WHEN LIFE SEEMS AN ENDLESS STRUGGLE

Ever feel like LIFE is an ENDLESS STRUGGLE?

God’s Word addresses that feeling and the DIVINE SOLUTION. Psalm 13 is David’s confession about who was flying his plane through the turbulent and stormy skies of his life—even when he felt abandoned, he found that God was still there flying him through life.

As we study Psalm 13, consider feelings of abandonment. As a pastor, biblical counselor, and follower of Christ for over forty years, I am convinced that feelings of abandonment are widespread, even among believers.

Listen to David’s opening words in Psalm 13:1-2
1 How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart daily?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?

What are some common causes of feelings of abandonment by others and even God? Here are just a few doorways that can lead us to repeatedly stand in David’s shoes through life.

• Cave times may sometimes start through a protracted illness that never ends, strength never comes, and future plans fade, and so does hope.

• Another doorway to a cave is a sudden loss of income and job, followed by financial needs that become tangled, growing, and seemingly hopeless.

• Other doorways to cave times can be through our marriages and families. Wayward children cause immeasurable pain to believing parents, as does an alcoholic spouse or unsaved family members.

• Our work may open us to the dark times through a demanding and unreasonable boss, or a grueling and unending schedule, or a jealous, spiteful, and dangerous co-worker.

Usually, these times make us feel that no one really cares about us, then a feeling of being abandoned by others then starts the spiral downward into thinking that God has also abandoned us.

As we examine Psalm 13 closely, David takes us through his depths. David feels so abandoned that he cries out as if he is not going to make it.
My life feels like an endless struggle.

Davis is abandoned and dejected. Everyone has left him; he is hunted by his own family, his own people, his own fellow people of God, and is threatened by his enemies and now steps into a bleak desert region. David feels that every fiber of his humanity is dejected and abandoned.

One commentator writes, “Well must David have understood what this was, when, hunted by Saul, he knew not where to betake himself, at one time seeking refuge among the Moabites, at another in the wilderness of Ziph; now an outlaw hiding in the cave of Adullam, and anon a captain in the service of the King of the Philistines; and amid all his projects haunted by the mournful conviction, ‘I shall now one day perish by the hand of Saul.’”

By repeating himself four times, he shows how deep this feeling runs.

• What David says is, “I just can’t go on.”

(19Samuel-09)
Join the LAND OF THE BOOK channel to access weekly video releases over the next year totaling 50+ EXCLUSIVE VIDEOS featuring weekly in-depth Bible Study lessons with John & Bonnie. Clips are taken at just one of the places where we are taking our virtual journey through all the Lands of the Bible & Great Museums of the Bible on the Paul’s Life & Letters Course. Plus all the assigned HOLY LAND, Paul’s Life & Letters Course STUDY RESOURCES, and John’s two most loved books–David’s Spiritual Secret & Living Hope for the End of Days at:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVK6dN-9kLDnQhYBFuES09A/join

Follow Discover the Book Ministries to stay up to date:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/discoverthebook/

DTBM Academy Courses:
https://dtbma.com/Default.aspx

Purchase John’s Books, Mp3 & DVD resources:
E-Books: https://tinyurl.com/y3wbhlxy

Here are links to our Amazon Pages–
https://www.amazon.com/shop/dtbm

Donate to the ministry: https://dtbm.org/donations/partnership/

For more of Dr. John Barnett’s Bible teaching messages, go to: https://dtbm.org/

https://youtu.be/7vS0dlY_llA