Beth Moore — From Cast Down to Ecstatic Joy
Where is your -- it has to be "your" -- it has to be "your" because what the enemy does is he makes you feel responsible for God. This is important. Where is your God? So suddenly we're going like, "Where are you?" And what the enemy is hoping is that you and I are going to say, "Because honestly, if I was God, I would do better than that. If I was God, I wouldn't have done that." You see? Put it on us that we're responsible for him. We have to answer for him.
I've got something to tell you today and do you know it's going to bother some of you because at first you're going to think, maybe that could be heresy. But I want you to think this through. I want you to take it to your Bibles, not to your social groups, not to the world, but to the Word of God and see if you can come up with a different answer than this. But to me, it's great news and here's what it is. We are not responsible for God! God is responsible for us. Anybody? Anybody? Just like set me free! Set me free!
Do you know what that could do to me to get through my head? I don't have to be responsible for him. I don't have an infinite mind. I don't have his kind of wisdom. I cannot see the end from the beginning, as scripture says God can. I cannot begin. His ways are higher than my ways. I don't have to be responsible for him. He's responsible for me. All I can say to him is this I know, my God will take care of his own, and for God so loved this world. It is not a God-forsaken world.
Not in a world where a cross was forced into the ground and a body was nailed upon that cross -- for God so loved this world that he gave his only begotten son. He is responsible for us and that is good news to me. That is good news.
Maybe it is not God that's got us down, maybe it's somebody else. Somebody has hurt us, somebody has rejected us, somebody has betrayed us. Or somebody has not noticed us, which can be the worst of all!
Or maybe we're down because somebody else is down. So we're just going to get down with them until they get up. But listen, two down people are never better than one.
I hate to have a great grasp of the obvious but all you've got with two down people is you've got twice as many people who are down than to start with. So if you're going to stay down there until they get up, for some folks, see, they've got all your attention.
They're enjoying it. Maybe not -- but I'm just going to tell you, there are some folk that really enjoy, they're down and they're really, really, really getting some good press out of you because you're all down there with them.
I mean you won't even leave them at home for ten minutes -- for goodness sake they might not be able to get up and get their own water. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Go out and get the mail, get you some sunshine. Anybody know what I'm talking about? I'm just saying, we're just
going to sit down there with them.
I'm not saying leave them but I am saying show them how to get up. I am saying sometimes if we get out there and do it before them with compassion and love, but not down in that hole with them, sometimes it's because they're down there. And almost every time it's some kind of hope that's been deferred. Put your hope in God. Not in a thing to happen.
We so often -- I hoped in God. No, we were hoping for a thing. Just put your hope in me, I will see to it that your joy is restored, and how.
And that brings us to our third and final point in this present series. We've been talking about Psalms 42 and 43. Why so downcast, o my soul? We've been talking about this full stretch of the human soul all the way from downcast to ecstatic joy and we want some ecstatic joy back. One thing we've learned, if you're just tuning in with us, is that the trip from cast down to ecstatic joy -- tell me everybody -- can be what?
Quicker than you think. So don't despair because I prayed before I ever came on for this series that God would do a miraculous deliverance through this series. Honestly, he put an anointing on it. That people who have been down for years would find themselves, by the power of God, getting back up.