From His Heart

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Is the word crisis a synonym for much of what happens in your life? Here's Pastor Jeff Shreve.

Speaker 2

You know what's sad is when you go through a crisis and you don't learn anything. You let the crisis go to waste because you're not learning anything.

It would be terrible to go through a crisis and not learn anything.

And God will let you just keep doing that until you finally come to the end and say, "Lord, teach me to do your will for you."

Speaker 1

Maybe you are in a crisis today, perhaps in your marriage, your family, your finances, or your health. And it's not just a little problem. It seems like a monumental and even insurmountable crisis. What are you going to do? Do you know how to pray in the midst of a critical situation?

This is from His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, and God has placed you here today to give you some keen insight about how to navigate a crisis, any crisis. The message is called "How to Pray in a Crisis." Now we began this message yesterday, describing three components to include in your prayers when you are facing overwhelming circumstances.

The lesson we're about to hear is the last one in Pastor Jeff's nine-message series, "Life is Hard, but God is Good." We've been in it all month long, and you can go back and listen to these other messages when you go to fromhisheart.org, click the listen link, and it's also our gift to you for your support this month of any amount to From His Heart.

When you do make that gift, we'll also send you the companion booklet "Strong Faith for Tough Times," our gift of thanks to you for helping us this month. Right now, open your Bible to Psalm 143 as Pastor Jeff Shreve helps you with a little catch-up from yesterday and then concludes the lesson "How to Pray in a Crisis."

Speaker 2

I want to share with you today three important parts that need to be included in your prayer when you're in a crisis.

Part number one: Call on the Lord as a humble servant. You call on the Lord as a humble servant. David says in verse two, "And do not enter into judgment with your servant." He says in verse 12, "And destroy all those who afflict my soul, for I am your servant." David doesn't come before the Lord and say, "Well, Lord, you know Absalom's coming after me and I'm your anointed. I mean, I'm the one that you chose. You chose me to be king of your people, not Absalom." He doesn't come at the Lord that way. He comes to the Lord very humbly.

David appeals to God's character in his prayer: "Hear my prayer, O Lord. Give ear to my supplications and answer me in your faithfulness and in your righteousness. And do not enter into judgment with your servant," he says, "for in your sight, no man living is righteous." David is aware of his sin. So, David appeals to God's faithfulness and righteousness. We come and we appeal to God's character, goodness, mercy, compassion, faithfulness, and justice. Then we come and we're not afraid to share the depths of our hurt. See, that's what David teaches us over and over again. When you come before the Lord, you tell him the truth about everything. You don't dress it up. You don't say to yourself, "Well, what does God want to hear?" In your relationship with the Lord, God wants to hear what's going on—the unabridged truth.

Look what he says in verse 3: "For the enemy has persecuted my soul. He has crushed my life to the ground. He has made me dwell in dark places like those who have long been dead. Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me. My heart is appalled within me." One version says, "I'm ready to give up. I am in deep despair." Don't you love that about David? He was great at pouring out his heart to the Lord. So that's the very first part: Call on the Lord as a humble servant.

The second part is to reflect on what the Lord has done in the past. Look at verse five. David said, "I remember the days of old. I meditate on all your doings. I muse on the work of your hands." I remember—that means to call to mind. I meditate—that word literally means to mutter or groan. It's kind of like what you do with a verse of scripture. You meditate on it, and you just kind of think on it. Sometimes you might find yourself just kind of, "Mmm, mmm." You're reading the Bible, and something really comes out at you, just kind of, "Mmm, that's really good." And you're just meditating on it.

Why is that so important when you're praying in a crisis? It's important because we tend to be consumed with the crisis, and we can't see the forest for the trees. All you see is the house is on fire. All you see is, "My life is a dumpster fire. Everything is terrible, and I can't seem to find a way out. I can't seem to see how this is going to be any better." It's really important to fill your mind with the track record of the Lord—the proven track record of the Lord.

No doubt, if this is indeed David fleeing from Absalom, which I think it is, he's thinking, "What has God done in my life before?" All right, let's go way back. When I was a shepherd boy, I fought a lion. God delivered me from the paw of the lion. I fought a bear who was trying to steal my sheep. God delivered me from the paw of the bear. I fought Goliath. He was bigger than the lion and the bear combined. He's just this massive guy. I went up against him, and God delivered me. God has worked in my life over and over and over again. I can trust him.

Hey, in your crisis, reflect on what the Lord has done in the past.

And then part number three, very simply, ask the Lord for what you need. That's the prayer. You ask him for what you need. "And my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus," Philippians 4:19. So David says this in verse 6: "I stretched out my hands to you. My soul longs for you as a parched land." Selah. I paused there. "Lord, I'm longing for you. Answer me quickly, O Lord; my spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me, lest I become like those who go down to the pit. Let me hear your loving kindness in the morning, for I trust in you."

Ask the Lord for what you need. There are four things that David asks here for what he needs. Number one, he needs God's presence. And in your crisis, you desperately need God's presence. So David has his hand stretched out to God and says, "Lord, I'm like a man in the desert. My soul is parched. I need you, your manifest presence." Now, God is always present, but a lot of times we don't sense God's presence. We don't feel God's presence.

Hey, when you're hurting and you're in the crisis, you don't need to just know intellectually that God is present. You want to feel God's presence. You don't need to know intellectually that God loves you. He says, "Lord, let me hear your loving kindness in the morning. I need to feel your love around me." And, God, I need your face to be toward me. David remembered what happened to Saul, his predecessor, King Saul. King Saul had sinned against the Lord, and the Lord had taken his hand off Saul. Remember in Psalm 51, David said, "Take not thy holy Spirit from me. Don't take your hand off of me."

David saw what happened to Saul when God took his hand off him. It was terrible. Toward the end of Saul's life, he begins to inquire of the Lord. He's got to go up against the Philistines, and he's trying to inquire of the Lord, and the Lord won't answer him. Why? Because the answer from the Lord would be, "Repent, pal." But Saul doesn't want to hear that. So what does he do? He goes to the witch at Endor. Remember that story? He inquires of the spirit medium. She recognizes this is Saul the king who said he was going to kill all witches. But that's where he goes because God's not speaking to him.

David said, "Lord, I can't get there. I can't get to the place where your face is not toward me." So he's praying, "God, I need your presence. Do not hide your face from me, lest I become like those who go down to the pit." You need God's presence. God, I need you, and your loving kindness is better than life. There's nothing better than you.

Secondly, you need God's wisdom. He says in verse eight, "Teach me the way in which I should walk, for to you I lift up my soul." Wisdom. Hey, when you're in a crisis, you need wisdom. You need to know what to do because you can make some really bad decisions when you're in the fire. You can make snap decisions, rash decisions that the Lord is not leading you to make. But you get scared, and you run.

I think it was Charles Stanley who said years ago, he introduced the acronym HALT: H, A, L, T. He said, "Never make a decision when you're hungry, angry, lonely, or tired." I'm talking about a life decision. Don't make a life decision when you're hungry, when you're angry, when you're lonely, and when you're tired. Why? Because you'll make a bad decision.

So David is praying for wisdom. You know, the Bible says in James 1:5, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him." God says, "I'll give you wisdom. You can see life from my perspective if you ask me." But let him ask in faith, without any doubting. For the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. Let not that man expect to receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

When you ask God for wisdom, believe that he's going to give it to you. Hey, we need wisdom when we're in the crisis. And David, no doubt, needed wisdom because he's on the run from Absalom and he needs to know what to do. David was going to go out with his soldiers.

See, here's the story. Absalom comes in, David is fleeing. Absalom comes in, and the very first thing he does—this is interesting because Nathan the prophet told David, "Thus says the Lord, what's going to happen to you? There's going to be disaster in your family. The sword will not depart from your house, and your companion is going to sleep with your wives in the sight of all Israel. Indeed, you did it secretly, but I'm going to do this thing before all Israel."

You know the first thing when Absalom comes into Jerusalem? He asks his counselor Ahithophel, "What do I do?" He said, "Here's what you need to do." Ahithophel, by the way, was Bathsheba's grandfather. He used to be David's trusted counselor. But he saw what David did with Bathsheba; he blamed David for the whole thing. He had a hatred in his heart toward David. So now he buddied up to Absalom.

"What do I do, Ahithophel?" Ahithophel says, "This is what you do. You go into David's concubines." He said, "We'll pitch a tent on the roof of the palace." See, that's where it all began for David. He was walking on the roof of his palace. That's where he saw Bathsheba, and that's what caused his downfall. "We'll pitch a tent there, and you go into his concubines, also called his wives." He said, "That will let everyone know how much you hate your father David and how odious you've become to your father David." And that's what he did.

Well then, he asked Ahithophel, "What do I do now?" He said, "Now you go after him and kill him." Well, God intervened and got another guy, Hushai, to give counsel. He was loyal to David and he confounded the counsel of Ahithophel. He said, "No, no, no, no, no, don't do that. Your father David and those guys, man, they're tough guys. They're like a bear robbed of their cubs. If you run after them, he's going to defeat you. You need to be careful. You need to be slow."

Well, he was helping David because David was worn out. If Absalom had followed the counsel of Ahithophel, David would have died. But God worked it out to where he didn't follow the counsel of Ahithophel; he followed the counsel of Hushai, David's friend, and he didn't come right after him.

Interesting, just a side note: you know, Ahithophel was a really smart guy. They said if you inquired of Ahithophel, it was like inquiring from the word of God. I mean, that guy was just—he was greater than E.F. Hutton. You know, when Ahithophel talked, people listened.

And so, that's an old joke. And so Ahithophel, when he saw that his counsel wasn't followed, you know what he did? He went home and hanged himself. Good night. I've given a lot of counsel to people that haven't done what I said. I was like, "That's on you, pal. I mean, just don't come back. If you're not going to do what I said, then say, then don't come back."

Well, David needed wisdom to know what to do in the midst of the crisis. When you're in a crisis, you need wisdom so you don't make a bad decision. So you don't just snap decision, "I'm going to get divorced. I'm going to move. Things are bad, I'm moving. I'm quitting my job." Just boom, boom, boom. No, you pray, "God, give me wisdom."

And then thirdly, you need God's deliverance. Look what he says. I mean, this is serious business. "Answer me quickly, O Lord." This is—I mean, I don't have months to work on this. This is a 911 prayer. But he says in verse nine, "Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies. I take refuge in you for the sake of your name, O Lord. Revive me in your righteousness; bring my soul out of trouble. And in your loving kindness, cut off my enemies and destroy all those who afflict my soul, for I am your servant." You pray for deliverance. That's just a normal—that's a natural. When we're in the fiery furnace, when we're in the crisis, "God, I want you to deliver me from this."

And God delivers in his time. You know, sometimes God delivers before the crisis. Peter was faced in a crisis in Acts, chapter 12. Herod's getting ready to cut his head off. They're going to bring him out the next day and cut his head off. The angel comes and delivers him. That's before. I mean, he's in a crisis, but the crisis hadn't come to a head because God took him out of there.

Sometimes God delivers in the midst of the crisis, as he did with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They're in the fiery furnace, and the Lord is there. The king says, "Did we not throw three men in the fire?" And they said, "Certainly, O King." He said, "But I see four men loosed and walking about, and one is like the son of God." The Lord delivered those guys in the fiery furnace.

Sometimes he delivers after. That's what he did with Paul. Paul said, "The Lord will deliver me from every evil deed and bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom." And Paul went on to get his head cut off under the persecution of Nero. God delivered him after the crisis, after the fiery furnace. But here's the thing: God will deliver because God is a delivering God. So you pray for God's deliverance.

And then lastly, you need God's guidance and will to reign in your life. "Teach me to do your will, for you are my God," verse 10 says. Let your good spirit lead me on level ground. It was Winston Churchill who said these words: "Never let a good crisis go to waste." We've been hearing that a lot with the coronavirus, and some have tried to politicize the coronavirus. And hey, never let a good crisis go to waste. Let's use this for political gains.

Well, in your life, don't let a crisis go to waste. Let God teach you how to walk with him through the crisis. As Joni Eareckson Tada, who went through a terrible accident, became a quadriplegic in a wheelchair, tried to kill herself—she's 17 years old and she's in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. She tried to kill herself. Told her friends, "Just slash my wrist. I can't feel anything on my arms. Just slash my wrist. Let me die." But God wouldn't let her die. They wouldn't do that. She prayed that wonderful prayer, "God, if I can't die, then show me how to live like this." And God answered that prayer.

You know what's sad is when you go through a crisis and you don't learn anything. You let the crisis go to waste because you're not learning anything. And so what happens in school, or what should happen, we're kind of not doing what we need to do in school. But if you don't pass the class, you repeat the class.

So my daughter Sarah mentioned her. She went to PA school at UAMS. It's hard to get into PA school, Physician Assistant school. She went in, she got in. You go through all the school, and you have to graduate from school. And then when you graduate from the school, you have to study for your board exam. And then before you can practice as a PA, you got to pass your board exam. Well, that's a nerve-wracking thing. Any of you who have tried to pass boards know.

So she passed the first go-round, but you know, it's a nerve-wracking thing to turn that in. Did I pass? Well, she's had some members of her class that haven't passed. They've taken the test four times; they haven't passed. You can take it six times. And then at the sixth time, if you still don't pass, you know what? You got to take PA school again. PA school is $100,000. It's 28 months of your life. It would be terrible to go through a crisis and not learn anything.

So you say, "God, teach me through this so that I would walk in your ways. I would that your spirit would lead me so that I'd walk in your will." Because I don't want to just keep going around the mulberry bush over and over and over again. Some of you might be doing that, and the Lord is saying, "Why won't you listen to me?" Because you keep doing the same thing over and over and over and over again.

And Dr. Phil says, "How's that working for you?" It's not working at all. You gotta do a different thing. Insanity is doing the same things over and over and over again, expecting a different result. You're not going to get a different result; you're going to get the same result. And God will let you just keep doing that until you finally come to the end and say, "Lord, teach me to do your will, for you're my God."

Call on the Lord as a humble servant. Reflect on what the Lord has done in the past, and ask the Lord for what you need. Hey, I don't know what you're facing today. I don't know what crisis you might be in today. But let me tell you something: God knows and God cares. And God says, "Hey, I long to answer your prayer in the crisis." If you'll look to me, I will do a miracle in you and around you as you trust me.

Speaker 1

Are you willing to look to God for answers? If you'll put into practice all that we've heard from Scripture today, it'll give you the faith to pray in a crisis and find purpose and peace, and a passageway out of the crisis and into the arms of Christ, caring and loving you. The message today was called "How to Pray in a Crisis." It's the last of nine in the series "Life is Hard But God is Good."

Hey, life is hard, and oftentimes it's a difficult pill to swallow. But the truth that we've learned in this series is that even in the ups and downs of life, God gives us the key to getting through and thriving in the struggles. The Book of Psalms provides a great source of spiritual comfort, strength, and encouragement for trials and tribulations. This series will truly be a blessing to you if you'll take the time to listen and apply to your heart the truths you hear. How can we say that? Because we know that God is always good and He can be trusted.

The series "Life is Hard, God Is Good" and the companion booklet "Strong Faith for Tough Times" are our gifts of thanks to you for your support this month to From His Heart of any amount. As you know, From His Heart ministries exist to change hearts and homes with the love of Christ. June is our fiscal year end, and we'd be so thankful if you'd help us close out our books on another year of ministry with a generous fiscal year end gift today. It would mean so much, and when you do, we'll send you two powerful resources: the nine-message series "Life is Hard But God Is Good" as well as the booklet "Strong Faith for Tough Times."

Request yours when you give today to help us meet our pivotal financial year end need by June 30th, and thank you for your partnership to help share the truth around the world. To get these resources, call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE) or go online to fromhisheart.org.

Well, that's all of our time for today. Thank you for joining us. I'm Larry Nobles, inviting you to be here next time when Pastor Jeff Shreve continues to share the truth found only in God's Word, when he'll begin a new series about how to be good soldiers for the faith. It's called "Soldiers of the Cross." Be with us then as we open up God's Word to share real truth, love, and hope from His heart.

Speaker 3

There is truth There is truth There is blessed There is hope that you always dream Love he can heal every scar Real truth, real love Real.

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His heart.

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