Seeking God in Times of Trouble

Introduction

Following on from my recent post on unexpected encounters I wanted to look at times when people in the Bible sought God with expectation, often in times of trouble or distress. I think such a study will help us in our daily lives; after all I’m sure many (all?) of us have known times of trouble or distress. It is in such moments that we cry out to God with hope, and with expectation. PersonallyI have known many times like this, and prayed many prayers like this. The difficult thing is continuing to trust God knows best, that He has a perfect plan, and that we don’t know everything He does.

To give an example of this from my own life I can share a little of the story of my Dad’s long period of unemployment. We had moved a long way from home in obedience to God calling us. Following the move came 9 years of unemployment. In that time countless prayers were prayed. Prayers of real anguish and distress. Prayers for employment, not to mention prayers for more immediate provision (all of which were met, praise God). Yet the answer didn’t come for 9 years. When it came the eventual result was the creation of a charity serving young people, rescuing them and turning their lives around. The impact of this work was massive.

As I think back over those 9 years I wonder what if Dad had quickly got a job like the one he left when we moved/ Well, all those young people, all those lives would not have been transformed. You see, God had a plan. It was very hard to walk in it, but it was worth it. I thank God for His wisdom, His plan, and His provision. I thank my parents for their obedience, and for showing me what it means to walk faithfully with Jesus no matter what.

With that said I am walking through challenges with friends and family even now. Times of trouble and distress. In it all I am trying to continue to trust God. When I find that hard I remember stories like the one I just shared, I tell myself of all that I have seen God do in my life, especially the times when the plan was not what I thought should happen.

As we look together at various accounts of seeking God across the Bible, remember that today you can trust God as you seek Him.

Hezekiah

In Isaiah 36 - 37 we read the story of Hezekiah, the King of Israel. We are not kings, but there are still lessons we can learn from these chapters. I recommend you read these chapters now, take time to consider the story.

In chapter 35 we read of the challenge that comes to Hezekiah and the people of Israel. A challenge from Assyria. There are a couple of points I’d like to pull out from this that I think can help us identify times when we might face such challenges. The challenge is not really one of war, though that is the threat, it is really about who the people of Israel will trust. Will they trust God in the face of this adversity, or will they abandon God and follow their adversary? When we read the question in those terms it seems clear what the right choice is. Unfortunately those are not the terms they faced, and they are not the terms we most readily see when we face times of trouble.

“Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the King of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then everyone of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern, until I come and take you to a land like your own – a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.”

Isaiah 36: 17

The challenge is very subtle. The people of Israel are faced with a military power who, on the one hand is full of threats (Isaiah 36: 12) and on the other is making generous sounding offers. This subtlety is the challenge, this has been the approach of the enemy since Genesis 3, a tactic of causing us to question what God has promised, and to think that we are better off trying to fulfil the promises ourselves. Ultimately it is always about leading us to think that we are better off if we are God.

The King of Assyria’s officers go on in their speech to try to cast doubt on God. Across Isaiah 36: 18-20 they claim that God cannot save Israel because the gods of other nations have failed. This claim is based on a faulty comparison. Casting doubt like this is not a new tactic, and it is a tactic the enemy still uses today.

Hezekiah had already instructed the people not to reply (Isaiah 36: 21), a very wise move, and one we can learn from. If we think about Adam and Eve in the garden, if they had ignored the serpent, and just walked away things may have unfolded differently. When we encounter such lies, such temptations, arguing back rarely works, we are better off walking away from that conversation and going to God to talk about it. It makes me think of the self defense class my daughter used to go to – the best form of self defense is to run away. This is true in Spiritual defense too.

Beyond this instruction Hezekiah sought God. His very first action is to humble himself and seek God. God responds and rescues His people. The lesson for us to learn is to seek God in times of trouble, and to continue to trust Him no matter what.

Practical Application

• Seek God for any areas of trouble or distress you may be facing right now.

• Ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen you so that you may stand firm and not be led away by empty promises or false comparisons.

Nehemiah

The book of Nehemiah is a wonderful account of God’s people returning to Jerusalem and rebuilding the city. If you haven’t read it recently I really encourage you to engage with it, I’m sure God will speak to you through this book.

The book starts with Nehemiah in the citadel of Susa, in Hanani. He is the cup bearer to the King. One of Nehemiah’s brothers, along with some others, arrive in Hanani, and Nehemiah asks them about the remnant that survived the exile. As cup bearer to the King he had found a good position, he is trusted in this role. He is in the court of the King, a position he holds because he is trustworthy, and because his family had not previously taken the chance to return to Judah (See Goldingay, J. An Introduction to the Old Testament, Exploring text, approaches, and issues, SPCK, 2016, p 273). His immediate concern is not how he has done, he is not trying to show that the decision of his family was right, or prove any kind of point here. His focus, his concern is how others are doing. So often we can be too focussed on showing how we are doing, presenting an overly polished version of reality that we do not ask about others. Nehemiah challenges us here and shows us a better way.

“They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down. And its gates have been burned with fire.””

Nehemiah 1:3

Having asked, he receives this answer; all is not well. It can be hard to hear this. We can ask others how they are and when we get the truth it can be hard to know what to do. Personally, I struggle with this. I want to leap ahead to solutions. If I heard this answer, if I were in Nehemiah’s shoes I would begin planning a building project. A re-build does happen, but it is not the first response.

“When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.”

Nehemiah 1: 4

The first response is one of real encouragement. Nehemiah enters the distress. Not only that, He pours out the distress to God. The prayer, in Nehemiah 1: 5-10, is worth reading and meditating on.

What we see from Nehemiah is empathy and correct action. First he engages with the distress, taking it upon himself. Then he pours it out to God. When we hear of other people’s distress, when we are in distress ourselves, this is our first action – pour it out to God. Yes, our prayers should be full of thankfulness and praise, but that does not mean they cannot contain sadness and hurt. God wants to hear it all, He wants us to be completely real and authentic with Him.

So, Nehemiah presents us with the challenge of truly engaging with others and of being completely real and genuine. He also gives us a practical model to follow; before doing anything else take our distress and trouble to God.

Practical Application

• Ask the Holy Spirit to help you be genuine and authentic in all areas of your life.

• Pour out to God your distress today, whether it is your own or the distress of others you are sharing, pour it out to Him.

Daniel

There are many examples we could look at from the book of Daniel. We might look at him in the lion’s den, or perhaps his friends in the furnace. Both are situations of trouble. But what I want to look at happens before those events and tells us a lot about Daniel, and teaches us a lot for our own situations. I’d like us to look at Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2.

The King has a troubling dream and he is looking for an explanation. He has also decided that his magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and astrologers must tell him his dream as well as the interpretation. This puts these people in a very difficult position.

“If you do not tell me the dream, there is just one penalty for you. You have conspired to tell me misleading and wicked things hoping the situation will change. So then, tell me the dream, and I will know you can interpret it for me.”

Daniel 2: 9 

I can see where the King is coming from, even if I think the request is unreasonable. However, it cannot be done. Or, as we shall see, it cannot be done without God. The King then calls for the execution of this group, Daniel 2: 12-13. This is where Daniel and his friends enter the story.

On learning of this execution order Daniel goes before the King, he chooses to get involved, he puts himself in the place of danger on behalf of others. He gets in the way of, and prevents injustice. That is a challenge for all of us, most of the time this will not involve a threat to life, but it can still be a massive challenge. So, how does Daniel do it?

In Daniel 1 we read of his commitment to God, and we see how God protected him and the official overseeing them. This is a lesson Daniel carries forward, an experience that tells him he can trust God. As we’ve said already, reminding ourselves of all that God has done is a powerful way to build trust and fuel faith. As I mentioned at the start my family endured a long period of unemployment. From that time we have many, many stories of God’s incredible provision. Each time a fresh challenge hit we could look at what God had done before and know we could trust Him again. Then, many years later, I had a very brief spell of unemployment. But I knew God was with me in it. God provided, He got me the job I have today. All of our experiences teach us that we can trust God.

As we get back to chapter 2 we have to ask how does Daniel manage to meet the challenge of knowing the dream and interpreting it?

“Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.”

Daniel 2: 17-18

There are two main lessons we can learn here. First Daniel shared the burden with his friends. Second, they prayed.

It is vital we have people we can share our troubles and distress with, and it is essential that they stand with us in prayer. Sharing our troubles, our fears, our very real concerns is only part of the solution. It helps, but if all we do is talk eventually the best we can expect is that we all have our troubles to carry and someone else’s too. It is when we pray that we find rest. For when we pray we can cast all our troubles, all our fears, and our deepest distress on to the one who is strong enough to carry it all. When we do that together, in real friendship, we find that we can carry on even when we don’t get the answer we want, when we want it. This is what Daniel and his friends are doing here – supporting one another in prayer.

The result of this is that God gives Daniel the dream and the interpretation. The King spares the life of Daniel, his friends, and, seemingly, those who had previously failed the test. God has answered the prayer with His abundance.

“During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision.Then Daniel praised the God of heaven”

Daniel 2:19

“Daniel replied, “No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the King the mystery he has asked about, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries.”

Daniel 2: 27-28a

Daniel gives all the glory to God. His first response is praise. Often our first response is not praise, sometimes it is not even acknowledgement. What we read here in Daniel 2: 20-23 is a heartfelt outpouring of praise. Then, before the King, we see Daniel saying that this is all God. When we see God move our first response should be one of praise and of declaration.

Practical Application

• Consider who supports you, and who you support in prayer, give thanks to God for these friends.

• Look over answered prayers and give praise to God for all that He has done.

• If you are facing difficult situations right now, call your friends together to pray.

Jairus’ Daughter and the Woman with Bleeding

We read this account in Matthew 9: 20-22, Mark 5: 25-34, and Luke 8: 43-48 and they can teach us a lot about coming to Jesus.

In these passages there are two stories for us to look at. Let’s start with Jairus’ daughter.

“Then a man named Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, came and fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with him to come to his house because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying.”

Luke 8: 41-42a

When we consider the action of Jairus here we need to notice who he was; he was a ruler in the synagogue. Typically those in such a position were not followers or supporters of Jesus. Generally they would have been opposed to Him, yet here Jairus’ desperation has brought him before Jesus. He does not come with demands, or trying to claim any authority or right. He falls at Jesus’ feet, he comes with humility. This submissive position shows that he is acknowledging Jesus, recognising that Jesus is superior to him, that Jesus is his only hope.

This teaches us that we should come to Jesus with a posture of humility. We can come before Him, we can lay even our most desperate requests before Him, but we do so with humility. We must acknowledge that He is the greater one, and that we need Him. We see this attitude from the other person in this story; the woman with bleeding.

We don’t know who this woman was but we must recognise her distress. All three gospels tell us that this woman had been bleeding for twelve years, Mark and Luke tell us that no-one could heal her. Mark says that she had “suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had” (Mark 5: 26). One thing we must remember here is the Old Testament law around bleeding. Not only was this horrendous condition a significant physical problem, it also cast her outside of society, and isolated her away from any form of community.

“When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her monthly period or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge, just as in the days of her period.”

Leviticus 15: 25

For twelve years this woman has been deemed unclean and anything and anyone she has touched has become unclean. This is a place of real and deep distress. How does she handle this? She learns that Jesus is coming to town and realises that this is her chance, this is a moment when she could be healed.

“When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.””

Mark 5: 27-28

What we have translated here as “she thought” is, in the Greek, an imperfect active indicative verb. That means that the verb describes an ongoing action. She didn’t just think this once, most likely she kept on thinking it, repeating it to herself as a mantra, a way of building her faith and helping her to make the difficult push through the crowd.

I think we can all learn from this. I’m sure we all have ongoing, or long running situations where we need Jesus to act. Do we have this attitude of hope and belief that if we can just touch the outer clothes? She didn’t press in to grab Jesus, just a touch and she was healed. For us it is key to see her persistence and hope. She fought through that crowd. We may put barriers in our own way, reasons why we shouldn’t ask’ or doubts that it will work. We need to push past these – “if I just touch…, if I just touch…, if I just touch…”.

It is also worth looking at Jesus’ response. She is healed but she doesn’t just slip away. Jesus calls her forward, this may have been embarrassing at first. People may have recognised her, or started muttering, yet it is vital that she is called out.

“He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

Mark 5: 34

Jesus is declaring her clean in the presence of the whole crowd. He has graciously restored her to community life, He sets her free, and sends her away with real peace. This is the King we bring our requests and petitions to. When we seek breakthrough we come to the one who can do it. The one who does it with grace, love, compassion, and the ability to achieve complete restoration beyond what we may have asked for.

Practical Application

• Spend some time acknowledging who Jesus is, like Jairus come before him with humility.

• What situations are you seeking God for? Present them like this woman, with hope and belief. As you repeat that hope, allow your faith to grow.

Paul and Silas in Prison

In Acts 16: 16-40 we read the account of Paul and Silas in prison. They have released a slave girl from spiritual oppression and, as a result, have been flogged and imprisoned. They are in an inner cell with their feet in the stocks awaiting further trial and punishment. This is a dire situation. It seems they are in this place as a direct result of doing what God has asked them to do.

Having obeyed God and found themselves in this situation they do not grumble. There is no sense that they sat around complaining.

“After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.”

Acts 16: 24-25

Paul and Silas do not turn on each other, and they do not turn on God. Maybe they let out some frustration, but ultimately they were worshipping God. They knew only God could save them, and they trusted that He would. It can be all too easy in times of trouble and distress to point the finger of blame at each other or at God. I know I have done that at various times. But it is so much better, so much more freeing to not do that.

As a practical example, I work as a software engineer on a high functioning team. We all make mistakes, that’s part of life. But when we do there is never a round of blaming and finger pointing. Rather, there is admitting the mistake and working together to solve it. This is much healthier, and leads to a better result. It is what we see here. Paul and Silas stick together and they stick with God. Silas doesn’t say to Paul “if you’d just kept quiet, minded your own business, then we could be at the place of prayer now, but oh no you had to open your mouth!” This does not happen. They stick together and, in worship, they stick with God.

What happens during this time of worship is that God breaks in, and breaks them out. God answers them in their time of trouble.

“Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose.”

Acts 16: 25-26

God brings freedom as they seek Him. 

The jailer then gets an unexpected encounter, first with all the prisoners who are still there, verse 27-28, and then with God in verse 29-34. This first of all ensures his life is spared, he won’t be killed for failing in his duties, and his family won’t be left without a father. Then the second encounter ensures his life, and the lives of his family, into eternity as they give their lives to God.

When we call on God in times of trouble, when we worship Him in our place of distress we can trust Him to answer and to bring about the best solution. The lesson for us is to worship and pray in times of trouble. It is ok to let frustration and anger out, it is a momentary release. The real power is in worship and prayer, acknowledging who God is and trusting His ways not our own.

The lesson for us is to worship and pray in times of trouble. It is ok to let frustration and anger out, it is a momentary release. The real power is in worship and prayer, acknowledging who God is and trusting His ways not our own.

Practical Application

• Ask the Holy Spirit to give you a heart of worship such that it becomes your default response.

• If you are facing a time of trouble now choose to spend time in worship, let your gaze lift to Jesus, the one who can save you.