go to church anymore, she replied I would rather walk the green hills of a golf course than go to church. Amen to that if you know what I mean.
Well when I came out I felt great humiliation and going to church felt uncomfortable. Even though the Lord asked me to go into hospital for the purpose of preaching the Gospel, I believe this, I became very depressed and wanted to die. I thought the church was something wonderful, that idol was totally crushed. I got desperate, so I typed hell into google one night and low and behold Ray's website. What a revelation, what a blessing, all my questions and much more answered, I lost my faith that night but gained real faith, the faith of the Lord Jesus a faith born from deep suffering and endless sleepless nights. In tears all night some nights crying out to the Lord. It still goes on but now I have a sure foundation and the distress is a little bit easier. I would not wish this upon anybody. Being in a psychiatric ward of a public hospital is a very dark place and there are a lot of very sick people in there. A lot of Christians too I might add.
I now live on the Gold Coast in Queensland Australia. I am almost 2000 Kilometres away from where I used to live in Melbourne Victoria Australia. I am alone and live in a one room apartment (Sizeable room) which is self contained. All my family live in Victoria and I moved to Queensland at the direction of the Lord. I have never been married nor have the desire to. I have no kids. I have failed in almost everything I Have tried, the world would call me a loser and it doesn't bother me in the slightest because I know where I've been and where I'm going to. I have a couple of close friends and I tenpin bowl for relaxation. Tenpin Bowling is my outlet, it is something I am very good at and the Lord uses me to spread the Gospel and to be a light in these places. This forum is the only place I fellowship. Everywhere I go I try to set an example of Godly living. Its tough but it will be worth it in the end. I just look forward to and hope that the Lord will say to me one day, on that day, "well done thou good and faithful servant, enter into my rest".
Yours in Christ. Regards, Geoff.
P.S. This testimony has only touched the surface.
Marlene:
Very humbling testimony Geoff. It is very hard to share your experiences and suffering with others. I suffered depression and wasted 10 years of my life.
I had a wonderful Husband who stayed with me and never once hurt me with things he could have said to me.
All, I can say is that suffering and hardship and my health has always kept me close to God.
I wanted a child and never had one. Thank God this did not matter so much to my Husband. Now, I realize those 10 years were not wasted. It was during that time that all I could do was talk to God and what a healing he gave me. My Husband and I both have been put through things that would have broken up most relationships. I know, God held us together.
Seems most of my life was hardships of some sort and still goes on. Not, saying there have not been any good times. I can still count my blessings. They are many.
It never ceases to amaze me how God can take something bad and turn it into good.
God knows how to keep us close to him.
Thanks for sharing some of your story. It is a blessing to me. It increases my faith to hear what others have gone through and God has been with them through it all.
In His Love,
Marlene
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