Endurance for the Journey, Featured

I said to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
apart from you I have no good thing.”
PSALM 16:2 (NLT)



There comes a point in our experience when we say to the Lord. “Apart from you I have no good thing” (v. 2). Happiest are those who can make the statement when life is cruising along and the skies are bright and sunny; but happy are those, too, who make this discovery when the dark clouds roll in and darkness covers their personal landscape.



It’s a sad truth that many of us never discover the priceless value of the Lord until we are stripped of everything else. But it is an expression of His limitless grace and mercy that when we arrive in the land of utter desolation, our eyes can at last be opened to our true Treasure: God Himself. Oh, that we would train our lips to proclaim to the Lord, “Apart from you I have no good thing,” that we would train our minds to believe it, and that we would train our hearts to feel it! Then when suffering comes, we could endure its hardships with hope, knowing that we can never lose that which is most precious of all.



We can rejoice, too,
when we run into problems and trials,
for we know that they help us develop endurance.
And endurance develops strength of character,
And character strengthens our
confident hope of salvation.
And this hope will not lead to disappointment.
For we know how dearly God loves us,
because he has given us the Holy Spirit
to fill our hearts with his love.
ROMANS 5:3-5 (NLT)



On the journey with you,
Dave Dravecky

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Endurance for the Journey, Featured, Loss

But you, O God, do see trouble and grief;
You consider it to take it in hand.
The victim commits himself to You;
You are the helper of the fatherless.
PSALM 10:14 (NIV)



It’s a great comfort to know that God sees my pain and that He promises to help the weak. Psalm 10:14 reminds us, “But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand.”


This is good to remember, for when our emotions are raw from the onslaught of pain, they can become like an open wound, reacting to the slightest touch or the least movement. They are like a radio turned to full volume; the overwhelming noise can make it impossible to distinguish a single, still small voice. No wonder we question where God is when pain overtakes us! We can’t hear Him or feel His warmth or His presence. We hear only noise; we feel only pain.



But He is there all the time, ever speaking, never silent. Our challenge is to be still and to offer Him our wounds to heal, so we can feel His touch again. As the suffering psalmist also said to the Lord, “The victim commits himself to you.” This is the wisest course of action when suffering comes calling.



Be still and know that I am God.
PSALM 46:10 (NLT)



On the journey with you,
Jan Dravecky

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Depression, Endurance for the Journey, Fear, Featured

Give ear to my words, O Lord,
consider my sighing.
Listen to my cry for help,
my King and my God,
for to you I pray.
PSALM 5:1-2 (NIV)



When we find ourselves in deep distress, our words often vanish like smoke. We find our desperate longings cannot be formed into sentences with subject, verb, object. We are like the mute – wordless, with nothing on our lips but sighs.


And yet the Lord hears us!


In Psalm 5 David asks not only that the Lord might hear his words, but that God would consider his “sighing” as well. What else can this mean but that David’s pain had grown too great for words? What words he had he offered in prayer; but this was not enough. David therefore asked the Lord that He might accept even his sighs!


What an amazing God we serve, who hears not only our spoken prayers, but also our speechless sighs. Even when we do not know what to pray for, God’s Word tells us that “the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express” (Romans 8:26). And so God meets sigh with sigh – and thus works for our benefit!



Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting,
God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along.
If we don’t know how or what to pray,
it doesn’t matter.
He does our praying in and for us,
making prayer out of our wordless sighs,
our aching groans.
He knows us far better than we know ourselves,
knows our pregnant condition,
and keeps us present before God.
That’s why we can be so sure,
that every detail in our lives of love for God
is worked into something good.
ROMANS 8:26-28 (THE MESSAGE)



On the journey with you,
Dave Dravecky

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Endurance for the Journey, Featured, Peace

Answer me when I call to you,
O my righteous God.
Give me relief from my distress;
be merciful to me and hear my prayer.
I will lie down and sleep in peace,
for you alone, O Lord,
make me dwell in safety.
PSALM 4:1,8 (NLT)



Sleep is one of the first areas affected when we face severe trials. It often flees from us like a wildebeest before a lion, like a scrap of paper before a windstorm. Yet God tells us in Psalm 4 that sleep is possible, even in the most difficult of circumstances.


During our three-year ordeal in the wilderness, circumstances continually went from bad to worse. But while events around me seemed ominous, it gave me hope to know that God promises we can enjoy peaceful sleep – not because our circumstances will change during the night, but because “you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.”


I still use the quality of my sleep as a litmus test. If my sleep is troubled, I consider that a sign that I am trying to sustain myself rather than trusting God. The remedy? Return to the wisdom of Psalm 4, ask God to relieve my distress, and trust in the Lord. Then “I will lie down and sleep in peace.”



My child, don’t lose sight
of common sense and discernment.
Hang on to them,
for they will refresh your soul.
You can go to bed without fear;
you will lie down and sleep soundly.
You need not be afraid of sudden disaster
or destruction that comes upon the wicked,
PSALM 89:21 (NLT)



On the journey with you,
Jan Dravecky

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