The Lord also will be a refuge and a stronghold for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble;
And those who know Your name [who have experienced Your precious mercy] will put their confident trust in You, for You, O Lord, have not abandoned those who seek You.
(Psalm 9:9-10 AMP)
What makes someone persevere and not despair when they are going through horrendously hard circumstances?
Survivors of Nazi work and death camps in World War II, like Elie Wiesel and Corrie ten Boom, told horrendous stories of inhumane conditions, abuse, and hopelessness in those camps.
The main character in the movie “The Pursuit of Happyness” lost everything, was a homeless single parent, working a no-pay internship, deeply in debt, and at seemingly every turn faced with a new loss or struggle.
The Biblical story of Job is of a God-follower who, through no fault of his own, loses all his children, livestock, and riches. His wife tells him to curse God and die, and then his three “friends” tell him all his calamity must be because of his sin.
As I was reading more of Job’s story today I was astounded at how he just kept saying NO to his friends’ accusations. How would you keep the strength it takes to fight back against such unjust accusations when you’ve lost your children, wealth, wife’s support, and health? “Curse God and die” would definitely feel like an option. Yet, he persistently proclaims his innocence in the face of his friends’ assumptions. He persistently pesters God – begging for answers and relief. Most of the book of Job is a dialogue about why Job has lost so much, and only after almost 40 chapters of this conversation involving Job, his three friends, and God, do we see any resolution. In the midst of it there seemed to be no “happy ending.”
In the midst of starvation, lice, mind games, abuse, and death all around in the Nazi camps, there seemed to be no “happy ending.”
For the homeless man who had lost everything except his five-year-old son and his will to work, there seemed to be no “happy ending.”
Even when our lives in no way resemble these horrific stories, we must remember that there are people in this world whose circumstances may be different, but the struggles are real. For the parents of a missing person, for law enforcement agents who cannot stem sex trafficking, for those whose economic circumstances have them wondering how they will stay warm and fed this winter, for those who have lost friends or family to a drug overdose, for those whose lives are overturned by war and violence…. for so many hard, hard situations in the world, let us turn our eyes to the only Hope.
I will give thanks and praise the Lord, with all my heart;
I will tell aloud all Your wonders and marvelous deeds.
I will rejoice and exult in you;
I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.
When my enemies turn back,
They stumble and perish before You.
For You have maintained my right and my cause;
You have sat on the throne judging righteously.
You have rebuked the nations, You have destroyed the wicked and unrepentant;
You have wiped out their name forever and ever.
The enemy has been cut off and has vanished in everlasting ruins,
You have uprooted their cities;
The very memory of them has perished.But the Lord will remain and sit enthroned forever;
He has prepared and established His throne for judgment.
And He will judge the world in righteousness;
He will execute judgment for the nations with fairness (equity).
The Lord also will be a refuge and a stronghold for the oppressed,
A refuge in times of trouble;
And those who know Your name [who have experienced Your precious mercy] will put their confident trust in You,
For You, O Lord, have not abandoned those who seek You. (Psalm 9:1-10 AMP)
We pray you will grant strength, hope, and perseverance to those who are going through devastating times, O Lord. Do not abandon them, but help them to put their confident trust in you, their refuge and stronghold. We ask in Jesus’s name, AMEN.