12 Things You Need During Challenging Times (Psalm 143)

hi everyone mark dejesus here welcome to this broadcast i'm excited about this video and this resource because what i want to do whether you're watching this in video or listening by audio is i want to take some time to talk encouragement into your heart and i want to speak into 12 things that you need during challenging times and i don't know anyone who doesn't in some aspect of their life have some challenges that they are up against that they're working through and processing through and what i'm going to share is going to be based off of psalm 143 a psalm of david and i find so much encouragement and i also find a great deal of depth of depth a great deal of depth when it comes to the psalms because it causes you to ponder to slow down to consider the work that god is doing in your life you see we live in such a fast high-speed world we don't take the time to just slow down to reflect and there's so much in the writing of the psalms that helps us to learn how to process the life of the heart maybe you're battling mental health struggles relationship struggles going through things in your marriage going through things in your finances could be a number of things that you're battling and working through but all of it is leading us to a place of how can we process the life of our heart in more significant and fruitful ways because most of us growing up you didn't get that training you didn't get training on how to work through challenges and how to connect to that nurture and how do you connect to hope when you feel like your back is against the wall how do you process through dark seasons and for so many they just numb out shut out or go to addictions or just don't even bother or we just wash it over with some cliches and just try to move on meanwhile our hearts are needing some encouragement and so what i want to do from this psalm a psalm of david and i am so grateful to the life of king david not because he was a perfect man and i actually appreciate in all his weaknesses and struggles he was a man that knew how to discover god as he was processing out the deep even dark issues of his life that he was working through and in it you see him honestly discover aspects of god's nature in ways that he wouldn't have discovered in just the good times but it was in those dark seasons in those difficult challenging times that david discovered some great things and there's 12 things i want to extract here we could get a whole lot more but i'll kind of summarize it down to these areas so let's get right into this let's first read the psalm and then i'll go back through it a little bit slower i want to talk to you about 12 things you need during challenging times psalm 143 hear my prayer oh lord give ear to my supplications in your faithfulness answer me and in your righteousness do not enter into judgment with your servant for in your sight no one living is righteous for the enemy has persecuted my soul he has crushed my life to the ground he has made me dwell in darkness like those who have long been dead therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me my heart within me is distressed i remember the days of old i meditate on all your works i muse on the work of your hands i spread out my hands to you my soul longs for you like a thirsty land selah answer me speedily oh lord my spirit fails do not hide your face from me lest i be like those who go down into the pit cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning for in you do i trust cause me to know the way in which i should walk for i lift up my soul to you deliver me o lord from my enemies in you i take shelter teach me to do your will for you are my god your spirit is good lead me in the land of uprightness revive me o lord for your name's sake for your righteousness sake bring my soul out of trouble in your mercy cut off my enemies and destroy all those who afflict my soul for i am your servant so allow me to process through these 12 things from this passage that i believe you need during challenging times number one is really important number one is you need to know that god hears you he says here in the psalm hear my prayer o lord give ear to my supplication in your faithfulness answer me and in your righteousness i believe it is so important and it's such a battleground for so many people the issue when we come to god in our pain in our struggle usually surrounds is god good and is he listening to me and if you notice those two areas are the greatest battleground that people are facing in their interaction with god is god good in his loving kindness is he even listening and so i want to start off with what you need to know before you even start engaging god with what you're going through and what you're battling if you don't think he's hearing you it's going to deflate your faith it's going to deflate your hope and you will go to forget it why bother and so i find it very very important to work on this issue jesus when he prayed he was praying some significant prayers one of the things he said is i thank you that you hear me and i believe that is an important foundational understanding that we need to engage lately i've been teaching my children on praying and how to pray and the first thing that i help them to understand is like jesus said when we pray pray our father you're praying to your father in heaven in the name of jesus and so we set that foundation and we have this routine that we practice where i have my kids pray and i say i'd like you to do this when you say your prayer we're going to go in a bunch of different directions you're going to express your heart to god but the first thing you're going to say is father god i thank you that you hear me because i want to teach my children that no matter what's going on come hell or high water no matter how far you feel from god no matter how close or whatever and sometimes we get lost in some of that we get lost in this sense of like i don't feel close to god and so often times we say i don't feel close to god and the assumption is therefore i'm far from god and it's a lie that hits believers day in and day out and it really rises up during the most difficult times i want to embed into the heart of my children god is a good father to you and he hears you when you pray he listens he cares and you matter and so every every other detail everything that we talk about everything that we discuss must stand on that foundation because when you're struggling and the enemy comes in like a thief to what to steal kill and destroy what's he doing he is sending thoughts your way that sound like your own thoughts to say this in your struggle he's not good he's not here with you he's not helping you he's not available right now he's not listening so why do you bother why do you even share there will be times where you go through dark seasons go through challengings where it's a struggle to feel that connection to god you'll struggle to not only feel connected to god let's be honest when you're going through challenges you'll struggle in being connected to people how many of you in your journey it's almost like well i'll just say about me in my most difficult times it's like i felt in this bubble and everybody was going through their life and i felt disconnected in my trial and so not only do we struggle to feel connected to god struggle feel connected to others struggle to even feel connected to ourselves and so what i let go of is i let go of measuring how close i think i am to god from day to day moment to moment because in the new testament covenant jesus said i'll never leave you forsake you so yes what we're saying is we want to connect we want our connection to be engaged but because i struggled to feel close doesn't mean he's not here so i've learned to say god i know you hear me even though i'm struggling to connect to that right now because i set my compass i set my compass at god's hearing god's listening and developing my prayer language to cut through the resistance of the enemy which is usually rejection and that condemnation and shame to push you back and say ain't here it's the number one battle even people who write to me and comment is that disconnect to god god hears you and david in this moment says hear my prayer he's establishing that because without that everything you say if you're talking to someone and you feel like they're not listening what are you gonna do you're gonna phase out what you're talking about you're gonna probably wrap it up close it and forget it i've spoken in churches or groups where it was just a really difficult group to speak to just wasn't the best setting it wasn't the right time it was distracted and in the midst of it i wanted to just go can we just can we just wrap it up because it's taking the wind out of you because you don't feel like somebody's listening especially listening with their heart you need to know he's listening the second thing that you're going to need is this is kind of the next level moving forward is going to be very difficult without number two being executed you need to break off shame and condemnation if you approach god with a shame focus on yourself with a condemnation focus on yourself you're gonna have a lot of problems processing out what you're going through what you're feeling now you don't have to get rid of shame and condemnation for god to receive you he receives you right now but it's interesting that david in verse 2 says don't enter into judgment with your servant because he knew a judgment interaction with god is going to throw this thing off the rails now you have to remember this is old covenant under the law even in the midst of that this is why i appreciate david because david understood heart matters even though he was under a lesser covenant and how does he because judgmentalism it brings in shame it brings in condemnation it fuels it it it makes it grow and that becomes our perspective right and so david knew this isn't going to be fruitful now what i know about shame and i do a lot of talking about shame when shame and judgmentalism covers us in our pain we're going to have a harsh inner critic we're going to have a punishment-based perspective we're going to take everything we're going through and we're going to use it as an arrow an indictment against ourselves we're going to get angry we're going to get angry with others we're going to get angry with ourselves we're going to get angry with god we're going to blame others we're going to look for blame we're going to blame ourselves we're going to blame god and then when that gets exhausted and we numb out we're just going to blame ourselves and just kind of shut down under that blanket of judgmental judgmentalism is an accusatory perspective no one does well when they are being judged and evaluated with shame and condemnation it's like that critic with the clipboard looking over their glasses examining you and your motives and condemning you in it so what happens is you will unproductively cycle through the issues of your life and so during challenging seasons what do you notice what happens we kind of just ruminate we just cycle with no productivity one of the reasons why that cycle keeps happening is we're just shame-based we're just shaming ourselves condemnation just anger what we need to do is take a step back and go let's let go of judgment right now let's go let's of being judgey to others how do i stop being judgey to others i gotta stop being judgey to myself because otherwise eventually you're gonna shut down that shame and that anger and that cycle will lead you to just pull the breaker go forget it tilt check out and so then what happens you never get the opportunity to process through what your heart needed the issues of the heart cannot be processed through effectively when judgment shame condemnation any of those aspects is covering the situation now david in this verse how did he how did he understand this even in the old covenant he said listen no one's righteous no one's righteous this is very similar to what jesus did when he said he who is without sin cast the first stone what did he do he leveled the playing field that said the adulterers as well as these pharisees have sin in their life and so when we all realize that it takes judgmentalism out of the picture in shame out of the picture and condemnation to go okay i'm god is not accusing me he's receiving me and now i can work through the issues of my heart that need tending to during this season so important the third thing you're gonna need is now as you're as you're recognizing he hears you is you need to be able to number three you need to process through the wounds that have come about from your enemies it could be people who have set themselves up as enemies to you actual human beings who've set themselves up as enemies to you but we also understand there is an enemy that's invisible and he seeks to steal kill and destroy and at times he will use people to rise up against you and david was very very good at processing this out at truly expressing how this affected him for the enemy has persecuted my soul he says and he just i love that he's just so honest he doesn't like try to wash it over he has crushed my life to the ground that's intense he's made me dwell in darkness like those who've long been dead so he looks historically he goes well what i'm going through other people before me they've gone through this do you ever go through battles and go i'm the only one going through this no one else is going through this mine is the worst my pain is the worst not just a lie that's just wanting to drag you down further into the quicksand and leave you in victimization self-pity and just that self-loathing that's never ever really productive he's like people before me have gone through this and this is hard what christians lack today in my opinion is the ability to effectively process through the challenges trials suffering difficulties heartaches to process through them effectively to talk it out to get it out in the heavenlies to bring it to god to share it with someone else effectively where they can mirror back and in relationship safety you can process through and find heart healing and god and you being able to where you can express and you can feel his comfort and his nurture because you need that you need to be able to process through now many christians will suppress their their challenges they just take it put it away in a box lock it up i understand it's hard it's difficult but that stuff anything suppressed will rise up in the surface later on it will and the challenge is the challenge with this is when you suppress it it comes out in a way where you can't identify it so maybe you have a really bad relational breakdown maybe you go through a divorce and you just kind of suppress it and move on and then you find yourself five years later maybe you know building another relationship and you find these fiery things rising to the surface and maybe you're blaming that person right and then you don't realize you never healed from that past divorce and then you you know there might be areas in the divorce where there were inflamed issues that never got addressed from before so many suppress it some process it just like super quickly and just put it away okay okay moving on i understand and i'm not saying everything has to be prolonged but where do you find yourself what do you do some sulk in their pain forever and because they've not been given tools on how to process it they unproductively just cycle through it they ruminate through the pain and it just becomes a ditch that gets deeper and deeper and deeper simply because they walk there you know if you walk a trail enough times over and over again it'll create an imprint it'll create a ditch it'll create just by walking through it over and over and over and over and over and over and over again and then it's sinking down lower and you think oh this is here because my problem is so deep and really it's just because you've been walking at it so much it created a ditch and so how do you unproductively process through your pain david needed to process the wounds and get it out here's what i'm feeling here's what i'm going through which leads me to number four is you need to get honest about where you're at we do a lot of self-deceiving we do a lot of putting on a show we do a lot of a lot of a lot of things that don't provide true healing for our hearts david said listen based on on on verse 3 he's like i'm persecuting my soul i'm crushed persecuted crushed and i'm in darkness therefore okay so he didn't just leave it there and he didn't go therefore i will praise the lord every day and the sun shining in and everything's great everything's wonderful no he doesn't do that he says therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me i'm overwhelmed i'm maxed out i'm emotionally at my limit now most people at this stage they check out why do we check out num out disconnect because we feel that we've hit our emotional capacity and what david does here is he doesn't leave it here you need to be honest about where you're at but don't just leave it there and walk away a lot of people go you know what i can't take it anymore i've hit my limit i'm done right we've all said that what that is is it can involve us walking away from an opportunity to go further in god to stretch our emotional capacity because i find most people have a very untrained unequipped emotional capacity so they're very easily overwhelmed very easily taken out because they've not learned to exercise themselves and persevere and overcome that's not a word of condemnation it's just a word of realization of listen this is what we're going through i know my spiritual emotional mental muscles were very weak very weak just take a couple of things to literally push me over and i had to realize in facing the mental health battles of my life anxiety ocd depression panic attacks i had to learn how to develop and cultivate my muscles because i approached every day with just reacting to whatever thoughts and emotions rose to the surface rather than learning to establish my inner world it took training it took time it took learning and david is honest but here's the thing david could share it but he didn't just walk away he went deeper and that's what the next part of it leads you into so how do you express yourself honestly about where you're at you have to do it in compassionate grace because sometimes what we do is we domino we make things worse than they are what's dominoing it's uh this person didn't listen to me and no one listens to me that's dominoing because once you start dominoing a pain in your life you attach it across your whole world and now you see your world out of that lens and you look for ways to prove it so if you've got a wound that people don't listen to you you'll then domino it and say no one listens to me and then you'll look for people that aren't paying attention and you won't see the people that are paying attention it's like the rejection mindset that i teach on once you have a rejection mindset you will put that on the tapestry of what you anticipate and expect in relationships getting honest with god about where you're at is it's honest but do it compassionately so that you're not dominoing ruminating making it worse than it is like here's the pain i've got here's what i'm going through and i'm being honest about that and it leads to number five is you need to recalibrate yourself i use this word a lot even in my coaching work you need to recalibrate yourself how on what god has done david begins his pivot he gets honest and he's he realizes i gotta reset i gotta reset my perspective i gotta take in a deep breath and i gotta clear up the fog and the toxicity that's going on inside of me how does he do that i'm going to remember the days of old now is he just saying oh remember the good old days remember when things were just so much better no he's going to look back and he says i'm going to meditate on your works i'm gonna look back and i'm gonna see where you were working and i'm gonna zero in on those i'm gonna narrow in on those i'm gonna muse on the work of your hands are you able to sit down and just think of all that god has done and and if you find yourself saying i can't think of anything it reveals that this practice needs to be cultivated in your life because it is so easy to let darkness overwhelm you and you can't see the light of glory that's shining god is always working his glory in the midst of increasing darkness isaiah himself said it though darkness cover the earth though deep darkness cover the earth the glory of the lord will rise so we need to be able to see what god is doing the problem is is we're hung up so much on what we think god is not doing and that becomes our focus and what you focus on is what you're going to look for so if i'm overwhelmed and obsessed and focused in on an immersed in darkness i see in people's lives and in my life that's now going to be what i look for when i'm tuned into the glory of god i can see darkness but i can put it in context of the glory of what god is doing in the midst of my life and in the midst of my family and in the midst of my generation so david says we're going to do some remembrance time and in a lot of the old testament writings it was all about remembering in your heart put it on the doorpost write it down put it on a necklace have your clothing be a reminder have your house be a reminder remind each other document this because it's so easy to forget what god did yesterday is so easy you know why because when you're going through a trial and you have breakthrough you have relief and it's like it's like the woman who's been in labor and when she gives birth to the child it's not too long after she may consider going when am i going to have a child again she's already forgotten the pain that she's went through right that's why it's important to document what you've been through and what god has done in your life how does that start starts with thanksgiving it starts with cultivating a grateful heart because a grateful heart can never be defeated now you may have a right hook knock you out but you're not defeated you may have an uppercut take the wind out of you you may get pushed off you may be down for a moment but you're not taken out thanksgiving opens up it's an immediate recalibration you want to see god's works stir up thanksgiving it will lead you to detective you want to see what god has done start with thanksgiving and get your attention on what god is doing don't let the enemy get your entire focus on what you think god is not doing because who are we to be god to know even be able to say what he's not doing but when you focus on what he is doing currently which is very evident you tune into his grace because his grace is his power and what he's working on in your heart and life and what he's doing and i'm always encouraging people pay attention to the grace in your life because if you tune there you're going to add ammunition encouragement your faith hope and love is going to increase in your life how do you need to recalibrate what does this look like for you is it a five minute timeout is it some time outs in the day where you sit and you exercise thanksgiving you take in deep breaths and you consider the works of god in your life number six is you need to pause to take in what your heart needs if you see at the end of verse six here this keyword selah which means to pause to cease to stop to rest how many of us actually do that i want to tell you what i think in in this life that we live in one of the number one demonic forces on this planet are you ready chronic busyness chronic busyness because if you're just in a system of buzz you'll not be able to understand what's going on here in your heart you'll accomplish things you have achievements but you won't be connected to what matters most to you and so i think it is so important when you read the psalms they're meant to be pondered on verse by verse i would even courage word by word extract what these words mean let them wash over your heart they're not quick things if you notice this video is not just a really quick video it's something to meditate on to think on to let it penetrate your thinking and let it lead you into life let it lead you into your heart being connected relationally to god to yourself and to others in more effective ways and david knew how to take it do you even know what you need when you're going through a challenge in a trial do you even know what you need if i was to ask you whatever you're going through right now what do you need and if your answer is i need to win the lotto i just need everyone to act better i just need all my circumstances to just change you haven't tuned into what you really need what do you really need in your heart do you need comfort do you need connection do you just need rest you see david says i spread my hands out to you so his physical posture is is key here his physical posture matched his internal heart and where he wanted to point his compass i spread my hands out to you there's the surrender my soul longs for you like a thirsty land selah so our battles cause us to slow down to pause to stop and take in what your heart needs we live in generations where people do not even know how to identify what they need and he says i know what i need my soul longs for you this is not about a person you know this is not about a circumstance this is about me just going i'm i'm up to my neck in enemy battle and i just want to express to you i long for you there are times in my journey during the hardest of days where i felt like everything was just dark and black where i just kneel lift my hands and say father i just hunger and thirst for you and just allowing myself to be in that posture and i'm going to cut through the oh he's not here god's not god's left you i'm going to cut through that because that stuff has not served me ever in my life and i would rather serve thoughts that lead me into connection with what god is doing and building of my faith and i said i'm done with that god you're here but i need you but you're here so i just humble my heart today and sometimes that's just what it takes it takes just going i need this and i'm gonna get i'm gonna figure out what i need and you're the one that's gonna fill it number seven you need to connect to god's help for you now david says this he's prayed the prayer many of you have god he says answer me speedily oh lord it's all right now did god answer him speedily i don't know i don't know but it's not like out of bounds to pray this but we live in a very speedy culture very very speedy everything we want speedy so his speedy is nowhere compared to our modern expectation of speedy he says no lord my spirit fails don't hide your face from me lest i go down lest i be like those who go down into the pit so he humbles himself he recognizes his inability but he connects to god and he's and he recognizes this what makes people go down into the pit that word pit is like it's like a it could be like a prison or a dungeon or a cistern right it's it's this this dark place he's like people who go down to the pit what happens they think god's hiding his face from them he says here don't hide your face for me lest i be like those who go down into the pit people who believe god is hiding from them believers who believe that god is hiding from them or he's far away or distant don't you notice it sends them further into the pit so i don't want to sit in a pit i don't need to sit into i'm already going through trials i don't need to go into the dungeon what leads us into the dungeon god you're not here god you're not here you're hiding from me you're and then i see people even write these things about those seasons where god is hiding he's not hiding from you he's here yeah your connection to him may be struggling it's all right it's part of life stop measuring it oh i'm close i'm not just go i'm you're here i'm with you now i'm just gonna learn how to recalibrate my heart to it and connecting to it otherwise david says if i feel that you're you're hiding from me i'm going into the pit and the difference of those who live in the dungeon and those who don't live in the dungeon they're still going through hard times but they're not in the dungeon because the dungeon is prison met it's dark it's on it's it's it's a place of spiritual limitation it's the belief we come under of satan's lies of god's hiding his face from us number eight is i'm going to connect to the kindness of god this is why i do so much work on kindness patience the the welcoming of god to bring us in and and david does a great job here he says cause me to hear your loving kindness so there's a voice oh there's a voice that god will speak to in your challenging times he'll speak to you what's the frequency kindness loving kindness that word loving kindness means goodness it means mercy his faithfulness also means kindness cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning hmm interesting so when you have a bad day you can say to yourself his mercy his loving kindness is new every morning i get to start over tomorrow do you know that that's my remedy for a bad day what's a bad day well bad day for me might look different than a bad day for you we all have bad days right it just doesn't go well sometimes you feel like you know it's five o'clock and you're already just cutting bait for the day and you go let's go to bed because this day this day ain't going so great the worst of days what you can say is you know what i'll go to sleep tonight tomorrow morning his kindness is available for me and i can begin again and i'm thankful that each morning when the sun rises it's a signal to me his mercy is new his faithfulness is here his kindness is here people say i want to hear from god in my challenge okay his loving kindness is available you got to tune in to his loving frequency and kindness over you in your struggle in your trial kindness is going to help you develop your trust muscles he says in you do i trust why because he was able to hear the loving kindness of god in those morning hours where he's rebooting right the nights the night can speak of last night it can also speak of a night season and david's recalibrating number nine is you need to connect to safety in god because in your challenges you don't feel safe how many of you in life you're struggling with feeling connected to being safe david says deliver me o lord from my enemies and you i take shelter what he's connecting to here is god is the lord is a deliverer and he's doing a delivering work from the works of his enemies what do we need to do it's time for us to take shelter in him there's many battles that when we stand we got to stand the bible says when you've done all to stand stand but we have to trust in the lord's work that he is working in the midst of our battles it doesn't mean we just sit on the couch and do nothing taking shelter doesn't mean we do nothing it means we're actively saying i am safe in you god i'm not safe in my addictions i'm not safe and numbing out i'm not safe in checking out i'm not safe and disconnecting i'm safe in you and i'm going to learn what it means to be connected to you in safety number 10 what you're going to need is you're going to need this is where the rubber meets the road where the overcomers really rise up is you're going to need to mature and grow in the midst of the challenge not i'll be better once the challenge is over i used to hear in my pastoring so many times people would say oh i just want to get through this and they'd miss the jewels of growth available right now and so in the midst of the battle david's going teach me to do your will teach me to do to live in christians get so obsessed over god's will and and and sometimes we we get so obsessed about it in a way it's it's defeating it's not empowering david said teach me your ways like like what's your heart in this situation you know we we look at will as like go down the street do this do that it becomes so it becomes god micromanaging us david wants to get god's heart when you see my situation god what's your heart what's your mindset in where i'm at now what's what's helping him he says you're my god your spirit is good so again if you're interacting with a god who leaves you hanging is not good and is not there that's going to impact even subjects like your will your heart he says lead me in the land of uprightness so i'm gonna make it my heart be to grow in the misses to be teachable many people are going through challenges today but they're not teachable because there's stuff you need to learn you don't know and the trial is an invitation for you to learn it to bring it out the trial is the place where god is bringing an incubator it's the laboratory of your greatest growth now we just want to escape trials we want to escape hardship escape suffering instead why don't you just lean into it lean into it stop running from it lean into it and say god i humble myself and this is the time for me to mature and grow and let who you are shine like never before number 11 i need to experience revival don't we david says revive me o lord for your name's sake for your righteousness sake bring my soul out of trouble he's saying revive me that word revive a lot of times it gets used like revival we think of like church services and we think of like lots of people attending and and these moves of god that's revival but revival just means to restore to life it means restoring something bringing it back to an original intent with life right and our battles and our struggles can take the life out of us but i love how the word revive it speaks of to to live to have life to remain alive to sustain life to live prosperly prosperously to be quickened to be restored to life or health to be quickened from sickness from discouragement from faintness from death to restore to life i can breathe again living fully alive we did a podcast series a while back my wife and i on living from a heart that's fully alive and life has a way of chipping away at life and life more abundantly be aware of the thief who comes to steal kill and destroy jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly and david says revive me this isn't about a church service this isn't about a growing gathering it's about you and your inner world connecting to your heart in the midst of your pain and sometimes weeping sometimes sobbing through sometimes processing it out sometimes facing pain leaning into the difficulties letting god work in you and in it true life comes and restores you now the restoration isn't just back to the beginning it's restoration back to an upgraded model better than it was before and david says you know what god i know who you are and so i want to remind you this is about your reputation this is a phrase used in the bible a lot for your namesake for your righteousness sake there's an interesting art that a lot of people don't understand where prayer can often be an act of reminding god of who he is now is god up there going oh lost my keys i don't know you know i forgot about these people i don't know what i'm doing no but he set prayer into motion to be our activity to express to him back what he has said to us you see this is why the enemy wants to steal your prayer life and steal your interaction with god and defeat it because when we pray our prayers are lifted up to the heavens they mean something those intercessions they don't mean nothing in fact many of you have stepped into blessing because someone prayed and someone prayed consistently a lot for you and you don't even know it they didn't get any credit for it and they didn't you know post it on social media they just prayed and david is recognizing sometimes when we pray we are echoing who god is and god in many situations is waiting for a believer who just comes into agreement with who he is and echoes the prayer into the heavenlies and he goes there's my boy there's my girl that's what i'm looking for but see we get stuck in our challenges go forget it god said listen he doesn't work i don't even know whatever and look around we live in a sea of humanity where that's how people are responding to what they're going through david's like revive me i gotta wake up that's what revival does wake up mark dejesus wake up have an awakening to who you are where you are and the potential within you he is here he is with me and in this challenge i'm gonna have some bad days i'm gonna have some tears i'm gonna have some i don't know where i'm going some days of depression some days of despair some days of absolute heartache but i'm gonna rebound and i'm gonna find god in the midst of it and it's been one of the greatest things i've been able to experience in my life is being honest about where i am and and just staying in it with god and you see the breakthrough and you see the growth and i'm a different person than i ever was 15 years ago or 20 years ago or 25 years ago because of this understanding i'm sharing with you here today david's going this is about your reputation this isn't about me this isn't about woo king david this is your namesake maybe you need to pray today father do a work in my life in the name of jesus for your namesake this is you this is you this is about to remind god of who he is because he is faithful and he holds to his word number 12 is very simple very very simple and david's expression here is kind of interesting because he doesn't tie this with a bow it's not like a nice little beautiful story happy ending here we go now in a lot of psalms david closes him out he makes the turn and comes about well he's throwing up another thing here he says in verse 12 in your mercy cut off my enemies a disclosure right maybe some of you are praying that and maybe some of you need some relationship changes maybe the attacks in your life mean reveal to you it's time to move on you're asking you know a lot of christians ask god release me show me give me confirmation it's like what else do you need this person's toxic they're a mocker they're a scoffer they're a fool they're not they're not wanting the things of the kingdom of god they're not safe and david's like these people need to be cut off and i'm asking you i'm your servant i'm your servant fighting battles of righteousness and i'm asking destroy all the works of what's being done against me because i need to know you have my back that you got me in this now in many of the old testament scriptures when they would talk about their enemies we can learn today yes it can mean actual people enemies but if you apply it to the spiritual lens of the enemy who seeks to come against you in your prayer god would you protect us push back and destroy the works of the enemy because we're called to love people but it's about the enemy at work within them you see the new testament brings greater precision to these concepts because paul says you don't wrestle against flesh and blood david was like that person's my enemy but really there's an invisible enemy paul says you know your battle is never with a human being even though you think it is it's against principalities powers rulers spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places that's where your battle is so but in the moment he says he says i need your mercy because hey i'm your servant i need your compassion on me in this time i need to know you have my back it's a key word here now what's mercy that's god's compassion on you while you're suffering while you're struggling folks it's okay to ask for justice we live in a time and a season in our lives in the world where there's a cry for justice a cry for justice god work your justice let truth be executed don't ever stop that don't ever stop being that kind of person i remember times and seasons in my life and a couple situations where i was had some really difficult people i was working with and that i had to be around for certain seasons of my life and i remember moments like this where god do something about this and i i remember walking through many of the things i've shared in one through 12 in in today's talk and i remember someone said to me you know what mark that situation you're in god sees it and god's either going to move you up and out and move you on or he's going to move that person out of the way just keep growing in who you are it doesn't it doesn't mean you don't need to step out of toxic relationships or things like that but there's such a divine work when we let god process out the things and that came true person moved out of the way it moved forward i had it a number of times happen in my life but i let myself grow in the incubator there's some situations where i had to move on and i made the decision to move on there's other times where it just literally opened up for me because i just let god do the work in my life right so don't don't avoid the decisions you need to make but you also need to connect to god has your back to connect to the empowerment that he has for you it's okay to be honest it's okay to go i need justice god do something here it's okay to go you know these people that this this situation this isn't good this isn't healthy it's okay to go hey i'm a part of a group that's really toxic i need to move on it's all right but are you willing to process through the things i talked about in the previous verses david doesn't just put it in a perfect bow but it helps us to know we're all in process in our journey of praying connecting to god and learning how to process through these challenging seasons of our life if this was a a blessing to your life consider a one-time donation consider becoming a regular supporter if this video blessed your life if this audio blessed your life please let me know how it did and that would greatly encourage me and in what god is doing in and through me but what i'd like to do is i'd like to just take a moment and just pray for you father there are so many people right now that are facing challenges of many kinds and i want to pray that god instead of narrowing in and just obsessing and focusing in on what this particular problem is help us to take a step back to look at the forest rather than narrowing in on one tree branch help us to see and connect to what you're doing help us to connect to your presence help us to connect to the proximity that you're here help us to process through the emotions of what we're feeling what we're struggling with what we need so that then we can connect to who you are and yeah it's okay to say god work in these situations where the enemy or enemies are rising up against me work there's so much i can do sometimes we just have to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of god and say there's a work against me destroy it god i pray that you would give courage and strength to know we're fighting a battle but you're with us we're not fighting alone father you're with us jesus you're with us holy spirit you are with us the cloud of witnesses in heaven are cheering us on those who've gone before us have left a legacy that we're stepping in as overcomers and i want to let what i'm going through be the incubator for my growth rather than the thing that will take me out and i pray you do the same for those who receive this word i thank you so much for it i see all these things in jesus name amen god bless you all see you next time

Channel: Mark DeJesus

Views: 1,702

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Psalm 143, Psalms, Life Challenges, Trials, Overcoming, Devotional

Id: cY-_y4spObA

Length: 52min 11sec (3131 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 22 2021