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Are you feeling discouraged? Look for "spaces"! · Fifteen Minutes With Fritz - Where Scripture Meets the Sidewalk

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Good morning, everyone.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: You're listening to Fifteen Minutes with Fritz, a weekly podcast designed to find places where scripture meets the sidewalk of our daily journey.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: We're currently living in the Psalms, the longest book in the Bible.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: Our mission is to uncover words of encouragement specifically as they relate to the challenges of our daily grind.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: And we're using a book of the same name written by Chuck Swindall to help us on our journey.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Now one of the things I love about the Bible is the people I read about, and probably one of the most real people in the Bible is King David.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: On the one hand I admire his faithfulness and his dedication to God.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: On the other hand I can relate to some of his weaknesses, his stumbles and frustrations.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: You can read about the details of his life in the Old Testament books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, but his heart is revealed in the Psalms.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: When we read the Psalms David authored, which is about half of them, we see a man who is not much different than we are.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: His deepest thoughts, his cares and concerns are poured out for all of us to see in the pages of this longest book in the Bible.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: Some days David is on the mountaintop experiencing the joys of faithfully walking side by side with God.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: Other days, however, David is struggling with his faith, finding himself stuck in deep valleys of despair, wondering why God has allowed such pain in his life.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: Can you relate to that?
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: I know I can.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: This next psalm we're going to look at is one in which David really bears his soul.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: He doesn't hold anything back as he reveals his true feelings to us as well as to God.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: And if we're honest with ourselves it can be a pretty accurate reflection of our own feelings when we're stuck in the midst of a discouraging patch in our lives?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: Listen as I read the words of Psalm thirteen.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: How long will you hide your face from me?
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: How long will my enemy triumph over me?
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: Look on me and answer, O Lord my God, give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: My enemy will say I have overcome him, and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: But I trust in your unfailing love.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: My heart rejoices in your salvation.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: Let's start with a few observations.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: David is speaking to God directly in this psalm, praying about the thoughts of his heart, but he's certainly not following the format of other prayers in the Bible.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: Most of the famous prayers in the Bible begin with a word of praise.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: When Solomon dedicated the temple, he began his prayer with O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth below.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: And after Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel, she prayed, My soul magnifies the Lord.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: And when Jesus taught us to pray in the book of Matthew, he said, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: But this wasn't how David began his prayer.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: Psalm thirteen doesn't begin with any words of praise.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: No, he jumps right to his complaint, and he doesn't sugarcoat it at all.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: The first words out of his mouth are how long, O Lord?
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: There's a real edge to his words.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: His pent up frustration boils over in the form of five questions, one right after the other in verses one to two.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: He is frustrated with God's timing.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: He's frustrated that God seems to have forgotten him.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: He's sure that God is ignoring him, leaving him to solve things on his own.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: And he lets God know this in no uncertain terms.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: Have you ever felt like that?
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: I know I have.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: Again, I don't think I've ever prayed that way to God, no matter how angry and confused I might be feeling.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: But David was a man after God's own heart, and God saw fit to include this occasion when David laid all his cards on the table.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: By the time I got to the end of verse four I was pretty sure the psalm would take one of two paths.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: One route could be a continuation of David's outpouring of anger and frustration, maybe even a complete break from God for a while.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, God, I've had it.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: I've been good, I've been faithful, I've been on your side for a long time, and this is how you treat me?
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: You abandon me in the middle of my time of deepest need.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: You ignore my earnest prayers.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm done.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: Let me know when you're ready to talk.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: Another possible route I expected to see was one similar to God's response after listening to Job and his friends whine for thirty five chapters.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: When they were finally finished, God said, Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: Brace yourself like a man.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: I will question you and you will answer me.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Then God went on for four full chapters, peppering Job with questions that made it clear that he didn't understand all that was happening to him, nor did he appreciate the greatness of God.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: God could have easily said the same things to David, and I think he would have been completely justified in doing so.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: But David didn't follow either of these pathways.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: Look at verse five and see what actually happened next.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: But I trust in your unfailing love, my heart rejoices in your salvation.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: I will sing to the Lord for he has been good to me.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: That is not what I expected to see when I got to verse five.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: Instead there's an instant transition between the despair of verses one to four and the grandiose faith based statements of verses five and six.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: Totally unexpected.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: But it's situations like this that cause me to pause and think about what I'm reading.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: I can't just gloss over this portion of scripture.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: It needs some careful thought and meditation.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: Which leads me to share a few of my thoughts about this psalm.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, it should be no surprise to you that I love the words recorded in the Bible.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: Words are so helpful we can read them over and over and find real encouragement when we need them.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: But it might surprise you to learn that I love the spaces in Scripture almost as much as the words.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: This psalm is a perfect example of what I mean.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: Something happened between verse four and verse five.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: We have no idea what it was or how long it lasted, but whatever it was, it caused David to move from absolute desperation to sheer joy.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: The Bible, however, is decidedly and purposefully silent about it, which forces us to spend more time thinking about it.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I like that.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: So after pondering this particular space for a while, it led me to ask the question So why did God leave it out?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, wouldn't it be better to share with everyone what great thing God did to draw David out of his doldrums and set his feet on the rock?
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: That way we could tell all our friends about the awesome power of God, and that he can do the same for us when we're faced with challenging circumstances.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: Instead we're left with space between verse four and verse five.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: Why is that?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'd like to suggest one possible reason why God did this.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: Suppose the Bible had shared with us that a friend stopped by and gave David encouragement, which changed his attitude.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: Or what if the Bible told us that David was in the middle of a Bible study and a verse popped out at him that provided an aha moment for him?
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: If the Bible had provided details like that, we might conclude that those were the only ways God can get us out of a particular situation.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: But by leaving out the details, it leaves us wide open for God, it leaves things wide open for God to use any way he wants to help us in our time of despair.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: It could be a helpful friend, it could be a meaningful passage of Scripture, or it could be a combination of both, coupled with fervent prayer.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: But space means we have to keep our eyes wide open for anything God might use to help us in our time of need.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: And when he does, we can follow up our complaints with the same words David did.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: I trust in your unfailing love.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: My heart rejoices in your salvation.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: I will sing to the Lord, for he has been good to me.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: Now before we conclude today's podcast, I want to share a few things about last week's challenge.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: Recall that we were talking about the attributes of God.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: I provided seven of them, which is just a very small subset of all of God's attributes.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: Those seven were God is good, God is love, God is just, God is merciful, God is sovereign, God is wise, God is faithful.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I asked you to pray through this list each day without asking God for anything else.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: Just pray through his attributes, thanking him for each one.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: I know some of you accepted this challenge.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: I gave it a try too.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: And the results were quite interesting.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'm not a big fan of change, so moving away from my usual pattern of prayer was the first challenge.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: But after a couple days I was able to settle into a new routine.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: As the week progressed I discovered that God was revealing his attributes in more concrete ways.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: I saw his sovereignty, his wisdom, and his faithfulness more clearly in areas I might have overlooked previously.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: He was revealing his goodness and love and mercy in new and meaningful ways.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't that he wasn't doing these things before, but now I was more focused on them, more observant, seeing his hand at work in my life and the life of my family and friends.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: By the end of the week I've found myself thankful for the experience.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: And so I've decided to take on another challenge.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: As I shared last week, the navigators were the source of the seven attributes we used in our challenge.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: They also provide a thirty day challenge, praying the attributes of God one each day for thirty days.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm excited to give this a try.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're interested too, drop me an email at fifteen minutes with Fritz at gmail.com and I'll be glad to send a copy to you.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: Lord, we are sinners saved only by your grace.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: The love you showed us by sending your son to die in our place is more than we can possibly comprehend.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so we stand amazed, humbled, and thankful.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: Grant us willing hearts to serve and worship you in spirit and in truth.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: For Jesus' sake and his glory.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: To him be glory and power forever and ever.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: This is the end of our podcast, but it's not the end of our story.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for listening.