At Your Wit's End (Part 12)

Jehoshaphat stood in the place where God commanded and began to pray. His prayer changed his focus from the problem to the promises when he declared, “You are our God.  Our eyes are upon You!”

Jehoshaphat’s prayer did not just focus on his present dilemma. Instead, he turned his attention "from now to then" or from the present problem to the past and the future.

Moses constantly encouraged Israel in the Book of Deuteronomy to remember God’s  faithfulness in the past and it is well for us to take these admonitions to heart:

4:9 "Only take heed to yourself, and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life."

4:23 "Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you."

6:12 "Then beware, lest you forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage."

8:12-14 "Lest,  when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them, when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage."

8:18 "And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day."

These admonitions confirm there is a danger in forgetting what God has done for us in the past. We are to diligently beware lest we forget that God delivered us from the bondage of sin. We are to acknowledge our covenant relationship with Him, recalling all He has done in our behalf. The Psalmist David encourages us in Psalm 105:5 to:

"Remember His marvelous works which He has done, his wonders, and the judgments of His mouth."

Some people know God by His Words but have never experienced His work in their lives.  We must come to know Him by both His works and His Words.

-When you confront problems, begin to meditate on His works:

Psalms 143:5 "I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Your works; I muse on the work of Your hands." 

-When you are discouraged, recall God’s faithfulness to you:

Psalms 42:6 "O my God, my soul is cast down within me; therefore I will remember You from the land of the Jordan, and from the heights of Hermon, from the Hill Mizar."

Psalms 77:11 "I will remember the works of the Lord; surely I will remember Your wonders of old."

-Focus on the inherent power of God’s name:

Psalms 20:7 "Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the Lord our God."

-Praise God for blessings experienced in the past:

Psalms 103:2 "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits."

-In the face of desperate circumstances, declare God’s promises:

Psalm 119:83 "For I have become like a wineskin in smoke, yet I do not forget Your statutes."

Psalm 119:93 "I will never forget Your precepts, for by them You have given me life."

When David was soundly defeated by the enemy at Ziklag his wife and family were taken captive, the city was destroyed, and his own men talked of stoning him to death. David encouraged himself in the Lord.  He didn’t wait for someone else to do it because there was no one. He simply did it himself. When you face the devastation of the enemy, take responsibility for encouraging yourself in the Lord.  Don’t wait for your pastor or a friend to do it. Encourage yourself  by recalling the Words and works of God from your past.

When you learn how to focus on what God did in the past, you actually renew your hope for the future:

Psalms 78:7 "That they may set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments.."

 The Apostle Paul declared in Romans 8:18:

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."

Paul learned to change his focus from the present to the future. This is why he could boldly declare:

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 "Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,  While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

Don't focus on your present circumstances. Open your spiritual eyes to acknowledge what God did in the past and to see by faith what He will do in your future.

Faith, hope, and love are declared to be the greatest three abiding virtues of Christianity in 1 Corinthians 13 and although we hear numerous messages on faith and love, we rarely hear much about hope. The Greek word for hope is "elpo" which means "to look forward to with pleasurable confidence and expectation."

The writer of Proverbs observes that “hope deferred makes the heart sick” in Proverbs 13:12 and Jeremiah describes the effects of hopelessness on the soul in Lamentations 3:18-20:

"My strength and my hope have perished from the Lord.  Remembering my affliction and roaming, the wormwood and the gall. My soul still remembers and sinks within me."

When Jeremiah focused on his problems he was bitter and depressed, but when he focused on God's goodness in the past and the hope of what the Lord would do in the future, his attitude changed. Jeremiah said in Verses 21 and 22:

"This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not."

Hope is vital to spiritual stability because those who no longer hope or decide "there is no hope" turn back from following God:

Jeremiah 18:12 "And they said, "That is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one obey the dictates of his evil heart."

The Bible declares that the misplaced hope of the wicked fails, as does that of the hypocrite.Those who place their hope in riches will be deceived and the hope of unjust men will perish. Paul further describes the effects of hopelessness in Ephesians 2:12:

"At that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world."

Hopelessness will destroy a people, but faith in tomorrow resurrects dreams. God hasn't failed you before and He certainly won't fail you in the days to come.