Tears In A Bottle

Psalm 56: 8 You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? (ESV)

The world is a very cold and unforgiving place. It can feel sometimes as if we are all alone in our walk, struggling to make it through this life. We can find ourselves in our desert experience, desperately seeking the help of God only to feel as if He is not there. With each passing day the enemy whispers more boldly into our wounded perceptions, replacing what we know with what we feel. The result is we can seek God less, when we really need Him more than ever. As believers we need to grasp hold of God tighter than ever during the storm because He is the only way out. The solutions of the world will bankrupt you literally and Spiritually. In the end, God will still be the way out. That said, we need to understand some fundamental truths within our crises.

First, we need to realize that God does not change. He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

"I the LORD do not change. Malachi 3:6

The world will change with the shifting sands. What was true for the world yesterday is an old wives tale today. Even the proud science the world boasts in changes every single day as new theories render old ones obsolete. God doesn't need a new theory because He has the truth already on His side! The hard reality is that we can barely believe anything we hear from the world. Their solutions do not solve problems. Their advice causes more damage and their facts are confirmed only by themselves. God however remains God. His Word has stood throughout all time and has not changed at all. What was applicable in the days of Christ remain true today. What got people through their problems in the Middle Ages, gets us through today. What the first settlers in this country believed in the storm remains what we believe today. God and His Word are transcendent. They do not belong to any "time" because they are above all time. So when you find yourself in the tempest and there seems to be nothing you can rely on, remember that God and His Word have never changed. Go to God and His Word and you will find shelter from the storm.

Secondly, God is not surprised. Your current dilemma may have caught you by surprise but God knew it was coming. You cannot hide from God He is everywhere and sees everything:

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me; your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. Psalm 139: 7-12

God knew the medical report you were going to receive. He knew the marriage crisis was coming. It matters not how we perceive the problem, only that God is still God. His right hand will still hold you fast beloved. When the desert seems to dry, take solace in the fact that God saw this coming and is working in the middle of it. No matter how unprepared we might be; God is always ready to be the sole set of footprints in the sand.

Third, God is in the season, no matter how severe. This is a promise from Jesus Christ Himself:

And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:20

We have His promises to rely upon. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He sticks closer than a brother. When the world walks away from us, God is still there in the midst of the trial. Not only is He there but we must remember; He allowed the trial. This is a hard concept for believers to internalize but God allowed your trials and mine. That does not mean He caused them but He did not intervene to stop them. Whatever you are going through, God is developing your character:

When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider: God has made the one as well as the other. Therefore, a man cannot discover anything about his future. Ecclesiastes 7:14

If everything was always dancing on mountaintops, we would find ourselves less and less dependent on God and more likely to believe that we had something to do with the mountaintop. But God will never give us more than we can handle and will always provide a way out:

The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. 1Corinthians 10: 13

But make no mistake about it; God allowed it. And here is the reality we must face He will get His way. We can be as defiant as we want but in the end, God wins. Take a minute in your trial and consider your chances of avoiding God's will in your situation. We can rail against God, making our demands about our situation but in the end, God wins. The sooner you realize that and get back on the winning side, the sooner He can do His refining work in your life.

For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined. Psalm 66: 10 (NKJV)

God is testing us and there is always a lesson in the storm. There is faith to be built and strengthened. There is a testimony to be constructed. God has called us all to a great work and He is preparing us for that work. It is at our greatest moment of weakness that His strength is manifest in our lives:

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2Corinthians: 9-10

We will all face persecutions and difficulties in our walk. We need to rely upon God so that Christ's power can rest upon us. As long as we are fighting against that, the trial will go on. Remember in the height of the storm, God allowed it, He is speaking into it, and He wants you to rely upon Him to see your way through it.

Lastly, God is bigger than whatever you are going through. Hebrews teaches us:

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. Hebrews 11:3

By faith we believe that God formed the entire universe by a single command! Everything you see, sense, and experience, God created with a simple command! THAT is a pretty big God! No matter how hard man and science try to dismiss God, you can trace any man-made theory back to the beginning and realize that God is always there. He is bigger than the medical report you received:

"... for I am the LORD, who heals you." Exodus 15:26

He is bigger than your financial difficulties:

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Matthew 6: 25-27

He is bigger beloved. Yet we can find ourselves in the middle of the storm and forgetting how big God really is. We can forget that He formed the entire universe at a single command. We can focus so hard on the problem; we take our eyes off the problem solver! That is the scheme of the enemy. The enemy wants us so fearful that we worry about the problem instead of resting in the assurances of the problem solver. He wants us focusing on what we do not have so we cannot appreciate all God has given us. It is a matter of perspective. The devil wants us to have a worldly perspective, not a Godly perspective. So when the waves are crashing all around you beloved, reach out your hand to He who calms the raging storm within you.

David was a man who clearly understood these facts. He knew that God was bigger. He knew that God was in the season and allowed the trials of life to occur. He knew that God was not surprised and that God never changes. The beauty of the Psalms assures us of this. The key verse today comes from Psalm 56, which David penned when the Philistines seized him at Gath. In it we see the heart of us all when we are in the midst of trials:

All day long they injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil. They stir up strife, they lurk; they watch my steps, as they have waited for my life. Psalm 56: 5-6 (ESV)

So, it will also seem to us during our trials that our cause is injured, evil is against us, strife is stirred up and the enemy is watching our steps waiting for our very lives. But the Psalmist also reminds us of the great deliverance found within God:

Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me. In God, whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? Psalm 56: 9-11 (ESV)

When you call on God your enemies will turn back beloved. We shall not be afraid for it is in God we trust! Man can do nothing to us. Perhaps the greatest truth we can hold onto in our trials is found in the key verse from Psalm 56.

You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Psalm 56: 8 (ESV)

No matter what you are going through and no matter how bad you feel, God wastes nothing. He does not waste a tear that falls from your eyes. He sees your pain and knows your struggle. Every time you toss in bed at night, He is counting it. God is not some abstract concept floating high above the heavens. He is the one walking toward you on the water you find yourself drowning in. He is the fourth man in the fiery furnace. He is the one in your lion's den, closing the mouths of those who would seek to devour you. Your tears are so precious to Him that He records them and saves them. They are in His book; He puts them in His bottle. God will not forget your suffering. He will use it to refine you, but He will not waste the pain you are experiencing.

God does not change beloved. He is never surprised by the trials that occur in our lives. He is in the season with us and has allowed us to experience it so that we might be refined for the work He has called us to. He is bigger than whatever mountain we are facing. He spoke the universe into existence at a single command. Yet despite how big God is, He sees your pain in the wilderness. He is so compassionate towards us; He catches every tear we shed and saves them in His bottle. He will not waste your pain beloved. Go to Him today, He still is the way out. He always will be.

Reverend Anthony Wade November 11, 2009