Finding Hope and Comfort in Hard Times, Part 2

Guest (Male): Today on Telling the Truth, Jill Briscoe digs into the Psalms to share how you can encourage and comfort others just as God comforts you. She's coming up with that message in a moment, but first, everyone experiences disappointments in life. And when those thoughts are left unattended, they can lead you to despair and cause you to miss out on the abundant life Jesus promises. That's why we want to help you win the battle against feelings of discouragement by sending you Stuart and Jill Briscoe's five message series, Hope for the Disheartened. The Hope for the Disheartened series is our thanks for your gift to help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. So request your copy when you give today. 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now here's Jill with her message, Finding Hope and Comfort in Hard Times.
Jill Briscoe: You know there's a wonderful passage of scripture in two Corinthians. Thank God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ that he is our father and the source of all mercy and comfort. He gives us comfort in our trials so that we in turn may be able to give the same sort of strong sympathy to others in theirs. Indeed experience shows that the more we share Christ's suffering, the more we are able to give of his encouragement. This means that if we are experiencing trouble, we can pass on to you comfort and spiritual help. For if we ourselves have been comforted, we know how to encourage you to endure patiently the same sort of troubles that we have ourselves endured. We're quite confident that if you have to suffer troubles as we have done, then like us you will find the comfort and encouragement of God. The best passage to go and really dig into if you're looking for comfort in the scriptures is two Corinthians chapter one. We can comfort others. David found comfort. We go to his Psalms. He in turn comforts us through the comfort he himself received from God. Now David, as I said, needed many, many times when he needed comfort. And another way that God comforts us through the Holy Spirit, through the word of God is through a friend. And the story of David and Jonathan, if you return to one Samuel chapter 17. One Samuel chapter 17. The story of David and Jonathan is absolutely wonderful. And I'm not going to be able to read too much of this to you. My Bible has very little words. So I'm going to have to remember the story of David and Jonathan, which is pretty easy. David had just killed Goliath. He comes to Saul with the head of Goliath in his hands. Jonathan, his son, has watched this take place. Jonathan, a mighty warrior. Jonathan, a giant of a man spiritually. His father is the king and here's this little kid who's just killed this giant and stands there with the trophy in his hand and Goliath's sword in his other hand. After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David and he loved him as himself. From that day Saul kept David with him and didn't let him return to his father's house. So David, it says in the King James, Saul was knit with Jonathan and Jonathan's with David. And Saul at first said, I want you to come and be my personal assistant. So David went from the sheep to Saul's court and he went back and forth for a time. And in chapter 20 as David is playing his harp a spear is thrown at him and Saul tries to kill him. He also tries to kill Jonathan for trying to protect David. And so Jonathan goes to David and says, Look, I can see that my father is trying to kill you. This isn't going to work. You're going to have to run away. And they make covenants. Four times, I think, Jonathan and David get together and they covenant that promise thing is done between them. And Jonathan gives him his cloak. He gives him his bow. He gives him his weapons of war. And it's a symbol to say, you're going to be king and I'm going to serve you. He gives away his inheritance. Jonathan was meant to be king. He was Saul's son. And he said, No, no, no. I know. I can see God's hand on you. I will serve you. That is his said love. That is love coming back to someone else. Jonathan shows us what real love is all about. And David runs away and he has all these adventures, has incredible adventures. He gets himself in a mess with the king of Gath and has to pretend he's insane to get out of it, scribbling on the wall and letting saliva drip down his beard. So the people of Gath said, Look, he's mad. Let him go. He runs away and he's hunted and he's in trouble with the Philistines and with the other people that live around and he's in trouble with Saul. And in one Samuel 23 Jonathan goes to him and it says that he encouraged him in the Lord. He strengthened his hand in God. He encouraged him in his faith in God. These are all different translations. He helped him to have strong faith. He strengthened his hand in the Lord. What a wonderful thing it is when through a friend, through a Jonathan, you find strength and encouragement. And you know we can all be Jonathans. We can all help and encourage other people through strength and faith and encourage them in the Lord when they are downed. Do you know anyone that's discouraged? What have you done to encourage them? Have you passed on a little bit of encouragement that you have received? Have you thought of an incident in a Christian book that you have read, that you have sitting on your shelf? That book can be your messenger. You can you can send it. You can give it. Let your encouragement go to others that are in need. Be a Jonathan. You say, Well, I I need a Jonathan. Do you know how to find a Jonathan? Let those who would have a friend show themselves friendly, the book of Proverbs says. And so you be a Jonathan and you find that somebody is a Jonathan back to you. Giving comfort brings comfort back. Brings your friends. You have to start. If you just sit there all your life waiting for somebody to be a Jonathan to you, you'll never find a Jonathan. But as you actively engage in encouragement as you get out there, as you exercise a ministry of presence with someone that needs an encouraging word, then you'll find that those very people that you encourage become your friends and your encouragers. You love like Jonathan. Now then David ended up in a cave in the cave of Adullam hunted by Saul, hunted like an animal. But I want to turn you in these last minutes to Psalm 42, which is believed to be David's Psalm. It's believed to be his Psalm because they pretty sure he wrote Psalm 43. But Psalm 43 is part of Psalm 42 somewhere in the putting it into the scriptures it got divided. We know that he wrote Psalm 43 so we presume he wrote 42 because they are considered one Psalm. As the deer pants for the streams of water and here again you see for the director of music of the sons of Korah, David gave it to them. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. The background is the cave of Adullam. The background is David desperately hunted like a deer is persecuted by the hunters. He felt like that little hind. And as I looked at this Psalm, I just divided it very simply into some headings. We start off with a dry deer, a dry deer. I pant. I'm open mouthed with longings for your commands. I'm on the run. I'm persecuted. I'm a disconnected deer, says David. I'm alone. I'm frightened. I feel cut off from God and just when I need him the most I remember my friend dying of cancer saying to me, I've always been able to feel God near and now I can't feel him anymore and just when I need him the most. That's how David felt. He felt just when he needed God the most. He was panting. He was thirsty. He didn't feel comforted, satisfied. Couldn't find that refreshment of spirit he needed. He was a deserted deer. People were saying to him, Where is your God? Where is your God?
Guest (Male): Don't go anywhere. There's more light giving truth from the Briscoes headed your way. tellingthetruth.org and the Telling the Truth app are great resources to help you grow in your spiritual life. Packed with videos like Ask the Briscoes, articles from Stuart and Jill, and encouraging audio teaching content, you'll find a treasure trove of resources to encourage you and others in your faith. And while you're there, you can also request this month's featured resource when you give a gift to help more people around the world experience life in Christ. So visit us online or download the app today. We look forward to connecting with you. Now here's more from Jill.
Jill Briscoe: You know when he was in the cave of Adullam, everybody turned against him, even his own men who had come to him. And they wanted to stone him to death. And that's the reason that we don't need to get into now. And he found himself totally alone and the scriptures say David encouraged himself in the Lord. You know others can encourage you. The Holy Spirit can do it. The word of God can do it. But there comes a point where you have to appropriate it. And he was absolutely alone. Even his very closest men and people. And how did he do that? He panted after God even though he felt disconnected, deserted, disappointed, his soul panting after God. He was a drear deer. He was a dry deer and he was a drear deer. The big D for depression. He was disappointed with God and everybody around him was saying, Where is your God? I was reading in a book about an incredible testimony of a man in prison who became a believer. And he was in a cell with a lot of people that weren't. One of those men in the cell tried to persecute this Christian and destroy his faith. I got away with everything for a while, but you always reach the end of your rope. I got drunk. I got into a fight. I found myself in jail. There was a guy in my cell, a Baptist who prayed a lot, would always cross himself before meals. Many people including me mocked him for this. Out of boredom I dragged him into dispute over the word of God. And he began to win. Just for the fun of it I began defending atheism. I really couldn't have cared less about God or atheism. I just wanted to break him, break his confidence in this God and that word of God that he read. That was the main thing. Arrogance pushed me on and I achieved what I wanted. My cellmate stopped talking. He fell silent. He began to cry. Then he began to pray that his faith would be strengthened and that his belief in the word of God would remain strong and he prayed out loud, louder and louder. He strengthened himself. He found courage in his God. I suddenly felt no satisfaction in my victory. A horrible weight fell upon me. I felt sick like I'd done something mean. He just kept on praying and praying, but more calmly now and suddenly he looked at me and smiled and I was amazed at his face. There was something joyful about it, pure like it had been washed. And the weight immediately fell from my soul and I understood that he'd forgiven me. And then a light of some sort penetrated me and I understood that God existed. It wasn't even so much I understood, but I sensed it with my whole being. He exists. He alone has always been and always will be. He's everywhere. He's our father. We're his children, brothers one to another. And I forgot I was in a prison and felt only one thing, a great joy and thankfulness to the Lord who revealed himself to me who was unworthy. And amazing because a man lost without any help, his own cellmates turning against him, his family far away, encouraged himself in the Lord. And what happened? He started off panting, doubting, in depression. A down deer, a drear deer. And he ended up praising God. A deer deer. d e a r d e e r. By day the Lord directs his love. However dark the night, he gives me a song in the night. God gave this man a song in his cell, a song in the night. And he sang it. He encouraged himself in the Lord. He drew on that Holy Spirit of comfort just when he needed him more. And he looked up and he smiled because God is a God of love and he forgave that cellmate that was giving him such a hard time. And the power of that converted a man who became a worker among prisoners for the rest of his life. We can rely on the unchanging quality and put our hope and confidence in God himself. The psalmist ends up in this Psalm a delighted deer. He he is just delighted. One thing he has found, my heart delights in thee. He is focusing on God alone. He is getting back to basics. Oh that my soul and his may be so knit together that him and him alone may be all that matters. You know sometimes I think God allows things to happen in our lives so that we may be driven back to a situation in our own spiritual lives and hearts where there is only one person in the end that we can turn to for comfort. Sometimes he takes all the props away. Sometimes he takes our family away. Sometimes he takes our children away. And And we just have this huge hole in our lives. And I don't know what God feels about this. He must feel pretty depressed about it, but in the last event we turned to him, not in the first for comfort and for help. And maybe he takes our ministry away. Maybe he takes all these things away. I love everything I do. I love all my ministry, my writing, my speaking. But if I could never speak again for him, would he still be enough for me? In the end he drives us to himself that we might find in him hope and comfort and presence so that nothing else matters. And as I got to the end of Through Gates of Splendor I came across the way they end the book. When Jim Elliot, who was a poet was found lying face down in that river they went and found a few things left in the camp they'd made in their tree house and one of them was his diary. And as they had camped out there and as they were trying to make friends with those natives that eventually murdered them he had written night after night as he would in his devotional diary. That diary of course is the basis of many of these books. But one of the pieces that he had written had been written either the night before he went to glory or shortly there too. And they end the book with this. And wanting to include the wives and how they felt about all this, this is what they said. For the wives and relatives of the five men, the mute longing of their hearts was echoed by words found in Jim Elliot's diary. I walked out of the hill just now. It's exalting. Delicious to stand embraced by the shadows of a friendly tree with the wind tugging at your coattail and the heavens hailing your heart to gaze in glory and give oneself again to God. What more could a man ask? Oh the fullness, pleasure, sheer excitement of knowing God on earth. I cannot if I never raise my voice again for him. If only I may love him, please him, may happen mercy, he shall give me a host of children that I may lead them through the vast star fields to explore his delicacies whose finger ends set them to burning. But if not if only I may see him, touch his garments and smile into his eyes, are there not stars nor children shall matter, only himself. And then the prayer. Oh Jesus, master and center and end of all. How long before that glory is thine which so long waited thee? Now there is no thought of thee among men. Then there shall be thought for nothing else. Now other men are praised. Then none shall care for any others merits. Hasten, hasten glory of heaven. Take thy crown. Subdue thy kingdom. Enthral thy creatures. And he got his wish the very next day. But oh to have a faith. I long for it where nothing matters but him. And if through all our little troubles they bring us to that point then thank him for them and praise him for them. For the God of all comfort then becomes all all that we need and all that we want.
Guest (Male): Now here's Jill to discuss more from today's message. Jill, how can a believer reach out to a person who's hurting and it not be awkward or intrusive? Where's a good place to start?
Jill Briscoe: Well a good place to start is friendship and waiting for the right moment and not overwhelming people with advice. In other words, listening. Listen with love. And that takes time before you start lecturing or passing on scripture verses or you should read this book or uh I find that very hard because I'm not a listener, I'm a talker. And talkers find it hard to listen, but you have to learn to listen. My one of my biggest life lessons was dealing with a teenager in Africa, a missionary kid who was in deep trouble. And it took me four days of listening before I dared to say anything. And she found in me a listener and she emptied out. And I wanted so desperately I I kept wanting to interrupt and to defend this person and defend her parents and defend God. And I had to listen as she spilled out what was happening in her heart. And in the end four days it took and I was around her and with her in a in a school situation. And in the end she was listened out. And then she began to listen to me. Not until. And I wrote she wrote me a note I've kept in my Bible. Because you listened to me I knew that you loved me. And because I knew that you loved me, I listened to you. Life lesson. So how can we reach out? Start by listening. Yes of course you want to start as you hear the heart and you heard jump in. Don't. Ask for self-control of the spirit and listen through to the heart of the problem. Probably what you're hearing isn't the heart of the real problem. But if you listen long enough and get them talking until they're talked out, you'll hear what the real problem is and then you can start and speak into it. If you're not able to spend the time with the person or play with the person or play a game of tennis or golf or you know, play is very good to get to know people and build a friendship. But if it's a long distance friendship, then you can use things like send them a book, send them some tapes from Telling the Truth on the subject. Let's go on the website and look for the subject that you want to talk about and say, Do you know if you could just listen to this tape and then we'll talk on the phone etc etc. Or walk into a Christian bookstore. And whatever the problem is, if they're struggling with the belief there's a God at all, do you know how many wonderful books there are to send them? Uh if you say, Oh they wouldn't read a Christian book, they'd read a story. I remember using Chuck Colson's autobiography. Chuck Colson was in the government and he did things he shouldn't have done. He ended up in jail. He's a very important government official. And in jail he found Christ. And when he came out of jail, he began a prison fellowship ministry that literally stretches around the globe. So send send a story like that. You'll find stories of people that come to Christ in the most extraordinary circumstances that sometimes just fit the person that you want to help. So walk into a Christian bookstore, ask the people at the desk, Have you got a book about a sports person um that came to Christ? I'm really trying to reach this sports person. What could I send them? A conversion of somebody famous Lots of ways you can reach out and uh give them something good to read.
Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us today here on Telling the Truth. We pray today's message has helped you to experience life in all its fullness through Jesus Christ. Everyone experiences disappointments in life. And when things don't go the way we expect or desire, either tragically or in similar ways, discouragement can become entrenched as we begin to believe destructive thoughts like it's always going to be this way or I'll never overcome this. And when those thoughts are left unattended, they can lead you to despair and cause you to miss out on the abundant life Jesus promises. That's why we want to help you win the battle against feelings of discouragement by sending you Stuart and Jill Briscoe's five message series, Hope for the Disheartened. In it Stuart and Jill help you discover why your hope must be tied to trusting God and reliant on his strength and timing. You'll learn that even in trouble times you have a God who loves you and gives you every reason to look forward with unspeakable peace, hope, and joy. The Hope for the Disheartened series is our thanks for your gift to help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. So request your copy when you give today. 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Thanks for being with us today. Come back next time for more biblical truth and encouragement to help you experience life right here on Telling the Truth.