Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Pt. 2 — Morning Devotions

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Transcript

If you joined me yesterday morning, I was talking about finding God between a rock and a hard place – using that expression. Sometimes we’re caught between a rock and a hard place, or our lives become a rock and a hard place. I want to suggest today, don’t let the outer circumstances of your life be the final word.

Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Pt. 1 — Morning Devotions

If our world is in chaos or our life is complicated, out of control, let’s remember one thing – that God is still in control, that God will never leave us or forsake us.

So the outer circumstances of my life and yours actually don’t have to be the inner realities. And when you think like that, I think you have a better chance of grappling with life. God is bigger than our own difficulties. It was like the psalmist who cried out in Psalm 25, Come, Lord, he said, show me your mercy. I’m helpless, overwhelmed. I’m in deep distress, and my problems go from bad to worse. Save me, Lord, from the war. See my sorrows, feel my pain and forgive my sins.

A good prayer from someone who is facing bad times.

Can I suggest that you ask God for help, because it says in Philippians 4 from the New Testament, Pray about everything with thankful hearts. Offer up your prayers and your requests to God. Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand, and this peace will control the way you think and feel.

You might have heard of James Dobson, the Christian psychologist. He had a heart attack one day that led him to be in a cardiac care unit on his own. He was frightened.

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He said at first God gave him what he describes as an inexplicable peace, but he felt anxious after that. He said, Lord, you know where I am, and you know that I’m upset. I’m very lonely. Could you please send someone who can help me?

And he said not long after that, Jack Hayford, who was a pastor from the other side of Los Angeles, walked in. And Dobson said, Why did you come to see me today? And he said, Well, the Lord told me that you were lonely.

So isn’t it wonderful how these things can happen, how God can actually tell other people? Yes, it would be good for you to see him. So when I pray about my troubles, well, God will either take them away and we read about that in the Bible, or God will give us the grace to handle the troubles, and that happened with Paul in what we call the thorn in the flesh.

We’re talking about God’s time frame, not our own.

There can be a load that we carry, and there’s lots of verses in the Bible that talk about casting off your anxiety because God cares for you. And sometimes you can pray about a problem but still carry that burden around with you, can’t you? Well, we’ve all done that, I guess. But God actually wants to carry the load for us. Close your eyes. Think about something really good and just in your mind picture Jesus coming into the room.

Hand over the worries that you’ve got, as it were in a box and let him take it away from you.

So if you say, well, look, you don’t know – my problems are more than I can handle. Well, God can take it over. Through Him, we can do all things. The Bible says we don’t know whether God will take the trial away or whether God will give us the grace to handle it, but either way we can experience the peace of God. One of the things, of course, that causes people to stay in between a rock and a hard place is a bitterness that builds up in their lives.

You can either be happy or bitter, you can’t be both. Bitterness can be directed at God. It was Doctor Jim Conway, a Christian pastor and counsellor who saw his daughter. Her leg had to be amputated in hospital. He struggled with anger and resentment. He said the most important thing I learned, I became aware there are only two choices that I could make about this terrible thing for my daughter, he said. One was to continue in my anger at God and follow that path of despair.

Or he said I could let go and say, well, I don’t know how all this fits in. I don’t understand it. I’m not going to ask for an explanation, but I’ve chosen Lord to accept the fact that you are God and I’m your servant instead of the other way round. And he said, I left it there and God’s peace. So don’t let bitterness swallow you up, as it were. Allow God to come through, and God can do that.

Let’s Pray

Heavenly Father, sometimes we feel we’re caught. We just pray for your peace and your blessing. And to calm us in each circumstance of life, amen.

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