Understanding His Ways

Series: Dealing With Depression and Doubt

Leslie Basham: When we get to heaven, many of our questions on this earth may either be explained or forgotten, but we're not home yet. Here's Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: We take by faith what we will then know by sight. But in this life, we do ask the questions. We say, "Lord, I don't understand. Please help me understand Your ways. If there's something You're wanting to reveal to me about Your heart and Your ways, please show it to me."

Leslie Basham: Welcome to Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss. God doesn't always explain Himself, and we know that He is under no such obligation. But sometimes we want to know so badly that it hurts. Why this? Why that? But even when we don't get an answer, we can gain understanding, and that can be better. Here's Nancy.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Well, today is the day you've been waiting for. If you've been listening to Revive Our Hearts this week, you've been hoping we would get to a positive outcome as we've been looking at Psalm 42 and 43.

We've been seeing this very desperate, distressing, discouraging, depressing set of circumstances. I've wanted you to get a feel for what the psalmist is going through, as he feels that he is in a drought. He is drowning. He is overwhelmed. He realizes that God is behind those storms, and that causes him to really doubt if God is there at all to help him.

But I think it's important to set the scene because so many of us have to walk through a season where we have no visible means of support for our faith. Your husband isn't perhaps a believer. He's not supportive of your walk with God.

Maybe you're in a work environment where you're just surrounded by godless influences. You may be the only believer in your family. You may feel like you're the only person in your church who really walks with God. Now that probably is not true, but there are times when we just feel very alone, very distressed, and very overcome by the circumstances of life.

So what does the psalmist do? Well, we see today that he is faced with some actions that he can take that help deliver him and walk with him through this distressing, depressing season of life. I want you to see today that he first talks to God. In fact, the very first verse says, "As the deer pants or longs for the water brooks, so longs my soul for you, O God."

He turns his heart, his eyes, though they may be filled with tears, toward God. Aren't we so prone to want to talk with someone else first? I mean, we want someone we can see, so we call a friend or call the pastor. Thank God for friends. Thank God for pastors. But if you're not talking to the wonderful Counselor, you're not going to find the ultimate grace that you need. The people that God puts around you won't be able to be as much help as they could be if you're not first turning to God.

He talks to God. He calls God in verse 2 "the living God." In verse 6 he calls Him "my God." Verse 8: "The God of my life." Verse 9: "God, my rock." Verse 2 of chapter 43: "God of my strength."

You see, in his distressing, depressing, discouraging circumstances, he remembers who God is. He tells God his problems. In verse 1 he says, "My soul is thirsty for you, O God." In verse 3 he talks about his enemies: "They're continually saying to me, 'Where is your God?'"

In verse 6 he says, "O my God, my soul is cast down within me." He doesn't just go tell a friend, "I'm depressed." He turns to God and he says, "God, my soul is bowed down, is weighed down, with what's going on in my life." He tells God his problems.

I think of that old hymn stanza, "Oh, what peace we often forfeit; Oh, what needless pain we bear all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer."

I have a little sign on my desk that says, "Have you prayed about it?" How often I find myself distressed, worked up, overwhelmed, talking to everybody else about the stress in my life, but forgetting to bow my knee and say, "Lord, let me tell You about it."

He tells God his problems. He asks God his questions. Verse 9: He says, "I will say to God my rock, 'Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?'"

Verse 2 of chapter 43: "You are the God of my strength, so why do You cast me off? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?" He is honest with God.

A number of years ago my family and I buried a brother, my brother, number six of our seven children, who had been killed in an automobile accident. I'll never forget at the memorial celebration that one of the men who spoke there said, "It's not wrong to ask God why, as long as we ask not with a clenched fist but with a searching heart." That has helped me to know that God can handle my questions.

Now I don't believe it's right ever for me to shake my fist in God's face. There are times when we want to. There are times when our emotions feel that way, but God is always God. He is always sovereign. We are always under His authority. We are His creation.

I believe God can handle our questions. He can handle our doubts. I have gone before the Lord many times and many different ways and said, "Lord, I just don't get it." I'm not asking God to answer all my questions, but I ask the questions realizing that some of those questions God will not be pleased to answer this side of eternity, realizing that God doesn't have to answer my questions.

I think sometimes we have this mistaken notion that when we get to heaven, God is going to put on a screen and just put all the answers up on that screen, all the questions we've ever had about everything that happened to us in this life. You know, I don't really think it's going to be that way. When we see the King, He'll be answer enough. We won't have the questions anymore. We'll just know "Lord, You do all things well." So now we walk by faith. We take by faith what we will then know by sight. But in this life, we do ask the questions. We say, "Lord, I don't understand."

Then as David is talking to God, he asks God to restore communion and fellowship that he has been missing. Fellowship with God is his supreme objective. He says in verse 1 of chapter 43, "Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation. O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man."

Then he says in verse 3, chapter 43, "O send out Your light and Your truth. Let them lead me." You say, "I've lost my way. I'm confused. I don't know where to go. I don't know which way to turn. Lead me home."

In fact, that's what he says then in verses 3 and 4. Now watch the progression here. "Let them bring me to Your holy hill." That's Jerusalem. "And to Your tabernacle." That's Your dwelling place. "Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy."

Do you see the progression there? First, I want to go to Jerusalem. Then I want to get closer to You. I want to go to the place where You live. I want to get closer yet. I want to get to Your altar. And then what I'm really longing for, he says, is for You Yourself. Take me to You, to God, my exceeding joy.

I can remember a season in my life when I was praying about a major decision about ministry direction and what ministry I should be a part of. I sought the Lord in earnest prayer for about five months on this decision. I felt I could not get any direction.

As I reflected on those five months as to why, when I had been searching so earnestly--why God didn't give me a clear answer. In fact, I would pray this verse, Psalm 43:3, many times through that five-month process. "Send out Your light and Your truth. Let them lead me."

Then the awareness came months later that God had answered this prayer. He didn't lead me by saying, "You're to be with this ministry or that ministry or to live in this state or that state." What He had done was to answer what was the real prayer of my heart, and that was to find the presence of God.

In those months I had been forced to seek God and His heart and His face in a way that was more intense than maybe I ever had prior to that point. I realized God's will and God's goal for that season in my life was not "Where should I live? What ministry should I serve with?" Those were secondary issues.

God's real goal was to get me to Himself. That had happened, and I realized months later that God had answered this prayer. He had sent out His truth. He had sent out His light. He had led me, and He had led me to Himself, my exceeding joy.

That's the goal as you talk to God, as you get into His presence. Tell Him your problems. Ask Him your questions. Then ask Him to meet your need. Ask Him to restore the communion and the fellowship you've been missing.

Realize that as you ask Him to lead you, you're really saying, "Lord, not just get me out of my problems." You're not just saying, "Lord, solve my problems." You're not just saying, "Lord, fix my situation or change my situation."

You're saying ultimately, "Lord, lead me into a more intimate fellowship and communion with You. If in order to experience that kind of union and communion with You it means that You keep me right in the storm, then I accept that. It's okay. Yes, it may hurt. Yes, I may weep. But God, You are my exceeding joy. My goal in life is not Your gifts. My goal in life is not ease. My goal in life is not comfort and convenience. My goal in life is You, God, my exceeding joy."

Leslie Basham: Nancy Leigh DeMoss will be right back to lead us in prayer. Do you find it hard to keep God Himself your ultimate goal every day? You might benefit from listening to this program again, letting the message sink into your heart and mind. It comes as part of a seven-part series called Dealing With Depression and Doubt You can get it on two CDs for a suggested donation of $10 or two cassettes for $8.

Because we have a specific time slot on the radio, we can't always bring you Nancy's entire teaching on a subject. But when you order the series on cassette or CD, you'll get the message in its entirety. To get your copy, you can visit our Web site at ReviveOurHearts.com or call toll-free: 1-800-569-5959.

We'd love to hear from you. If you're going through a season of doubt or depression right now and you've been encouraged by this series, would you write to Nancy and let her know? Or maybe your situation is still hard and you'd like us to pray. Please write to Revive Our Hearts.

Well, if you're in the habit of talking to yourself, be sure to join us for tomorrow's program. We'll hear about a man who seemed to do this a lot, and it really helped. Now again, here's Nancy.

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Father, I do pray that in each of our lives You would send forth Your light and Your truth, that You would lead us to Yourself, for You are God, our exceeding joy. You are our hope. You are our refuge, our fortress, our deliverer, God our rock. We praise You in Jesus' name. Amen.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss is a ministry partnership of Life Action Ministries.

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