Sometimes

Sometimes people hurt you,

Sometimes life just sucks,

Sometimes we look around and feel so alone,

Sometimes you question why you are where you at,

Sometimes you wonder what's going on,

Sometimes its hard to see God working,

Sometimes you curse the day of your birth,

Sometimes your emotions take control and you don't know where they will be next,

Sometimes God seems so distant,

Sometimes it feels like people don't see what's right in front of them,

Sometimes you care so much for what seems like nothing,

Sometimes you want to just yell and be angry,

Sometimes life looks so grim,

BUT THEN you read things like

Psalm 5:11-12

¹¹ But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You;

Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them;

Let those also who love Your name

Be joyful in You.

¹² For You, O LORD, will bless the righteous;

With favor You will surround him as with a shield.

Psalm 138

¹ I will praise You with my whole heart;

Before the gods I will sing praises to You.

² I will worship toward Your holy temple,

And praise Your name

For Your lovingkindness and Your truth;

For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.

³ In the day when I cried out, You answered me,

And made me bold with strength in my soul.

⁴ All the kings of the earth shall praise You, O LORD,

When they hear the words of Your mouth.

⁵ Yes, they shall sing of the ways of the LORD,

For great is the glory of the LORD.

⁶ Though the LORD is on high,

Yet He regards the lowly;

But the proud He knows from afar.

⁷ Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me;

You will stretch out Your hand

Against the wrath of my enemies,

And Your right hand will save me.

⁸ The LORD will perfect that which concerns me;

Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever;

Do not forsake the works of Your hands.

Psalm 139

¹ O LORD, You have searched me and known me.

² You know my sitting down and my rising up;

You understand my thought afar off.

³ You comprehend my path and my lying down,

And are acquainted with all my ways.

⁴ For there is not a word on my tongue,

But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether.

⁵ You have hedged me behind and before,

And laid Your hand upon me.

⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

It is high, I cannot attain it.

⁷ Where can I go from Your Spirit?

Or where can I flee from Your presence?

⁸ If I ascend into heaven, You are there;

If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.

⁹ If I take the wings of the morning,

And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

¹⁰ Even there Your hand shall lead me,

And Your right hand shall hold me.

¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,”

Even the night shall be light about me;

¹² Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,

But the night shines as the day;

The darkness and the light are both alike to You.

¹³ For You formed my inward parts;

You covered me in my mother’s womb.

¹⁴ I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

Marvelous are Your works,

And that my soul knows very well.

¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from You,

When I was made in secret,

And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

¹⁶ Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.

And in Your book they all were written,

The days fashioned for me,

When as yet there were none of them.

¹⁷ How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!

How great is the sum of them!

¹⁸ If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;

When I awake, I am still with You.

¹⁹ Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God!

Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men.

²⁰ For they speak against You wickedly;

Your enemies take Your name in vain.

²¹ Do I not hate them, O LORD, who hate You?

And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?

²² I hate them with perfect hatred;

I count them my enemies.

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;

Try me, and know my anxieties;

²⁴ And see if there is any wicked way in me,

And lead me in the way everlasting.

and you realize that (even as I'm writing this sentence my heart is changing) the Lord my God, Jesus Christ, is working out Romans 8:28 in my life even when i can't see it and that fills me with so much JOY! I love God and I know that I am called to his purposes. What a wonderful security to know that he is working everything to good for me, and what better good is there than bringing glory to Jesus?! Sometimes I am like the Israelites when they were in the desert. Forgetting what the Lord has done for me and realizing that he has never not turned a situation to good. Life gets hard and wears you down but then you realize that the lord is doing something in your life. Mark Driscoll said in his sermon Pray Like Jesus: The High Priestly Prayer Pt. 1

"I am continually praying God when things don't go according to my plan let me know that its still your plan and let me not see it as an obstacle to glorify you but an opportunity to glorify you that your going to do something in me before you do something through me let me see in it how to honor you how to obey you how to serve you..."

What a perfect prayer that is. No matter what situation we are in are response should

be thank you JESUS! Thank you for caring enough to teach me even if it is hard! I will

leave you with this Spurgeon study from august 5th.

“We know that all things work together for good to them that love God.”

Romans 8:28

Upon some points a believer is absolutely sure. He knows, for instance, that God sits in the stern-sheets of the vessel when it rocks most. He believes that an invisible hand is always on the world’s tiller, and that wherever providence may drift, Jehovah steers it. That re-assuring knowledge prepares him for everything. He looks over the raging waters and sees the spirit of Jesus treading the billows, and he hears a voice saying, “It is I, be not afraid.” He knows too that God is always wise, and, knowing this, he is confident that there can be no accidents, no mistakes; that nothing can occur which ought not to arise. He can say, “If I should lose all I have, it is better that I should lose than have, if God so wills: the worst calamity is the wisest and the kindest thing that could befall to me if God ordains it.” “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God.” The Christian does not merely hold this as a theory, but he knows it as a matter of fact. Everything has worked for good as yet; the poisonous drugs mixed in fit proportions have worked the cure; the sharp cuts of the lancet have cleansed out the proud flesh and facilitated the healing. Every event as yet has worked out the most divinely blessed results; and so, believing that God rules all, that he governs wisely, that he brings good out of evil, the believer’s heart is assured, and he is enabled calmly to meet each trial as it comes. The believer can in the spirit of true resignation pray, “Send me what thou wilt, my God, so long as it comes from thee; never came there an ill portion from thy table to any of thy children.”

“Say not my soul, ‘From whence can God relieve my care?’ Remember that Omnipotence has servants everywhere. His method is sublime, his heart profoundly kind, God never is before his time, and never is behind.” Praise the Lord. Jesus is exalted on his throne and I get the chance to worship him! I pray that in your lives wether good or bad that you can realize and pray to God that he will give you the grace to praise and worship him in every situation. May God bless you and keep you! :-) peace, matt