Reject My Soul

Transcript

Good morning and greetings to you my dear friend! Welcome to this amazing and beautiful new day!

I hope that today you’re continuing to grow closer to the Lord. Even in times and in circumstances when you don’t feel God’s presence very near to you, it is necessary that we continue to draw near to Him because our consistency and our persistent effort in being in His presence, in running after Him, will make sure that the door is open for us to encounter God.

There are going to be those times and seasons in life where you feel like God doesn’t want to reveal Himself to us, that God doesn’t want to work for us, that this God, He doesn’t want to provide for us, He doesn’t want to bless us. And those times can be completely nerve-racking!

It’s okay when people don’t want to be friends with us, it’s okay when people don’t want to help us, but when God decides that He is not going to help us, how do we respond? What do we do? How do we express our feelings and our emotions to God?

You would see how so many men of God in the Scripture went through this. Job would cry out to God in agony. He would express his deepest emotions to God and he would become vulnerable in the presence of God. The same thing happened to all the Psalmists who would express all their emotions to God.

Let me read out one particular Psalm. In Psalm 88:14, the Psalmist says, “Why do you reject my very being, Lord? Why do you hide your face from me?” If you read Psalm 88, you would understand that this guy has been sick from a very young age and he’s being tormented. It could be mental sickness, emotional challenges, hormonal issues or something very physical and tangible that people can see and smell and identify him with.
And when this goes on day after day, year after year, it can be extremely painful. That is when he turns back to God and says, “why do you reject my very being? Why did you reject my soul? Why do you reject who I am? Why did you just disconnect from me in such a harsh manner? Because I’ve been praying about this, I’ve been asking you for help. I’ve been hoping that you would heal me and restore me but why are you so harsh with me?”

That is the prayer that the Psalmist is praying and today I want us to be okay in expressing some of our deepest feelings, challenges and emotional struggles with the Lord. The Lord doesn’t take offense if you are honest with Him. He is not going to be upset because you are frank with Him. Infact, it is the opposite! It would greatly displease Him, if we are not vulnerable with Him about our feelings. Jesus Himself, when He was on the earth, going through this emotional turmoil, when He had to carry the cup of suffering was okay with going to the Father and asking Him to take away that cup, knowing fully well that it is the Father’s will for Him to drink of this cup.

That is why He came into this world. He has been talking about this for the last three-and-a-half years on the Earth and yet at this moment of weakness; of challenging pain in His body, soul and spirit, He begins to pray a prayer, where He is vulnerable with his soul’s feelings. He tells the Father, “if it is possible, will you please take away this cup of suffering from me?”
That is exactly what the Psalmist is doing. He’s saying, “why did you reject my very being? It’s okay and understandable when people reject me, God, but why did you reject me?” The next line is even more painful. He says, “Why do you hide your face from me?” He’s not just saying, “how could you not hear me?” or “why do you not help me?” He’s saying, “why did I not have a revelation of your face, in this challenging season of my life?” He’s upfront about confronting God about these things.

You would see the same pattern of conversations that Job had when he was in the presence of God. But the bottom line of all these men of God who came to Him with their vulnerable emotions is that they went back with an assurance that God is still on the throne. They didn’t go back defeated or thinking, “Man, this is the end of my life!” They didn’t go back hopeless. Instead it was a process of unburdening their emotions, in the presence of God.

Jesus said it like this. “Are you weak and heavy-laden? Do you have a lot of burdens? Do you have a lot of worries and struggles that you’ve been carrying though life? Come and give it to me. Lay it upon me. Why don’t you give me your yolk? Take my yolk upon yourself. The yolk that I’m gonna give you is easy. It will not burden you or be challenging for you to carry. So, take my yolk upon you and give me all of your yolks”.

That is exactly what needs to happen when you’re vulnerable with your emotions to God. Why don’t you come and pour out everything that is in your heart and go back with this assurance that, the joy of the Lord is indeed your strength. Go back with the assurance that, God’s presence in you is greater than the enemy in the world that is fighting you. Go back with the assurance that, now, you are more than a conqueror because of Christ Jesus, who loves you. Go back with the assurance of who God says you are.

Let’s pray together: Father, we thank you Lord for this assurance that you’ve given us. This access that you’ve given us. This embrace that you’ve given us through your Scripture, that we can come to you and we can be vulnerable about our issues and our struggles. This morning, for those of us who are feeling like you’ve left us; for those of us who are feeling like you have rejected us; for those of us who are feeling like you’ve hidden your face away from us, I pray that there will be a fresh revelation, a fresh encounter, a fresh assurance, God, of your love. A fresh assurance, God, of you being on the throne; in our lives; in our homes; in our churches and in our nations. We trust your will above ours. We trust Your plans more than ours. In Jesus’ mighty name we pray, Amen!