Victorious journey through tragedy and loss

Brethren, I want to talk to you about the victorious journey through tragedy and loss. It is a heavy subject. How to victoriously journey through tragedy and loss in life. And I want to take this teaching from the text of Second Samuel, the second book of the prophet Samuel, chapter 12. The story of David in a tragic moment in his life and how he was able to overcome that tragic moment and move forward and even be a blessing to all of us. Three thousand years later in the city of Boston we are receiving spiritual nourishment through the sad and tragic experience of the prophet and King David. Victorious journey through tragedy and loss, and where I want to go, which is in verse 11 of Second Samuel: 12, or we go to 9 better. Terrible words from God to David who has committed an extremely serious and grave sin and has offended God in a very profound way. And God has a severe verdict for David, a very strong punishment for him and now we are going to enter into the drama of this man who is going through a bitter moment in his life. The prophet Nathan has approached David after David has killed a man, ordered to kill a righteous man and has committed adultery with his wife before and to cover his sin he orders him to kill and assassinate, a noble man, a general faithful and offends God in a profound way.

And these are the words of the Lord to that David who has fallen into that terrible trap. And God says in verse 9 to David, "Why then did you despise the word of the Lord by doing evil in his sight?" This is the prophet Nathan speaking to David. “You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to wife, and you killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon. For which reason now – a terrible ruling – the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Thus saith Jehovah. Behold, I will bring evil upon you from your own house, and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor who will lie with your wives in the sight of the sun, because you did it in secret but I will do this before all Israel and in full sun.” Terrible words from God to David. "Then David said to Nathan, 'I have sinned against the Lord.' David acknowledges his sin when confronted with it, doesn't call it another name, doesn't try to evade it. He acknowledges that he has sinned against the Lord. And we remember the words of David in Psalm 51, “Against you alone have I sinned and done evil in your sight.” He knows that his main sin is against the holiness of God himself, the name of Jehovah, his justice, his standard. He has done this and his enemies have been scandalized.

“And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin. you will not die But because in this matter you have caused the enemies of Jehovah to blaspheme, the son that has been born to you will surely die.” And Nathan returned to his house, and Jehovah struck the child that Uriah's wife had given David, and he became seriously ill. So, David prayed to God for the child – and here we enter the very center of David's drama – he prayed to God for the child and David fasted and went in and lay on the ground for the night. And the elders of his house arose and went to him to raise him up from the ground, but he would not, nor did he eat bread with them. And on the seventh day the child died, and David's servants were afraid to let him know that the child had died, saying among themselves, "When the child was still alive, we talked to him and he did not want to hear our voice, how much more will he be grieved if we tell him that the child has died." But David, seeing his servants talking among themselves, understood that the child had died, so David said to his servants, "Has the child died?" And they answered, "He is dead." Then, David arose from the ground…” David does something here that is unexpected, his servants are confused because he says, “…he arose from the earth, washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes and entered the house of Jehovah and I like." Imagine, you adored the God who took your son's life after he asked you not to and humbled yourself and cried out. But therein lies the greatness of David's heart. And many times when we go through difficult situations of trial, loss, tragedy, we can do nothing more glorious than humble ourselves before God, humble ourselves under his mighty hand and adore him, even if we don't feel the desire to do so, but many times out of obedience. And by doing that God is greatly glorified.

"And David went to the house of the Lord, worshiped, and then came to his house and asked, and they put bread for him, and he ate." I guess that food didn't taste very good to David. But he did it out of obedience. “And his servants said to him, “What is this that you have done? For the living child you still fasted and wept and when he died, you got up and ate bread. And he replied, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and cried saying, who knows if God will have compassion on me and the child will live? But now that he's dead, why should I fast? Can I make him come back? I go to him but he will not come back to me.” Very powerful words. I go to him but he will no longer come back to me. We're going to talk about that a little bit later. "And David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and coming to her, he slept with her, and she bore him a son; he called his name Solomon, and the LORD loved him." Very powerful words.

How can we develop the ability to recover in the face of tragedy? The greatest tragedy imaginable, the loss of a loved one, for example, a financial tragedy, the loss of a house as some experienced years ago or a business in which we have invested time and money, a radical loss of health when a The doctor tells us that we have a serious health condition and that this is going to disrupt our plans, our routine of life, perhaps threatening the years that we will be on earth, or the loss of a dream that we have cherished for a long time and that at the moment the walls of that dream come crashing down. How to deal with those terrible situations in which we feel disappointed with God? Do not raise your hand, but have you ever felt that God has disappointed you, that he has not done what he promised you, that he has not lived up to your expectations? When we feel that God in some way has not fulfilled his promises of protection and blessing. How to continue loving God and believing in his promises after we have prayed and fasted for a miracle? I have spoken with mothers who prayed to the Lord for a prodigal son, to keep him, to protect him, and in the end they saw that son die in a shootout. How does that mother feel? What does one tell you? What does God expect? Those are realities. How can we recover love for God, gratitude to the Lord, confidence that God is faithful and that He keeps His promises, that He has not made mistakes, that He has not neglected, after having done everything by the book? .

There are people who are faithful to the Lord, serve God, serve their church, serve the kingdom, preach, fast, pray, tithe, do everything well, have repented of their evil ways, and yet a terrible situation comes to them. their lives and they feel like they've been punched in the pit of the stomach because why, Lord, if I've been good? When we have a result that we feared comes into our lives, despite believing in God and doing things right. In similar situations, people can get depressed, as many do, get angry with life, bitter towards God, sometimes we stop dreaming and our voices cut off like a little bird that has been scared by a snake and becomes mute and can no longer sing. because of the trauma. And so it happens to us many times when we go through those situations. Or experience a pain that prevents us from returning to normal life, we already live life from then on limping, injured, bleeding drop by drop like the woman with the flow of blood being weakened. How to recover and continue with the affairs of life despite experiencing the greatest pain and the most powerful discouragement? How do we recover the capacity to believe in God in those losses of life?

David's experience has lessons to teach us and I'm going to run through them to cover more territory. David has sinned as we see, he has taken a noble man, good, faithful to him, an excellent general, a man of character that when we read the story of Uriah we see that he is a man of bulletproof character. And David, having betrayed him with the wife on whom he probably forced himself with his royal authority, tries to cover it up and when Urías does not enter into the plot that he wants to put in Urías to hide it, David orders him to be killed. And he orders to kill him involving other of his generals, hatching a terrible plot, a plot for Urías to be killed on the field of war and for everything to go well, according to him. But God denounces him, confronts him and gives him a terrible judgment. I imagine how David's feeling must have been. God is incredibly offended with him, because David has used the enemies of God to kill a man of God. And that has deeply offended God and God sees it as an offense to his dignity, to his name and He says, "You have insulted me, you have not taken me into account." And that offends God and deeply angers him. He calls it, "You have had absolute contempt, in English he says, for me." So in this moment that we find David, his life is destroyed. God has rebuked him, his self-esteem, his understanding of life, everything, and God has told him, "That son you had by accident now has to die." Why did God take that child's life? It is not because God is cruel. First, God is the owner of all life and God, I am sure, took that child for himself and transferred it to his presence. Because David says, "I go to him, but he will not come back to me." God made an executive administrative decision. That child bore the guilt of David and the death of a just man. It was the product of something very terrible and God decided how to withdraw it from the human economy. He took it. And David is crying out to God and asking him to have mercy on him, but God doesn't listen and finally the child dies.

And in David's reaction we have some things that we can learn when God does not listen to what we ask, when the most terrible thing happens, when we are destroyed in our situation, what do we do at that moment? David could have said, you know what? I already disregard this God who has no mercy and that's it. And he could have gone the way of so many other kings that followed him, idolatry, all the things that others did. But David does something different, and this is where I think we can learn from him. And there are some things that I want to quickly go through. There are about four things that David does. I am going to put them as preliminaries, but they are very important and then I am going to enter my own words of advice for all of us.

Number 1. David does everything he can to change the outcome of his situation. He uses the resources at his hand. He prays, cries out, fasts, humbles himself, underlines his request before God, throws himself on the ground, does not bathe. It's a cry. "God have mercy, forgive me and spare the life of my son." And when we are in situations of difficulty and terrible loss, we must do what we can. We must cry out to the Lord, or when we feel that we are under a serious threat we must do everything, pray, cry out to God, do our part. That is important. But we know that God has the last word. The Lord Jesus Christ did the same, by the way, He knew that He had the cross before Him. He knew that He had come specifically to take the bitterest drink of all, but He said, “Father, if it is your will, pass from me this cup," and then added, "But your will be done and not mine." There was a part of crying out there. He was up all night, praying, crying out to God to save him from the bitterest drink, but ultimately he was willing to follow what God told him. And we have to cry out to God for our healing, we have to cry out to God for our children, we have to pray. That is part of the believer's life. We have to do it knowing that the Lord has the last word. But David does that, and we have to cover our life with prayer, our children in prayer, our family, our marriage, everything, we have to pray and cry out, do our part. Our due diligence, as they say in English. We have to do the diligence that is our responsibility. He does all of that.

Secondly, when the time comes for him to receive an opinion other than what he asks for, he lowers his head and bows his face before the verdict of the Almighty. He does not reveal himself, he does not become embittered against God, and how many of us sometimes feel when something happens in our life. And we must prepare ourselves for that drink. When the moments of great loss in our lives come, we have to be prepared because the moment, brothers, to react well to the tragedies of life is not at the very moment we find ourselves in it. We have to meditate first, prepare our hearts, study the word of the Lord, pray to the Lord, “Father, if there ever comes a time in my life when I have to go through the most bitter pill, strengthen me. What do you want me to do? How I should proceed?" We have to rehearse those moments many times in our lives to know how to react to them and be prepared. We have to study the word of the Lord, see examples like David's. David doesn't get bitter. And it is one of the terrible things that we can do, when we have those moments, is to become bitter against God. I'm not going to serve it. I'm not going to look for it. I'm going to stop going to church. I will curse of God. And we entered that stage of internal rebellion. I believe that it is one thing to feel wounded by God and be perplexed by something that He dictates, but another thing is to become embittered against the Lord. My brother, we can't do that. No alternative. Getting bitter against God is like holding your nose so you don't breathe because you're upset.

"It is hard for you to kick against the pricks." We have to know that as Peter says, where will we go if only you have the word of eternal life? Where are we going to go outside of the presence and goodness of God, brother? To the arms of the devil where there is no protection? We don't have that alternative. As children of God we have to know that we have to return to Daddy's arms and kiss his hand and tell him, "You are powerful." We have to be prepared for that. David is not bitter but he adores. He reconciles with his situation and goes before the Father. I imagine that those first words from David when he went to the temple after the death of his son, were simply words of self-discipline. He worshiped the Lord out of sheer discipline. And we have to do the same sooner or later. Prepare for when those difficult moments come in your life, be prepared to reconcile yourself with the hand of God because there is no alternative. God is like the air we breathe, like the heartbeat. We cannot live without it. Outside of Almighty God there is no life.

So, thirdly. David determines that life must go on, that he must join life, because what is the alternative? He is king and has a large nation to attend to. God has put him in that place. He is a father, he is an administrator, he has many things to do. The time has come, and God gave his opinion. And I think that there it is... because I chose this passage as an example of survival and resilience in life because David does what we have to do in different ways and perhaps a longer, shorter time, and that is that he picks himself up off the ground and so many of us have to do at times when we go through difficult situations. He gets up from the floor, goes to the bathroom, bathes, soaps himself after a week of not bathing, puts on some perfume, dresses well and goes out to life again. And that is a symbolic act. And that's what we have to do, brothers, when those difficult moments come, we have to know that one day we have to come back to life. Sometimes we tie our dead on our shoulders and we don't want to let them go. And that's not healthy. I always remember the story of a man in Japan who found out when he died, that he had spent his whole life with his dead wife at his bedside, sleeping with her because he couldn't get away from her. We cannot live with our dead, brothers, whatever it is, be it a dead dream, a financial situation, something we love, a loved one, whatever, we have to say goodbye to our dead, take whatever form. That is what suits life and move on. Many of us cannot let go and we cling to that pain, to that loss and what it does is like a nail that grows inward and digs into our flesh and makes us bleed and it is continuous pain. Let your dead go whatever they are. Fire them and come back to life, because there is a long way to go. And David does that, he integrates back to his normal life.

And the last thing he does is that he uses his conviction about eternal life to dilute his pain a bit, meaning, when his servants cannot understand how it is possible that when his son was alive he is like this, in pain, sad , tragic and for the moment, now that his son died, he can then find conformity. And he says, “Hey, my son already died. I can no longer bring him, he is already on the ground of eternity, but I am going to go to him." And brothers, it is so important that eternity and heaven become very real in our hearts for us to be able to deal with the problems of life. Many Christians do not have a strong and clear enough sense of eternity. I believe that we have to take a dose of eternity every day and remember that the world cannot be my home, as that hymn says. In glory I have my mansion, the world cannot be my home. We are foreigners and pilgrims on earth. Amen. And this world we have to live lightly in it. Do not become attached or cling to anything in this world, neither the husband you adore nor the children who are the light of your eyes, nor that BMW that you shine every Saturday, or those friends on Facebook. Don't be attached to anything in this world. We have to take a pill away from the world every day and as Christians we cannot, he says, love the world or the things of the world. Our head is in eternity even while our feet walk on solid ground. We live that duality.

And I believe many Christians need to cultivate the sense of eternity, the second coming of Christ, when God will cover all tears, dry all tears, all pain, all disagreements, and we will be healthy and understand how we are understood by God. We have to live for that, while we are here on earth, there will be grief, there will be pain, there will be suffering. One of the things that allowed the Apostle Paul to write the most joyful epistle of all, which is the Epistle to the Philippians, is said to be the epistle of joy. “Rejoice, again I tell you, rejoice, the Lord is near,” says Paul. And how could Paul be content in a Roman dungeon with damp and rats surely running around his feet? And it was because he says, “I know what's up there, God took me up there, and I know that being with the Lord is much better. And if I live here on earth, it is because I can be of benefit to the Gospel but I would like to be with God." That the Lord was so real to us and that we could be so convinced of eternity that the troubles of life are relatively easy to bear because we know that one day we will be with the Lord, and we will be much better.

And he knows one thing, that the person who lives with the conviction of the eternal, is better able to live powerfully on earth. That is what is paradoxical. When you know that your ticket is purchased, that your passport is stamped, that you are going with the Father, then you can live this life more effectively, with more freedom, with more joy, with more effectiveness, you can do everything you want. come to hand and do it as for the Lord. You are then like a trapeze artist who is 200 feet high or 100 feet high, and he does some incredible flips because he knows that there is a net below that if he falls, he falls on that safety net. And that is so important that we understand it. So like David, use eternal life as a way to dilute your pain. I have said four things: do everything in our power, bow our heads before God's verdict, determine that life must go on, be convinced of eternal life.

Number five, other things that already enter another field on my part. This is important advice. Even while we are experiencing and processing the pain that we are suffering at the moment, we must act in some way to the extent that we have the capacity, to act, to do things, to mobilize, to move. The action, brothers, the commitment to life, I say that greases the machinery and heats it up. When we are in pain, the worst thing we can do is throw ourselves to death, get into bed, cover our heads with a sheet, lower the blinds, darken the room and have a big self-pity party there and leave it. That is not an option for a child of God. We have to get dressed, we have to bathe, we have to go out into life, we have to take care of the children, we have to go to church, we have to worship the Lord. You have to act. The believer cannot freeze in pain. And you know what? That when you start to act, that makes your body start to react. Sometimes we think that I must first feel good before acting. And many times it is the opposite. To feel good I have to act. And sometimes those first steps that you take in faith, when you are in the midst of your pain, that then allows the anointing of God to flow in your life and healing to come. I really believe that we cannot wait until we have to then give or act. We have to give and act by then, receive and have.

What happens when one breaks an arm or tears a muscle? What do the therapists tell you? You have to move your arm even if it hurts and when you go to therapy they make you do different movements and you feel the muscle that hurts and at the end of the day, after doing that, your body is sore. But the therapist tells you, “If you don't, you're going to shrink. That muscle is going to shrink.” Someone has said, if you fall off a horse, get on it as soon as possible again. And we have to do that in life. We have to act, we have to work, we have to move, we have to bathe, we have to dress, we have to go to work in the name of the Lord believing that by doing that by faith, God will open the way before us, open the sea. Let us learn to work and act in the name of the Lord even when we do not have the desire. There is much more cloth to cut but at least that helps us. We have to go back to church, we have to pray, we have to start a conversation with a friend, a trusted advisor. You have to seek healing somehow.

Number 6. We have to be patient with ourselves and our feelings. We have to consider things in the long term. Acknowledging that yes, we are hurt at the time of the loss but that with time, things will get better. Just like the human body… God has given the human body the ability to heal itself. You hurt your arm or whatever, and the doctor tells you, it's going to take 6 to 8 weeks, but you'll be better. And the body has its own resources that God has given, and the same goes for the emotional and spiritual system. If we give it time, there are powers within us that God has placed so that we gradually experience healing, reflecting, coming into conformity. And when we are going through the shock first, we have to remember this too shall pass, as they say in English, this too shall pass. Times of refrigeration will come, times of recovery and healing will come. And you have to be patient with yourself. When you are in a hard time, know that better times will come and be patient with yourself. Wait and trust that better times will come. What you experience during the early stages of your loss, the shock and grief, will not last forever with the same level of intensity. Whatever it is, one day you will find peace of mind, if you let it, if you let your natural and divinely given processes work within you. Do not assume that what you are experiencing in the first few days of your loss, the shock and grief will last forever at the same level of intensity. Give yourself time and give your feelings time. You must be patient and assume that the time of healing will come. Just wait, keep hoping, and wait for your system and your spirit to do what it was designed to do.

I love Psalm 40 that we have quoted so many times, “I waited patiently for the Lord,” it says, and he leaned down to me and heard my cry, and he lifted me up out of the pit of despair, out of the miry mud, he placed my feet on rock and straightened my steps. Then he put a new song in my mouth. Praise our God." We must wait for the day of the new song. What is the new song that David says will come? The new song is that new moment in life when we have already left mourning and have found our voice to worship the Lord, a moment of new normality in our lives. When there will perhaps be the memory of past pain, but there will also be new things to celebrate. There will be moments of restoration, of joy, of laughter again. The new song

When you are going through the old song, which is a song of pain, remember that God is also going to put a new song in your mouth. And the psalmist David says, "And many will see this and fear and trust in the Lord."

Because when you go through great pain and loss, you stand firm, trust in the Lord, God takes you out, there are many people looking to see what will happen to you. There are many people who are weak and in need of good examples and your children are also watching how mom is going to fight with this. How is she going to get over this? And you will be giving them a great moral lesson when they see you get up, leave, move on, find your life again and you will bless many. Look at us here learning from David's drama three thousand years later. “Many will see this,” he was prophesying. Do you know how many billions of people have read David's story and been strengthened by it? And he was saying, "Many will see this and fear and trust in Jehovah." That fear, fearing the Lord is amazement, the truth is that God is trustworthy, he is sublime, how mysterious are his ways. Look how this person recovered. They will fear and trust in Jehovah.

Trust in the mercy and compassion of God. Trust that one day, his goodness will manifest itself in powerful and visible ways. In David's case, by the way, God gave him a precious substitute for his son. He gave Solomon, a wise, understanding, glorious man, with a kingdom... Solomon made his mistakes too, it's true, but Solomon had a glory like no other king ever had. And God loved him, God loved Solomon in a very special way. I always say that God's consolation prizes are better than even the original prizes. When God gives you a consolation prize, forget about it, it's better than the first. We have seen many times that God takes something from us but gives us something better many times, if we bless his hand and adore him in the midst of pain.

Another thing, when you are going through tragedy, loss, pain, now like a madman, now like crazy, now with all your strength, now desperately, now as if sucking in breaths of air. In prayer there is consolation, in prayer there is hope, in prayer there is an escape valve that helps you express your pain, your fear, your anguish. When I am in anguish, I cry out to the Lord. I put my head on his chest and talk to him without any shame. If I have to cry, I cry. If I have to express my panic, I express it to him, because I know that my Father listens to me and that there is nothing like shouting in front of God. Lock yourself in a safe so they don't hear you and shout before God. Express your pain in front of Him. Pray, cry out, ask the Lord, use your… Prayer is not only to ask God, give me this, give me that. Prayer sometimes is simply for you to drop your load in front of your Father, speak to the best psychiatrist in the universe and unload your pain in front of Him. You have to pray and the habit of prayer is cultivated in times of peace, Not in wartime. If you have not learned to pray in times of peace, it will be difficult to pray in times of war. Learn about the armor of God, when the bad day comes, he says, that you may stand firm and when the bad day has passed, have been found firm. So learn to pray and learn to release your tears and your anguish and your confusion, and your anger also before God and pray, pray, pray because prayer is a massage for the spirit when we are in difficulties.

Number 8. Even if you don't feel it, confess the goodness of God. Even if you don't feel that God is good, say, because he is good and his mercy is forever. confess. I spoke last Sunday about that, that sometimes we have to confess good, positive things, we have to trust that God is going to do something good even if you don't believe it, but say it anyway. And anticipate the moment of liberation, because that will help you pass the desert time. Job did that during his terrible time. If we read the Book of Job it is a book of a man who experienced the most terrible loss of all, his health, children, reputation, everything, he lost everything, social status, everything. And when Job was in the midst of his great tragedy, he anticipated the moment of deliverance, even as he complained to God, because that's the fight we have. That fight of hope against hope. I believe, it helps my credulity, as the father of the demon-possessed son told Jesus.

Look at how Job talks about his situation at any given time and how he views God. It says, “God made his anger burn against me…” – we are in the book of Job, chapter 19, a terrible chapter, it says, “he made his anger burn against me and numbered me among his enemies. Their armies came together and entrenched themselves against me and encamped around my tent.” He is seeing God as an army surrounding him and chasing him. “He has driven my brothers away from me, and my acquaintances as strangers have turned away from me.” You see that God is not often offended when we express our raw feelings in front of Him. “My relatives stopped, my acquaintances forgot about me,” - they no longer respond to my Facebook messages because I no longer have good food to show them and the trip to Europe that I made. People don't like bad news, so they say, “My acquaintances forgot about me, the inhabitants of my house and my maids considered me as a stranger, I was a stranger in their eyes. I called my servant and he did not answer, I pleaded with my own mouth and did not make himself understood. My breath became strange to my wife." In the English that I used this morning in the English service it says, "My breath was unpleasant to my wife." When one is in anguish, it must be said that the breath is not the best. He reaches that graphic level of saying, if my wife was still bothered by my breath. “Although I begged them for the children of my entrails, even the boys despised me, when they got up they spoke against me. All my close friends hated me and those I loved turned against me. My skin and my flesh clung to my bones and I have escaped with only the skin of my teeth.” – that is, to mere possibility.

So, take that moment of terrible expression of bitterness, pain, suffering, and now watch what happens. In verse 25, skipping a few verses, I say that Job is kind of going backwards at 60 miles an hour and momentarily transfers almost simultaneously to going forward 60 miles an hour. How does one do that? Because he says here, "I know that my Redeemer lives." Wow! From the most terrible expression of pain and tragedy, at this moment he enters into a song of hope. "I know that my Redeemer lives and in the end he will rise above the dust and after my skin is undone, in my flesh I will see God." How important it is to express hope in the midst of pain and transfer ourselves to the place of hope even when we are in the midst of tragedy and suffering. "And after my skin is undone, in my flesh I will see God, whom I will see for myself and my eyes will see him and no other, although my heart fails within me." There you have one of the most powerful expressions, although my heart hurts terribly, I know that I will see, I know that my Redeemer lives. I know that God is faithful and that he is good. Brother, when you are in terrible pain, confess the goodness of God and go back to the place of hope even in the midst of the greatest pain. That is important, to embrace hope.

Number 9. Let God know how you feel, express your grief, your resentment, your pain, your bitterness. Talk to God honestly. Don't be so spirited, quote unquote, that you end up repressing your true feelings and spoiling the healing and recovery process. I believe there are stages we have to go through in pain, like a bone or muscle goes through stages of healing. And sometimes we rush healing before going through an organic process of restoring our emotions. Sometimes you have to scream, brothers, sometimes you have to experience pain, sometimes you have to shed a few tears, sometimes you have to get upset with God or with life and know that this is part of a healing process that will take you then , to health. It is paradoxical, but we Pentecostals often like to rush things and feel as if we are crying or mourning, we are being weak or lacking in faith. No, faith is that which goes through terrible pain and then enters the time of peace and reconciliation. It is not that he jumps over it, but that he passes through the storm. I think that's why Paul says, "In all these things we are more than conquerors." It is in the anguish, in the pain, the suffering, the moral failure, the struggle, the loss, the terrible anguish, passing through that meteor shower we arrive at the place of peace. So let it not be... peace in God is not devoid of suffering and struggle and doubt. God is glorified when we, in the midst of pain, learn to sing too. And there are many choirs that say that, but we don't understand what we are saying. It is easy to sing when peace reigns, says a chorus, a hymn, but in pain it is better to sing. Let's learn those life lessons. So don't be too spiritual. Acknowledge your pain. We see that through the psalms.

Number 10. I'm finishing. Share your pain and your struggle with people who are really able to listen to you and who are able to console you, mature people, deep, realistic people, who know, who have fought their own battles and who have their own wounds and medals. Because the person who has not suffered pain often does not know what is happening to the person. “No, boy, go ahead, don't worry, everything is fine. God is with you. praise him.” And they don't know that sometimes you look, sometimes you are in terrible distress and you pray, fast, do and your depression still persists, your agony, your anguish, your anxiety still persists. You do everything you have to do and you're still in the valley of the shadow of death. And that is life, that is reality, brothers. And only people who have been through it can be consoling. And sometimes for this reason I believe that God allows us to go through these situations in a controlled way in order to comfort others with the same consolation with which we have been comforted, says the Apostle Paul. God is preparing counselors here, psychiatrists, spiritual mothers, spiritual fathers, and he makes them come through sometimes and then restores them so that they can then be returned. God told Peter, "Satan has asked you to sift you like wheat, but once you return, go and comfort and edify your brothers." Sometimes God allows moral failure, the loss of dignity so that we become more patient and more understanding of those who have gone through those pains as well. So find yourself some good friends.

Job's friends failed him. Job's friends, I think, were secretly glad that he failed. They had seen Job prosperous, blessed, respected, full of wealth, the children all pretty and well behaved, each one in their mansions, and secretly they were envious of him. And I think they secretly rejoiced when they saw him in his misery. And those types of friends let's be careful with them. Find yourself mature people, people who have fought their battles and who have their own scars and who can understand what pain and human drama truly is. But find yourself good friends. Good friends are two or three at most, I think, in life. The others, well, they are known, that's fine, go to their house, eat with them, but there are only one or two select people and you have to take care of them like gold. And I want to be one of those friends of others too. But it is important that we seek friendship and community.

This is important, so I won't skip it. Avoid the syndrome of why me? why me? Why me, Lord? If I have behaved well, if I have done everything well, why did you choose me out of all the beings on earth to be the only one that you torture and expose to suffering? That's how Elias felt. "Oh, everyone has abandoned you, I'm the only one left." And God says to him, "Look, I have reserved for myself 7 thousand who have not bowed their knee to Baal." Avoid the syndrome of why me? And that is natural, because many times when we serve the Lord, we do things well, we behave well, and the pastors sometimes help us in that, to believe that if I do everything well, everything will turn out well. And that is unfair to the children of God, to tell them that you will not have… No, no, sometimes precisely because God loves us, we are going to go through tribulations and difficulties, because He is going to use those things to strengthen us and bless us. So avoid that syndrome. One of the things that helps me is knowing, brothers, that everything has time and opportunity, says the wise Solomon, things happen to all of us. I don't know a human being who hasn't gone through some kind of tribulation in his life. The people that I think are more blessed, more perfectly gifted, there is nothing in their lives, when you get closer, you see that they also suffer like all of us. They have illnesses that limit their lives, they have problems with a child, their marriage, how many great artists and very rich people we see that when we know something, that person who was supposedly perfect, has his complaints and ailments.

Here is the trauma that I say with a lot of respect, as I said this morning, from Bill from Microsoft, Bill Gates. Yeah, who would have thought that this man, again, he is… I respect him greatly, a man worthy of respect in many ways. I'm not saying this to glorify his pain, but seeing Bill Gates until recently with his wife Melinda, the perfect couple, working across the world, traveling, doing glorious things and now it's known that they're getting divorced. So, brother, that is the human reality. Here in this church, the one you think is higher has his own ailments, his own pain. Never envy anyone's situation. One of the Greek philosophers said, never declare a man happy until the day he dies, because until the last moment something can happen that changes everything. So, time and occasion happen to everyone. So don't think that you are the only one. This world is a valley of affliction, a valley of the shadow of death, a fallen world and many things can happen even to the children of God. Don't feel like you were alluded to and chosen for something. He knows that you have a very large company of other pilgrims who are on earth suffering from their own ailments.

The last thing, remember that there is always a solution. There is always a solution in life. That is my mantra through life. I believe there is always hope. When I sometimes find myself in a blind alley, I say, the Lord is going to provide something, something is going to happen. God is an expert at pulling rabbits out of a hat. God creates solutions where there are none. That chorus we sing, right? “God will make paths, where you think there are none. He works in ways we can't understand, along lonely paths he will lead us, and water in the desert he will provide,” or something like that. God specializes in providing water in the desert. And always believe that. Never give up the battle. He always believes there is hope. David again says, "I will say to God, my rock, why have you departed from me, why will I go mourning for the oppression of the enemy, as one who wounds my bones, my enemies face me saying every day, where is your God? But then he says, why are you dejected, oh my soul, and why are you troubled within me? Wait on God because I still have to praise him, my salvation and my God."

The time of celebration will come again, after the rain comes the sun. After winter comes spring, after the drought comes the rain that restores the earth, and moments of celebration will come into your life. If you are going through a difficult time say like David, "You who have made me see many anguish and evil, you will give me life again. And again you will raise me from the abysses of the earth, you will increase my greatness and you will comfort me again. Wait on God. He will not leave you or forsake you. He will be with you wherever you go. Bow your head a moment, bow your head, open your heart, open your mind, open your spirit, as I do here right now in my heart, and I say, Father, soak in your ointment, soak in your vapor, you Vick Vaporub of the spirit in my soul, in my distressed, sad mind, my feelings full of anxiety, my restless sleep, and your healing enters. Touch my soul, Lord. I will never deny you because you are my God in whom I have trusted. My soul, why are you troubled within me? Trust in God, trust in God. I declare the peace of the Lord over your life, I declare these words as seeds that fall into your heart and your land, and that word of God will continue to grow in you. And that you be a comforter to others and that you can comfort others with the same comfort that God comforts you with. Trust in the Lord because better times are coming in your life. Amen. And God will use you greatly, he will bless your loved ones. I bless you in the name of the Lord. Amen and amen.