Our guest speaker today is PenguinPeru.

Lose Your Troubles

You are on a mission to look for the radioisotope thermoelectric generator from the aborted Apollo 13 mission. It's just that you have a strange collection idea in your mind and you feel you must have this one part to add to your other thermoelectric generators that you have collected over the years. However, there is just one small problem. You might have a hard time retrieving this one part. Why? Because as I type, it's on the bottom of the deep Tonga Trench in the Pacific Ocean. O.K., that's enough for you to abort any attempts to even try to get it. So, going down 35,000 feet or more of water is just not worth the effort.

Unfortunately, many times, we as Christians do the same thing with our troubles. We collect them until we want to go insane and then we cry and forget that the Lord wants to take those burdens away from us. Let's look and examine Matthew 11:28-30.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

During this time, Jesus was living when the Pharisees were placing burdensome yokes on people's shoulders. Read Matthew 23:4. Jesus used this illustration of yoke and wanted to prove a point that He would do just the opposite of what the Pharisees were doing.

Everybody needs rest and comfort. Jesus is telling us that He is our comfort. He is eager to teach us the way to live the Christian life appropriately. The sins of this world, He reminds us are forgiven when He died on that cross. So, excessive guilt should be cast out to the Horizon Deep of the Tonga Trench. What else can you think of? Anger? Jealousy? Revenge? Hurt? All those, Christ promises us that He will take from us.

The Lord assured Moses rest. He wanted to bring peace to Moses' mind and give him reassurance that He found favor with him. Exodus 33:13-14: Moses--"If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people."

The Lord replied, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."

In Romans 8:28, Paul tells us that we know that in ALL THINGS God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.

What is Paul saying when he mentions "ALL THINGS". Literally, that means all good and bad things in life. He gives us the supernatural power to understand that life is temporal and that we can have overcoming power to rejoice even during the rough times in life.

How can somebody like Paul say such a thing? Look, he had physical problems and people turned their backs on him much like what they did with Christ. In 2 Timothy 4, we learn of Paul's problems of followers falling away and deserting him. Rejection? Yeah, that's what Paul felt MANY times.

I can go on and on, using different people from the Bible. Another great example would be Job, or perhaps David. Christians frequently feel depressed, oppressed, deprived, persecuted, rejected, and so on. These are real, but as Christ told us to give it to Him. Pray and let go (yes, it can be a very hard thing to do because of our human nature). However, He will take that burden from us.

Keep in mind too, that troubles often makes us stronger and also lets us be testimonies to other people. So, that answers the question on why we experience them in the first place. Also, remember this: One day no matter how bad it is, is also one more day closer to seeing the Lord and oh what a day that will be!

So, get rid of this collection of despair, guilt, and other bad memories and feelings and let the Lord dump it in the deepest trenches in our lives. If you're not satisfied with the complete blackness of the Horizon Deep in the Tonga Trench, I'll go one better with the Challenger Depth in the Marianas Trench. In either case, your troubles will be lost in the black depths of those extremely deep abysses.