This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me (Psm

"This is my comfort in my affliction: for thy word hath quickened me" (Psm. 119:50). I believe that the greatest pain is being in dire straits and just not knowing what is going on or what to do. Job, who lived through some of the greatest inner pain ever known to man, knew exactly what I'm talking about here: "If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction" (Job 10:15). Not knowing something that you desperately need to know, especially when you are suffering affliction, is a very hard pill to swallow. But as our text verse tells us, hearing something from God can cure the whole mess really fast. I'm not talking about just reading the Bible. That's great, and we should never forsake that for sure. I'm talking about something far better however, and that is receiving a definitive word or message from the Lord. That is what makes the difference, because that is what will 'quicken' us, or make us alive. The truth is, if we don't know a thing when we need to know it, we just can't know it until God shows it to us. No wonder the scripture says the following, "Because to every purpose there is time and judgment, therefore the misery of man is great upon him. For he knoweth not that which shall be: for who can tell him when it shall be?" (Eccl. 8:6,7). Only God, or someone speaking for God; that's for sure.

When we're dealing with serious paths to take and we don't know the way, all we can do until we hear from God is trust that he is working for our good; and keep our hearts pure before him (Rom. 8:28; I Jn. 3:3). Nonetheless, chartering those kinds of waters can be very trying, to say the least. As the verse from Ecclesiastes says, it can be a miserable situation when we're in pain and need an answer, and we don't know what's to come, or when it will come. It brings to mind another verse from Ecclesiastes: "Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof" (Eccl. 7:8). Getting something from God in a matter like that can indeed be a comfort, even as David states in our text scripture from the Psalms. Sometimes we need help from someone else who is competent and trustworthy, in order to get an answer from the Lord. Our own circumstances and feelings can sometimes be too overwhelming for us to be able to have the clear channel we need in order to perceive what the Lord has to say. In any event it is always worth it to wait and get something definitive from the Lord when the trials of this life compass us about. He wants to show us the way, we just need to refine our capacity to let him do that. I'll close with that and with another quote from David: "My soul melteth for heaviness: strengthen thou me according unto thy word" (Psm. 119:28). I don't know about you, but that sure sounds familiar to me. God bless.