How To Trouble, Trouble. Job 1:1-3NLT
A large or small trouble is like a pebble. Hold it close to your eye, and it fills the whole world and puts everything out of focus. Hold it at proper viewing distance, and it can be examined and properly classified. Throw it at your feet, and it can be seen in its true setting, just one more tiny bump on the pathway to eternity.
When it comes to God, trouble is just a tiny stone. Throw it down, and you’ll get the big picture.
Job 1:1-3NLT There once was a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz. He was blameless—a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil. 2 He had seven sons and three daughters. 3 He owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 teams of oxen, and 500 female donkeys. He also had many servants. He was, in fact, the richest person in that entire area.
Trouble has a way of finding all of us. Like the rain, it falls on the just and the unjust.
Although we would love to think that Christians are exempt from trouble, that is not the case.
Job is the poster child for bad things happening to good people.
Trouble can come in the form of single catastrophe or a series of devastating events. It can announce itself with a telephone call in the wee hours of the night or turn up at an annual visit to your Doctor who delivers a serious diagnosis.
Make no mistake trouble is an equal opportunity annoyance that eventually shows up on everyone's doorstep.
In a small amount of time, Job lost everything, He lost his family, possessions, and finally he lost his health.
Again, after much trail, suffering and pain—Job 14:1NKJV “Man who is born of woman?Is of few days and full of trouble.
What did Job get to keep (other than his fault finding friends)? His God, and his wife. But he also kept his faith in God. Now before you throw too many stones at Jobs wife, just remember, she had to watch all these troubles come upon her husband—Job. P.H
While we can’t prevent trouble from making an appearance, we can learn how to handle it when it comes our way.
We can learn to, trouble—trouble. P.H
Indeed, the Bible says, Proverbs 22:3AMP A prudent and far-sighted person sees the evil [of sin] and hides himself [from it],?But the naive continue on and are punished [by suffering the consequences of sin].
There is an interesting story in the Bible about handling trouble from the life of King Hezekiah, who ruled Judah about 700 years before Jesus Christ.
During the 14th year of his reign, King Sennacherib of the expanding Assyrian Empire attacked and captured all fortified cities of Judah and was poised and determined to capture Jerusalem as well.
Needless to say, King Hezekiah was deeply distressed by Sennacherib’s actions. He was even more troubled upon receiving— Sennacherib’s taunting and blasphemous letter, which insulted him, belittled God, and boasted of his plan to take the city of Jerusalem.
The Bible states, Isaiah 37:14-20NLT After Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it, he went up to the Lord’s Temple and spread it out before the Lord. 15 And Hezekiah prayed this prayer before the Lord: 16 “O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, God of Israel, you are enthroned between the mighty cherubim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You alone created the heavens and the earth. 17 Bend down, O Lord, and listen! Open your eyes, O Lord, and see! Listen to Sennacherib’s words of defiance against the living God.
18 “It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all these nations. 19 And they have thrown the gods of these nations into the fire and burned them. But of course the Assyrians could destroy them! They were not gods at all—only idols of wood and stone shaped by human hands. 20 Now, O Lord our God, rescue us from his power; then all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you alone, O Lord, are God.
Indeed, trouble—with a T, had showed up at not only Hezekiah's door, but also at Judah’s door.
Sennacherib, the conquering king of Assyria had just defeated and taken over multiple cities in the Mesopotamia region.
Now he was spewing out threats against Jerusalem. Yet in the midst of these turn of events, King Hezekiah gives us a vivid picture of how to respond to trouble. —How to trouble trouble.
Therefore, I give you a four-step-plan for handling trouble:
1. First, King Hezekiah went to God’s house. (For every believer, the house of God shouldn’t be an option).
Again, Isaiah 37:14NKJV And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord…
Hezekiah was wise enough to know that at the onset of trouble the best place to be was the— house of the Lord.
David stated in, Psalm 122:1NLT I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
David pens in, Psalm 26:8NLT I love your sanctuary, Lord, the place where your glorious presence dwells.
And then in, Psalm 84:10NIV Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
“If you're looking for peace, strength, and wisdom to solve life's problems, run to the Lord!" P.H
David declares in, Psalm 16:11GW You make the path of life known to me. Complete joy is in your presence. Pleasures are by your side forever.
2. Secondly, when Hezekiah came into the house of God, he sought the Lord— immediately.
Seeking God was Hezekiah's first response not last resort.
Connecting with the Almighty God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, was number 1 on his list.
Jesus himself gave us what I call the first things first plan of success. Matthew 6:33NKJV But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Again, That’s the first things first plan. P.H
All things added include, protection, provision, and a wise plan of action for any troublesome situation you face.
Q&A: This made me wonder just how much of the Lord's help are you and I missing out on? Say, First things first plan.
Jeremiah 29:13TM“When you come looking for me, you’ll find me. “Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” God’s Decree.
3. Third, Hezekiah placed the entire problem on the altar and left it there.
Isaiah 37:14c…and spread it out (letter) before the Lord.
Isaiah 55:8-9NKJV, God say’s, 8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.
As an old country preacher once said, “This is God's Universe, and He's doing things His way. You may think you have a better way, but you don't have a Universe to rule.”
In the words of preacher and song writer Charles Tinley: Leave it there, leave it there, take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. If you trust and never doubt, He will surely bring you out, take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.
Now I realize it's easier said than done, but God will give you His grace, his divine ability, to trust Him with all that concerns you. P.H
Listen to, James 4:6AMPC But He gives us more and more grace (power of the Holy Spirit, to meet this evil tendency and all others fully). That is why He says, God sets Himself against the proud and haughty, but gives grace [continually] to the lowly (those who are humble enough to receive it).
4. Fourth, Hezekiah prayed.
Isaiah 37:16NKJV “O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.
Hezekiah then implored God to listen to the enemies threatening words and take note of— the devastation he has been causing in the Nations all around him.
Isaiah 37:17-19TLB Listen as I plead; see me as I pray. Look at this letter from King Sennacherib, for he has mocked the living God. 18 It is true, O Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all those nations, just as the letter says, 19 and thrown their gods into the fire; for they weren’t gods at all but merely idols, carved by men from wood and stone. Of course the Assyrians could destroy them.
After presenting his case, Hezekiah turned his focus back on God and made a urgent plea for His intervention in their situation:
Isaiah 37:20TLB O Lord our God, save us so that all the kingdoms of the earth will know that you are God, and you alone.”
When Hezekiah prayed, God answered. Actually, God's response is recorded in detail in Isaiah 37:21–35 and 2 Kings 19:21–34.
2 Kings 19:35-37TM And it so happened that that very night an angel of God came and massacred 185,000 Assyrians. When the people of Jerusalem got up next morning, there it was—a whole camp of corpses!
36-37 Sennacherib king of Assyria got out of there fast, headed straight home for Nineveh, and stayed put. One day when he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer murdered him and then escaped to the land of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon became the next king.
What happened after Hezekiah prayed and ask God for help? God swung into action!
How do you trouble your trouble? How do you respond when trouble comes?
When trouble comes your way, do what Hezekiah did:
Go to the house of the Lord– get into His glorious presence.
Seek the Lord immediately– make Him your first response, not your last resort.
Once when I was a young boy a lady from Hartwell owned some property and a house a block off the Myrtle Beach. She invited my parents and us 3 children to stay there for a week. It was called the Last Resort and it definitely look like it. My parents had to run someone out of the house when we arrived.
Again, Seek the Lord!
Place the entire problem before the Lord and leave it there.
Pray earnestly about the situation– praising God for His goodness in the past and inviting Him to go to work on your behalf for the present.
The bottom line is: Let the Lord fight for you. Yes, you may have to face the battle, but you don't have to fight it.
Benediction.
