6-30-2022

 Good Morning!    

            Psalm 34:19; “The righteous person has many troubles, but the Lord rescues him from all of them.”

    “And they lived happily ever after.” I truly loathe that phrase. It sets us up for failure. No one has it perfectly good. We all experience struggle. The idea that someone else has it “happily ever after” and I don’t, can lead to all sorts of sadness and depression.  When I counsel people about to be married; that is one of the phrases that I tell them is completely wrong.  You don’t just live “happily ever after;” marriage is a commitment and requires due diligence to survive. 

    The “happily ever after” is probably one of the most common misconceptions about becoming a Christian.  I hear many people who think that God somehow sits with a little score pad and watches you.  As soon as the score gets a little too high on the “sin side,” they believe that God will “zap” them.  Maybe a whole bunch of minor disruptions in their life, like a flat tire or a car that won’t start, or getting a rock chip in your windshield, or losing some items and not being able to find them or any of a number of things. 

    God doesn’t operate this way.  God’s desire for you is love, contentment, hope and salvation.  It is sin, our sin; that gets in the way.  When man sinned, creation was stymied and distressed.  Chaos entered our world.  We read where creation groans as in childbirth, in pain because of sin.  So, in this broken creation there will be trouble and the righteous person will have just as much trouble as the unrighteous person; maybe even more because the righteous person will be afflicted by his conscience as well.  You will have troubles.

   The difference is that the righteous person, those whom God has given salvation and faith, will be rescued from their troubles.  God sends his Spirit of comfort and consolation to us, and he uses many forms to do this.  It might be the comfort of His Word, or His sacraments.  It might be the comfort we find in the consolation of family and friends.  It might be others that God may use to comfort you; it might even be a song or a hymn that you hear at just the right time.  There is no limit to what God can and will use to bring you comfort and hope.

    So, as we go through life, there will be struggles.  We will face many storms in our lives, some very severe.  Yet we know that God will be with us and guide us and comfort us.  We will have a rainbow at the end of the storm.  We may not want to see it, but it will be there.  God rescues the righteous and by his grace, he has declared you to be righteous.  He does this because he loves you and wants you to live with him eternally.

Father of our rescue, there are many paths which lead us away.  There are paths that lead to our destruction.  Only you provide for us to be rescued from our sorrows.  Guide us by your Word and sustain us by your love.  Be with those who are especially feeling the struggles of this life.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray.  Amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret