From Victim to Victor
“Why, O Lord, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1, ESV).
David’s cry was like those of so many Christians I’ve known for decades. “Why are you so distant from me while I go through these horrible things? Why do you stand so far away from me as I suffer?”
In some seasons of trial, we’re assaulted by terrors, fearing we’ll never emerge from our struggle and that maybe God has abandoned us. I’ve been there, and I can tell you that Psalm 10 has the power to mark a profound shift in your life.
To obtain true confidence in God’s Word, our souls often have to go into a deep valley. To gain the kind of trust God wants for us, we may be called to wrestle with his Word. Our most sincere prayer may sometimes be “Lord, I don’t get this. Your Word doesn’t line up with what is happening in my life. Nothing about this makes sense.”
God honors that prayer. He already knows what is inside of us, and he knows every question we hide and every emotion we repress. God wants to bring it all out of the hiding place we’ve created and into his presence.
Again and again, David cried out to God, “Lord, please hear my groaning. Attend to my cries.” We know this from David’s testimony in previous psalms. He spoke of having weak bones and a weary spirit. When he finally confessed his heart and made his plea to the Lord, new life sprang up in him.
Jesus is faithful to bring this to pass in all of our lives. Our role is simple: to cry honestly before God, to call on him with every request, to commit all our fears to him and to stand confidently that he will raise us to new heights.
Our trials are never a one-time experience. Other crises will surely come, yet with each one, there will be a profound difference. We won’t look at our battles as if God is using them to punish us. Instead, with our history of going through valleys, we’ll see our battles as training ground for warfare, and we’ll rejoice in God’s faithfulness to us.
In whatever way God chooses to use these crises in our lives, he will bring us through as victors and not as victims.
This devotional has been adapted from Gary Wilkerson’s book, The Altar of Our Hearts: An Expository Devotional on the Psalms.