the problems

[Chrysostom]

I have heard your cry and I am praying for you in the name of Jesus Christ. You said your life feels like a complete mess and your problems are unbearable, and God sees the weight you are carrying even when words fail.

Scripture tells us that patience works proven character, and proven character works hope, and that we are saved by hope. This hope is not empty wishing. It is trust in God who has already shown His mercy by finding us when we were lost and in despair, forgiving our sins, and making us His children through Jesus alone. The good things He has already given are the first fruits and the pledge that He will not fail you in what is still to come. What you see now is trial and pressure for a moment, but what He promises is life and rest that is eternal.

Do not give in to despair. The enemy never stops hoping for our ruin, and it would be a great condemnation if he is more persistent in trying to destroy us than we are in holding fast to the hope of our salvation. As long as it is still called Today, there is hope. As long as you are alive, God’s mercy is open to you, and He is able to lead from death to life, to tread down death itself, to give grace, and to lighten heavy burdens when we turn to Him and remain watchful in faith.

So I encourage you to hold fast to that hope, to keep trusting His promises day by day, and to let others who love Christ comfort and support you when you feel weak and pressed down.

Let me pray for you now. Heavenly Father, I lift up this dear one to You in the name of Jesus Christ, Your Son, our only Savior. You know every problem and every burden that feels unbearable. Have mercy and bring comfort, strength, and clear hope. Help this heart to hold fast to You, to be patient in trial, and to trust that You who began a good work will be faithful to complete it. Lift the weight of this mess, grant wisdom for each step, provide help and peace, and draw this soul closer to Jesus each day. Lead from darkness into Your light and from death into life. In Jesus name, Amen.

 

[Silas]

I have prayed for you in Jesus name, and I thank you for being honest about how unbearable and tangled everything feels right now.

What you are describing is something Scripture speaks about very clearly. There are really two kinds of life. One is the life we inherit naturally, a life lived mainly for the body and its wants and pressures. In that kind of life the body is in charge and the mind is filled with its demands. The other is the new life God gives when a person is born again by His Spirit. That life is spirit and soul and body together, with the spirit made alive and joined to God's Spirit and meant to lead. That new life is from Christ Himself.

When that new life begins, there is still a battle inside for who will sit on the throne of your life. The flesh still wants control and the Spirit wants control, and that struggle is real. That is why you can feel so torn and say, I do not always do what I want to do. The answer Scripture gives is not to try harder in your own strength, but to reckon the old life as dead and buried with Christ and to count yourself alive to God through Him. When you were joined to Jesus in His death and resurrection, your old life was buried and you were raised to walk in newness of life. You can speak to those flare ups of anger, bitterness, and despair and say, That belongs to the old life, and that old life is dead. Thank God I am now alive to Him.

Life lived only for this world, apart from God and His purpose, always ends in emptiness. One of the wisest men who ever lived tried everything under the sun, wisdom, work, pleasure, achievement, and he concluded that it all left him empty and even despairing. He said he came to hate life and to despair of all his labor. Reason alone, without Christ, leads to hopelessness. Many people today feel exactly what you feel, that life is not worthwhile, because they are still living on that lower plane, conscious only of bodily and earthly things. They have not yet entered the spiritual dimension where life takes on meaning.

But the record God has given us is this, that He has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life. That is not only length of life without end, it is a quality of life that is rich and full, marked by righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. It is life in the Son rather than just life under the sun. One is empty and shadow like, the other is fulfilling and satisfying because Christ Himself becomes our life. Your life is then hidden with Christ in God, and the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is able to give life to you by His Spirit dwelling in you.

God sets before each of us the way of life and the way of death. From the beginning He placed before man a tree of life and a way of death, and He still says, choose life. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him. To choose life is to turn to Jesus, to trust that His death paid the wages of sin, which is death, and to receive the free gift of God which is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So for you right now, in the middle of this mess, the way forward is not to try to fix everything by yourself. It is to come to Jesus as you are and ask Him to be your life. If you have already trusted Him, come again and reckon yourself dead to that old tangled life and alive to God. Ask His Spirit to rule and to free you from the law of sin and death by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Where His light comes, darkness does not have to be pushed out, it is overcome by a stronger life.

I am praying that God will lift this weight of despair and show you that life with Christ is glorious, that He will fill your cup until it overflows with His goodness and grace, and that you will seek the things above where Christ is, setting your heart on Him who is your life. When He appears, you will appear with Him in glory, and even now He wants to give you peace in the midst of these problems.

Father, in the name of Jesus I bring this dear one before You. You see how heavy and broken everything feels. Have mercy and reveal Your Son as life. Forgive sin, wash away the past, bury the old life, and raise up a new life governed by Your Spirit. Free this heart from despair and fill it with Your righteousness, peace, and joy. Give strength for each step, wisdom for each problem, and the assurance that You are near and will not let go. Let today be a turning to choose life in Christ. Amen.

If you have not yet put your trust fully in Jesus, tell Him now that you want His life and His forgiveness and His Spirit to lead you. If you have, keep coming to Him each day, counting the old dead and thanking Him that you are alive to God, and let His Spirit guide you one step at a time.