Gregory Dickow - What to Do When Things Feel Hopeless
Time is really not your problem. Time is in God's hands, and anything in God's hands can be multiplied. Anything in God's hands can be stretch. Anything in God's hands can be healed. Anything in God's hands can be restored. I love what? How? David prays in Psalm 13. I've prayed like this many times. I've had moments and seasons like this. Psalm 13. How long? Oh, Lord. How long? Well, how long? Oh, Lord. Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face? Me? Look at the emotional condition David's in. He is, like, wiped out. He is weary. He is angry. He is disappointed. He is disillusioned. He's mad at God. How long, Lord? You don't think he was like, how long ago, Lord? He's like, Bloody dang it. How long he's mad. You. You're going to forget me forever. You're going to hide your face from me.
How long do I have to take counsel in my soul? Having sorrow in my heart every day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me? God, you've got to consider me and answer me. Oh, Lord, in light in my eyes. Because if you don't, my eyes are going to close. And I'm going to sleep the sleep of death. Listen to how he prays. We have forgotten. We have missed the concept of praying from a place of just utter honest transparency. It's okay to say how long. God, I'm really mad. I'm really disappointed. How long. How long? How long? How long is my enemy going to say that they've. I've overcome him. How long will my enemy rejoice over me? When I moved. Verse five.
You see, there's always a verses one through four before there's a verse five who's living in some verse 1 to 4 right now. You wish you were in verse five, but you're going through some verse two in verse three How long? Oh, Lord, dang it. But I have trusted in your loving kindness, in your compassion, in your tender mercies. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. You know, you can believe two things at the same time. I'm really going through it. And I don't feel like God is involved at all. And I'm going to trust in his loving kindness anyway. It's okay if you're if you're always trying to sanitize your life and make it so that you never feel these things. That's just fake. That's not real.
You will feel these things, but you can choose. But because that cancels out what you said, how long? Oh, Lord, what How long is my enemy going to triumph over me? I'm sickened by it. I'm in sorrow because of it. I'm depressed because of it. But. But I have trusted in your love and kindness. I'm trusting you, Lord. I'm going to trust God. My heart will rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because He has dealt powerfully with me. This is how it ends, everybody. This is how it ends. This I will sing to everybody. Say I will sing to the Lord because He has dealt fully with me. He has dealt wonderfully with me. This is how it ends. Come on, everybody say that. This is how it ends. It.
You see, trusting God doesn't mean you're not dealing with some really bad stuff. Trust in God means you in a seeing anyway. Trusting God means you're going to praise him anyway. Trusting God means you're going to declare it anyway. Trusting God means you going to show up for church anyway. Trusting God means you're going to be generous anyway. Trust in God means you're going to serve and put a smile on your face anyway. You're not being a hypocrite. You're being a man or woman of faith. And David didn't have this happen just once.
So many of his psalms are from this place of despair and brokenness. Psalm 56, verse three My enemies pursue me all day long. Many proudly assail me when I'm afraid I will put my trust in you, in God, whose word I praise in God I trust I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? What can mere man do to me? You. Time is in God's hands. Time is a created quantity. It's a created thing. God created time. God didn't have time. He created it for us. Time is irrelevant to God. A day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day to him. So he doesn't look at things the way we look at things. Time is something that he can create more of. He can shrink it. He can make it longer. He can make things happen supernaturally fast against natural, universal principles. He can defy gravity.
We have, as humans, defied gravity with the law of thrust and lift. That's how every airplane is able to take off hundreds, thousands of pounds, thousands of pounds that this plane is made of. And yet it defies gravity. One discovery, one breakthrough discovery defies another discovery. We will realize that prayer and trust in God will be a breakthrough of thrust and lift like the plane was to those that started out walking. The defying gravity is a modern day miracle that man created. But God had had that law in existence the whole time. God has been answering prayers for Century. His years maybe have not gone up and thrusted and lifted above your circumstances. But you can start now. You can start any time to pray. You can start any time to talk to God. We know how to talk to him. He's ours. He's father and he's waiting for us in heaven.
So ask him boldly for today's provision. Ask him boldly for what it is you need in your life. Ask him boldly because he's your father. But time is really not your problem. Time is in God's hands, and anything in God's hands can be multiplied by anything in God's hands can be stretch. Anything in God's hands can be healed. Anything in God's hands can be restored.
The real goal in life is not to have more time or more money. It's to have more trust in God's hands and put more things in God's hands. The more things you put in His hands, the more miracles are going to happen. You give him five loaves and two fish. You can feed thousands, you give him 20 loaves and 20 fish. You're going to feed millions. Who knows? You see anything in God's hands is more powerful than when it's in your hands. If we will take care of the trusting, God will take care of the timing.