Recounting The Good, Enduring The Bad (Psalm 13)

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I take counsel in my soul

and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

Consider and answer me, O LORD my God;

light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,

lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”

lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

But I have trusted in your steadfast love;

my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

I will sing to the LORD,

because he has dealt bountifully with me.

[Psalm 13, ESV]

For some reason, Psalm 13 has been on my heart for the past few days. It is quite a short Psalm, but it means a lot to me, and I hope that, by the end of this essay, it means a lot to you too. 

We do not know the context of Psalm 13, but we know about a lot of David’s life. Before I began writing this essay, I prayed, read about the psalm, and took some time to ponder its meaning. While the exact situation that caused David to feel like he was helpless is not known, there are some theories. The theory that makes the most sense to me is that Psalm 13 was written when King Saul was trying to kill David. While David’s life had its fair share of ups and downs, I cannot think of something more frightening than knowing that the king is trying to kill you, and he is using everything at his disposal in order to find you. Saul’s plans to kill David become known in 1 Samuel 19, but there is nothing specific that we must read about in order to understand the meaning of Psalm 13. I like to imagine that Psalm 13 is about King Saul trying to kill David, but only because it helps me understand the way David must have felt as he wrote Psalm 13. Perhaps the aforementioned theory about the circumstances surrounding Psalm 13 is correct, or perhaps it is not. The meaning of Psalm 13 is self-contained, meaning that we do not need to understand what took place before it was written, we just need to understand the meaning of Psalm 13, itself.

Psalm 13 consists of three parts. David begins by crying out to the Lord, asking Him, “How long, O LORD?”. David is dealing with something that has brought him to such a low place that, in the second part, he fears that his sorrow will kill him. The third part of Psalm 13 is the part that tells us how we should respond when we find ourselves in a situation that makes us feel as David felt in parts one and two.

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I take counsel in my soul

and have sorrow in my heart all the day?

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

The first part of Psalm 13 consists of the first two verses, which tell us about the place David was in when he wrote this psalm. David has been enduring some form of hardship, and he has called out to God, but it seems as though God has not answered him. David makes his emotions clear, and his emotions are incredibly serious.

He asks God, “How long?”. David wants to know how long God will forget about him, how long God will hide His Face from David. We know that God does not forget about us, and we know that God is always with us, but sometimes it becomes very difficult to remember how much God loves us when we are dealing with so much pain. The devil knows very well how hard trials can be, and he will do whatever he can to make believers feel as if they have been forgotten by God, as if they are all alone, as if the whole world is out to get them. I am not saying that David was necessarily being attacked by the devil, but the way he describes his emotions remind me of the days where I felt like nobody cared about me, like God was not going to help me, and like I would never be free of the misery that I was experiencing at the time.

David asks God, “How long must I take counsel in my soul?”. The phrase, “take counsel in my soul” is not used (at least, not among the people I know), but its meaning is incredibly powerful. The NLT translates the phrase as “How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul”, the NIV translates it as, “How long must I wrestle with my thoughts”, and the NASB, “How long am I to feel anxious in my soul”. When David says that he takes counsel in his soul, he is telling God how his soul is being weighed down by anxiety, by negative thoughts, and by pain. David is not having a bad day, he is dealing with a sorrow that is in his heart day after day. How long, God? How long will I have to deal with the sorrow that has been on my soul, and weighing on my heart, for so long now?

David concludes verse 2 with a statement that might not sound as important as it really is. David is asking God, “How long will my enemies be able to walk all over me?” How long will those who have wronged David be allowed to get away with their actions, how long will they be able to escape responsibility, how long will they be able to raise themselves up by tearing David down? They have been “exalted” over David, meaning that his enemies had been in a higher position of authority or status than David. David has been dealing with sorrow in his soul and in his heart, and he has seen his enemies being exalted above himself. He has endured this pain for a while, and he cries out, “How much longer, God?”

I have had my fair share of prayers that are very similar to Psalm 13. I have spent many days weeping, crying out to God, “When will I be free of this pain in my heart? When will You deliver me from this situation? What more do I have to do? Everybody else seems to be doing so well, yet I am still here, I am still suffering, and it feels like things will never change.”

While I could dismiss David’s emotions, while I could explain to him that God never forgets about us, what good would that do him? He is grieving, he is dealing with so much sorrow, and he feels like he is all alone. I have been in that position, and it is truly horrible. The pain that David describes is one that I would do anything to spare another person from experiencing, yet I do not know if I would have the strength to take it from them if I could. It is such a horrible feeling, and I have felt the way David felt. It is something that, even after God has delivered me, I feel my heart hurt at the memory of how I felt. I am no longer burdened by the pain that once held me down, but I remember the way I felt, and it still hurts my heart to imagine myself dealing with such pain ever again.

Consider and answer me, O LORD my God;

light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,

lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”

lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

David explains his fears about the pain that he has been enduring. The second part of Psalm 13 is contained in verses 3 and 4, and David uses the two verses to expand upon what he wrote in the first two verses. David asks God to hear him, to answer his calls for mercy. He is begging God to deliver him from his sorrow, and he is begging God with all the strength that he has left. This type of prayer is one that I have made, and the words that David uses are similar to the words that I have used in my prayers. I have been at such a low point in my life that I have wept like a baby, without caring if people saw or heard me. I have sobbed, I have begged God, and I have asked Him to help me. I have told God how I felt so much pain in my heart that I thought it would kill me. I was not exaggerating, I was being totally honest. The way I felt was so hard on my heart, so hard on my mind, and so hard on my spirit, that I felt like it would drain whatever life was left in me. I begged God with every ounce of strength that I had left, and I meant every word that I prayed.

David begs God to restore the light to his eyes, so that he does not die. The Bible often uses euphemisms, and death is often referred to as a form of sleep. What purpose the euphemism may have served is thrown out with the words, “of death” that follow it. David is not in the position to speak with elegant phrases and poetic language, he is crying out to the Lord. David feels as if he could die from the sorrow he felt, and the way he called out to God demonstrates just how much sorrow David felt.

David asks God to give him strength, so that his enemies do not think that they have defeated him, and so that his enemies do not rejoice at his suffering. David’s mind must have been filled with thoughts of those who had persecuted him being overjoyed at the way David was suffering. David must have thought about the people who had caused him so much pain, and he must have imagined the way they might be encouraged at the news that David had died of the sorrow that they had caused him.

I have felt this way about people in my life. I have felt like I had been betrayed, like the people I trusted and loved the most had turned their backs on me, like they were celebrating as I was suffering. I imagined those people being happy and carefree, while I was suffering, while I was begging God to help me survive each day, and while I could not look at the next day without being overcome with sorrow at the thought of what might happen by then.

As I continued to pray, as I continued to ask God for help, I began to feel my heart being strengthened. I realized that, while it may have seemed like everybody had left me behind, like they were so much happier without me, like they could not care less about me, there was far more to my situation than I had known. God spoke to my heart, He comforted me, and He gave me little bits of information that encouraged me. God spoke to my heart about what He had planned for me, and He also told me things that really brought comfort to my heart. There is nothing more encouraging than hearing God speak to my heart and telling me that He is working, and that He is fighting on my behalf. There is nothing more beneficial to the soul than being able to forgive those who have caused such pain. God gave me the ability to know that there was more to things than what I could see and understand, that God was working, that He was still working, and that He will use my suffering to do something better than I could ever imagine.

But I have trusted in your steadfast love;

my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

I will sing to the LORD,

because he has dealt bountifully with me.

David concludes Psalm 13 with something that encourages him. David describes how, when his soul was grieved to the point of death, he was strengthened when he recounted the good things that God had done, when he remembered God’s promises, and when He remembered God’s faithfulness. God always keeps His word, He loves us unconditionally, and He will deliver us from suffering when we trust in Him. When we seek God’s will, when we ask Him to lead us, and when we surrender ourselves to Him, He will deliver us. He might not deliver us immediately, but from the moment that we commit ourselves to God’s plan, we can rejoice in the knowledge that every moment of suffering will be used for our good.

The final two verses of Psalm 13 have been on my heart, and they have been repeated in my mind for a few days now. The phrase, “He has dealt bountifully with me” has made its way into my personal journal, and that phrase has found its way into my heart. At the time of writing this essay, I am watching God work powerfully in my life. I have seen God take my little ministry and grow it by a lot. I have seen more people reading what I have written, completing the plans that I have published, and telling me about how they have been enjoying them. Everything I do, I do for the Lord. There is nothing more encouraging than waking up to an email, a text message, or some other form of correspondence, telling me about how I wrote something that impacted them in a positive way. I do not write about the blessings that God has given to me because I am proud, I write about them because whenever I look at those blessings, I feel my soul being strengthened.

 There are things that I have prayed about for a long time, many of them have come to pass, but many have not. At least, they have not come to pass yet. It is easy to become discouraged about what has not happened when we forget what God has already done. We lose our hope for the future as we lose our memory of the past. The Lord has dealt bountifully with me, despite how I spent years disobeying Him, despite my flaws, despite my emotions, and despite my sin. No matter what, God is quick to forgive, quick to show mercy, and slow to anger. He will always use things for our good, as long as we love Him and seek His will for our lives, and I have seen Him do just that with my life. Every moment of my suffering has been used for good, and I will recount the good things that God has done, so that I do not become overwhelmed by the things that have not happened yet. God is good, and God does good.

 

Refuting The Most Common Lies Of The Devil

 

As a Christian writer, I try my best to include specific passages from Scripture whenever I make a point. I have heard several people tell me how they really like the way I include the passages that I am talking about in my writing, and I plan on continuing to include Scripture whenever I am writing about it.

Today, I am making an exception to the aforementioned practice of mine. This is an essay that I have wanted to write about for months now. I have been seeking the Lord in every aspect of my life, and I have written about this journey of mine in many of the essays that I have published. It is no secret that I still deal with the pain that comes with waiting for God to do what He has told me that He would do. With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that the devil has been trying to discourage me from what God has put on my heart. As a Christian, I know that being attacked by the devil is not just a possibility, it is almost guaranteed. When I began to work in ministry, when I began to prepare myself for what God had put on my heart, when I began to write about the things that have helped me in my walk with Christ, I began to feel my spirit being attacked more than ever before.

I have experienced weeks of not being able to sleep, having nightmares every night, feeling anxious about things that never caused me to feel anxious, feeling depressed, and feeling like I will never get to see what I have been praying for. These attacks used to crush my motivation. I would wake up feeling like there was a weight on my chest, and I would end up sobbing whenever I was reminded of what has happened to me in my life. I was being reminded of things that I had not thought about in ages. The things that God had given me the strength to overcome, the thoughts and the memories that I was able to move past because of God healing my heart, and the feelings that I had not felt in ages came back out of nowhere.

Recently, God spoke to me in a dream. God does speak to people, and He speaks more often than most of us realize. I will not get into the dream in question, but I will say that it was something that encouraged me and gave me the faith to believe in what God had shown me.

Since then, I have felt the devil attack my spirit more often than before. This time, however, I have noticed something: as soon as the devil tries to discourage me, I know exactly what is going on in my spirit.

God has given me the ability (for now, at least) to identify the attacks of the enemy, as soon as they begin. Last night, while I was at work, I was reminded of this topic, and I decided that I would write about what I had been wanting to write about for so long.

As soon as I began to write about this, the attacks on my spirit became a lot worse. I have felt anxious, yet I have a strong sense of peace deep down in my spirit. Hell is paying attention, which means that there is more to this essay than I realize. If I sound angry or annoyed, know that it is not anger with the reader. I have been dealing with these lies for months and I am absolutely finished with the lies of the devil. Satan has no power in my life, no power in my mind, no power in my home, and no power over any part of me. Jesus Christ is in control, and I pray that what I have shared here will help you overcome the lies of the devil. If this helped you, share it with others. It does not matter if you give a link to this website, or if you just tell others the information that I have shared here. I just want to get the word out.

These are some of the most common ways that the devil has tried to stop what God wants to do in me and through me:

“There is no way that things could change.”

This is a lie from the devil that used to really discourage me when I began the journey that I am currently on. I remember hearing a pastor talk about this lie, and his response was so powerful that it has stuck with me ever since:

“You may look at a situation and think that there is no way for things to change. You may think that your situation is hopeless. If you think that things cannot change, I want you to think back to the story of creation. What did God create man out of? Dust. Dust has no life in it, it cannot do anything, and it certainly is not a human being. So, how did dust become a man? God’s breath. God took something that had no way of becoming anything else, no way to improve itself, no life, no future, and no use, and He breathed life into it. God’s breath is all that it takes to breathe life into a situation that seems to have no life left in it.”

I am not quoting the pastor, but I think I did a fairly good job of explaining the point.

“God didn’t speak to you.”

This statement is something that I have found myself being able to dismiss very quickly. When I first began to hear God speak to me, I was constantly doubting myself, doubting my judgement, and doubting my sanity. That last doubt might make you think I am crazy, but I believe I have a duty to share what I have been through, how God has saved my life, and what I have learned as I have studied the Bible and asked God for wisdom.

There are many online resources that explain how to know when God is speaking to you. I know that said resources exist, as I have come across many of them as I have battled with doubt and confusion about what God wants me to do. I could write a lot more about how one can know if God is speaking to him (I have plans to write more about this topic), but I am going to share the most important tips that I have learned, and have worked in my life:

1. If God speaks to you, you will know. You might not fully understand it at first, but you will understand it eventually.

2. If you think God has spoken to you, but the message would go against what the Bible says, God did not speak to you.

3. If you do not have peace in your spirit, it is not from God. (There are instances where God will tell you to do something that you feel nervous about. That is not what I am talking about here).

4. Compare what you think God has spoken to you to His Word. James 3:17  is my favorite verse for discerning when wisdom has come from God. Read my writing about James 3:17 here.

5. Pray about it. Ask God to confirm what you feel, ask Him for clarity, and trust Him to answer your prayers.

6. Seek advice from a more mature Christian. Ask them what they think.

7. If you think God has spoken to you, write what you heard down and pray about it.

“You are crazy. You are hearing things.”

I could be hearing things, or incorrectly attributing something to God, but I am not crazy. Whenever the devil tries to make me feel like I am crazy or something, I find myself rereading what I have written lately. I keep a journal, and I write a lot for this website, so there is plenty of stuff to read. Do I sound like a crazy person, or does my writing show a man who is in complete control of himself and his mind? What have I been doing, what I have I been thinking, what have I been saying lately? Is there any other reason why I might be considered crazy?

If you are like me, you can shrug off this lie. You are not crazy. We all make mistakes. As you grow in your faith, you will learn how to correctly identify when God is speaking and when He is not.

“If God was going to do something, why hasn’t He done it yet?”

Why did God create spiders? Why was I born on September 5, instead of the sixth or the seventh? Why is my hair brown? Why do I ask so many questions? What right do I have to question God and His timing? The question you should ask yourself is, “Did God say it?”

If God says something, it will happen. God is always faithful, He does not lie, and He does not change. If God said something will happen, then it will be so. God is not bound by time, nor is He bound by anything else. There are things that we will never know about God, but that is just the way things are. God’s timing is perfect. He is never early, He is never late, He is always on time.

If something has not happened and you are confused, pray and ask God to clarify things for you. Ask others to pray for God to speak to you. Study your Bible and wait on God.

For some more information about may take longer to do something than we expected Him to, read my essay about Deuteronomy 7:22.

“That miracle was not that special.”

First of all, this is a lie that the devil uses when he knows that he has lost. Whenever God does something wonderful, whenever He does something that makes me look at Him with more love and fear than ever before, the devil loves to try and downplay what happened. Miracles are incredibly helpful for building our faith, and the devil knows this. When God does something, it is undeniable that God did it.

Given how the devil cannot convince you that what you saw was not from God, he will try to make you think that the miracle you witnessed was not as special as it seemed to be. This is another way that the devil looks to isolate people, to make us feel like we are the only ones experiencing this, that we are not special, that God would not do what He said He would do, and so on.

These are lies, and they come straight from the pit of Hell.

“Your situation will never change.”

This lie is absolutely absurd. Aside from God, I cannot think of anything that never changes. Unless you are literally a plant or something, your situation will change. You will experience new things, you will grow in your faith, and things will not be the same tomorrow as they are today. Do not grow weary in your pursuit of God’s promises for your life. Trust in God, tell Him how you feel, and let Him comfort you.

“How could that possibly happen?”

Again, this question is designed to discourage us by turning our attention toward the road ahead of us, rather than focusing on the day at hand. When we walk with Christ, He will give us peace in our hearts. When we begin to walk more quickly, or when we delay, we are more susceptible to the attacks of the enemy.

If God said it, it is so.

“Do you really believe that God has spoken to you all those times?”

Just as with a friend, as we walk with God, we become used to the sound of His Voice. Just like I can hear my friend speak and know who it is, just like I can recognize his handwriting, just like I know what his face looks like, I recognize God more clearly as I grow closer to Him. I have heard my friend’s voice many times, and I know who is speaking as soon as he opens his mouth. When God speaks, I know it. I know His Voice, I know what He sounds like, and I know Him.

So, yes, I really believe that God has spoken to me all those times.

“People will think that you are crazy if you tell them all this stuff!”

Perhaps, but who cares? Am I seeking to please those around me, or do I seek to please the Lord? If God works in my life (which He does, has, and will), I will tell everybody about it. If people think that I am crazy when I talk about how God has changed my life, then so be it. God comes before all, so I do not care if people think I am crazy.

This is a lie that is designed to isolate people. You are not alone. You have experienced encounters with the same God that billions of people have had encounters with. Pray, ask for strength, and get around others who know God as well as you do.

“Things won’t be as good as you think they will be.”

When God does something, He does it in a better way than anybody else. When God says that something will happen, and that it will be wonderful, it will be more wonderful than any of us could comprehend. I try not to think about how good the future will be, as I have learned that I am incapable of understanding a tenth of how amazing God’s plan is for my life. God knows best, and I trust Him.

“The thing that you are waiting for will be stressful, and you will not know how to handle all of it.”

If God calls me to do something, if God prepares me to do something, I can trust that He has gone before me. God’s calling comes with the strength to do what He has called you to do. He calls you to be obedient, and to trust Him. Trust that God has already gone before you, prepared those who you will speak to, prepared a way for you to reach the point you must reach, and given you the ability to keep fighting for what He has put on your heart.

God will prepare you for what He has for you. Trust Him.

Listen Now, Discuss Later (Proverbs 25:20)

 

Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, and like vinegar on soda. [Proverbs 25:20, ESV]

From my experience in dealing with trials in my life, I knew immediately what this verse was talking about. When people are suffering, the worst thing we can do is try and figure out what happened, why it happened, how to fix it, or who is at fault. This lesson is important for all of us to understand, but especially for us men. As a man, I have seen numerous examples of this scenario in my own life, and in the lives of other men:

A girlfriend/wife/mother/sister is upset about something, the man learns about the way she feels, the man tries to figure out how to address the situation, the situation is made worse.

The reason why I specifically address men in this essay is because of the way that men tend to think. Generally speaking, men seem to think in terms of “how can this be resolved” or “how should this be addressed”, rather than spending time to deal with the emotions that come with whatever issue comes up. Women, on the other hand, tend to spend more time on the emotional aspect of an issue. Men and women are equally valuable, but they are different. One of the most amazing parts about how God created us in His Image is that men and women have different capabilities that complement each other.

All that to say, if you are a man, and you have a girlfriend/wife/sister/mother or whatever else, and she is upset about something, spend some time listening.

This verse reminds me of the story of Job. For those of you who are not familiar with Job, let me summarize the story:

Job is a strong man of God. Satan tells God that if Job’s possessions were taken from him, Job would curse God to His Face. God tells Satan that he can take Job’s possessions, but he cannot harm Job. Satan destroys Job’s property, kills Job’s servants, and kills his children. To make things even harder on Job, Satan did all of those things on the same day. Job hears, from people coming and reporting to him, what had happened. Job tears his robe, shaves his head, then falls to the ground and worships God. Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

Satan returns to God, telling Him that, if he could take Job’s health from him, surely he would curse God to His Face. God gives Satan permission to harm Job, but Satan is not able to kill him. Satan returns to Job and gives him sores all over his body.

Job’s wife asks Job why he continues to praise the Lord. His wife suggests that Job “curse God and die” [Job 2:9, ESV], but Job tells his wife that she speaks “as one of the foolish women would speak”. No matter what, Job did not sin with his lips.

Three of Job’s friends find out about what had happened to him, and they all travel to visit him. When they saw Job, “they did not recognize him” [Job 2:11, ESV]. His friends raised their voices, wept, and tore their robes, out of sadness over what happened to Job.

The point of me explaining the story of Job is so that the next verse makes sense to the point of this essay:

And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great. [Job 2:13, ESV]

When his friends saw how much Job was suffering, his friends knew what they needed to do: shut up for a moment!

When people are going through something difficult, we must give them time to grieve. Do not leave them alone, do not ignore them, but give them time. The majority of the book of Job is about the back-and-forth between Job and his friends. His friends tell Job that he must have done something to deserve what had happened to him, that Job needed to repent, and that he actually deserves worse than what had already happened to him. These friends end up making Job’s situation even worse for him. Not only had he lost his property, lost his children, and been afflicted with sores all over his body, his friends were now accusing him of doing something to deserve what had happened to him!

(The book of Job ends with God contrasting His power to Job’s weakness, Job retracting what he had said about God, Job repenting, God rebuking Job’s friends, and God giving Job more than he had to begin with.)

Let us examine the verse from Proverbs:

Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart is like who who takes off a garment on a cold day,...

Singing songs (in this context, at least) is a way of expressing one’s joy. I write a lot about the joy I feel, but the things I write are for me (primarily). If I wanted to show everybody how much joy I feel in my heart, I would sing songs, so that everybody could hear how much joy I have. The expression of joy can be a wonderful thing, but it can also be detrimental to others. For example, singing songs to a person who is really sad would be detrimental to the sad person. It would be like removing clothing when it is really cold outside. If it is cold, one would already be suffering, but to remove clothing from him would make the cold even harder to bear. Not only would removing clothing on a cold day cause one to suffer more, it would make the cold more noticable. The contrast between joy and grief is very great. When a grieving person sees a joyful person celebrating, the contrast between the two people causes the grieving person to suffer more than he was suffering before. When a joyful person sees a grieving person, the joyful person begins to lose his joy.

…and like vinegar on soda.

This is the second way that this verse describes the effect of singing songs to a heavy heart. The meaning of this portion of the verse is less obvious than the previous portion. I prefer the way that this part of the verse is translated in the New Living Translation (NLT):

“...[and] pouring vinegar in a wound.”

In conclusion, singing songs to a heavy heart would be like removing clothes from somebody who is cold, or pouring vinegar into a wound; it makes things even worse.

When somebody is suffering, take a moment, listen to them, and let them have time to grieve. When they have been able to have some time to get through their emotions, then there can be discussions about what to do next. Do not rush into trying to solve issues, especially when it involves the way others feel.

Using James 3:17 to Discern God's Voice

 [Originally written August 3, 2022. This was a note that was posted to my account on the YouVersion Bible app]

For those of my friends who are experiencing hardships, I offer to you the wisdom that God has given to me. I felt this on my heart, and I have felt God speak to me as I read and reread these passages.

Whenever we are in a situation where we are unsure of what to do, how to respond, whether or not to fight for something, whether to give up, or how to feel about something, it can be very discouraging. When people feel like they are in control of things, they often develop a sense of pride, which (according to the Bible) comes before the fall.

So, you're in a bad situation, and you are confused. What now?

Start by praying, confessing your sins, and humbling yourself before God. None of us deserve the love that Christ shows us, so we must approach Him with humility. Depending on the individual, and depending on the circumstance, this step may take some time.

When you have become humble, pray that God gives you peace, clarity, and strength to do what He wants you to do. From my experience, there are always emotions that are not Christ-like that come up whenever I am in a bad situation. When I feel those emotions in my heart, I pray and ask God to prepare me, and to work in my heart so that He can use me.

Take things day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute. God's timing is perfect, but it can be very frightening for us to think too far ahead. Give thanks for what you have, for the life God has given to you, and ask God to reveal to you what you should do today.

When you begin to hear God speak to you, compare what you feel to the Bible. If what you feel contradicts the Bible, then that feeling is not from God. If the feeling in question aligns with the Bible, then compare it to James 3:17. I use that verse as a checklist. Go through each part of the verse and make sure that whatever you feel on your heart fulfills the requirements of James 3:17.

But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

- James 3:17

Some other things to help discern the voice of God:

• In order to hear the Lord more, you must be in the position to hear from Him. Consecrate yourself in His Word, get rid of the sin in your life (as much as you can), know your Bible, and never stop praying.

• While I have been reminded of things by God, it is generally true that God only reveals things that are new. This is not an absolute rule, it is just a general principle.

• If you feel led to do something, but it does not give you peace, do not do it.

• When you hear from God, it would be a wise decision to pray and ask God to explain/confirm what you have heard/felt.

• When you seek the Lord, expect the enemy to increase his attacks on your spirit. You are no match for him, but God is greater. Seek God and His protection, and you will not be moved.

I hope my words have helped some of you. Seek God, keep the faith, and resist the devil!

- Daniel Teberian