[Note: This is a devotional for men shared at the Christ Church Men’s Breakfast on Tax Day, April 17, 2012]
The first federal income tax was levied in 1861 in order to support the Civil War effort in the North. Initially, it was a tax only on the highest incomes. In 1862, it was overhauled, and they’ve been changing the tax code every year ever since. Keeping up with all the changes can be taxing, indeed.
Some other taxing experiences men go through today are $4.00 gasoline. When I started driving, gas was $1.21 a gallon. We are living in uncertain economic times. The real unemployment rate really isn’t getting better. Some young men whom I know through coaching at Dunbar who’ve graduated college have taken one to three years after graduation with marketable degrees from good schools to find gainful employment.
Men have a particularly difficult time in the home, today. Who are our role models for the roles men are expected to fulfill in today’s families where so many moms work just as many hours outside the home as dads? Our fathers didn’t face the same challenges as we do.
Talk about taxing! Families can be taxing. We’re overwhelmed as a society with the busyness of pursuing that elusive dream of the well-rounded child. We must make sure that our kids are involved in everything so they can enjoy all the opportunities that could possibly come their way. Mom’s taxi service isn’t near enough to keep up with the demand.
Our families, jobs, the economy, taxes all conspire to create some pretty stressful, taxing times in which we live. Can we thrive in the midst of all the anxiety that is in and around us? I think we can if we look to the example of King David.
Psalm 3:1-2 O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying to me, “There is no help for you in God.” Selah
When this Psalm was written, David endured amazingly stressful times. He was king of Israel. He had successfully united the two Jewish kingdoms and Israel was at its height of power and prominence. Then the coupe d’etat. Some of his closest allies and supporters deserted and conspired to kill him. To make matters worse, Absalom, his own son, led the way. How could this happen? Well, it turns out that the royal household was quite the dysfunctional family, and this coupe attempt was the outward manifestation of years of trouble.
So, David and some of his men fled the city, lest they be killed by the usurpers, and he finds himself in the wilderness, both literally and figuratively. In the depths of this depressing situation, David writes:
Ps. 3:3 But you, O LORD, are a shield around me, my glory, and the one who lifts up my head.
In this Psalm lay five Steps to Thriving Through Taxing Times:
- Trust God's Providential Care
What an amazing testimony to faith! David, in the middle of what must have been the absolute worst time of his life, when everything he’d strove to build was falling down around him, when even his own son was seeking his demise, he trusts God’s shield of loving care.
No matter what your circumstances might be saying to you right now, God cares and God is in control. You can trust God.
Ps. 3:4 I cry aloud to the LORD, and he answers me from his holy hill. Selah
1. Talk to God in Prayer
David cries out to God, trusting that he hears and answers prayer. Guys, we’re action oriented. These first two steps don’t seem to be very active. Trust and Pray? We want to jump into the problem head on and fix it. But there are times when (a) The problem is unfixable by our own efforts, or (b) We actually make matters worse because we haven’t thought it through. God always has the Big Picture Perspective. When we find ourselves in a pickle we need to do like David, trust and pray.
Ps. 3:5 I lie down and sleep; I wake again, for the LORD sustains me.
2. Take Rest
For some of you it just got worse. But I like to look at this verse as evidence of the sense of inner peace David experienced. Think about it. His world is falling apart, yet because of his trust that God cares for him and his knowledge that God answers his prayers, he is able to rest in the sustaining presence of God. How often have you been stressed to the point of sleeplessness, constantly rolling stressful thoughts around in your head? I’ve been there. Done that. But David teaches us by his example that you can relax and rest. And quite possibly this might point to the fact that rest is essential to our bodies, minds, and spirits when we enter into a taxing struggle.
Ps. 3:6-7a I am not afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. Rise up, O LORD! Deliver me, O my God!
4. Turn Toward God's Deliverance
As my trust grows, fear and anxiety subside and I begin to turn to God’s deliverance. In my experience and in the story of David, God almost always works in and through our actions. It’s not as if David hung out in a cave, doing nothing and just waiting for God to show up. No, he had to issue orders and engage the battle. But, all along, knowing and trusting that it is God who fights for us, it is God’s strength that sustains us, it is God’s providential care that carries us along the way and through life’s most difficult journeys. We to take action and turn our lives in the direction of God’s deliverance.
Ps. 3:7b-8 For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. Deliverance belongs to the LORD; may your blessing be on your people! Selah
5. Tell of God's Glory
Deliverance belongs to the Lord. He knows God worked through his actions. God gave him understanding, gifts, abilities, strengths, and a group of friends to come alongside to aid him. David used everything God gave him, trusted in God’s help and was ultimately vindicated and returned to his rightful place as king. It wasn’t easy. There were casualties along the way. Sin’s destructive consequences were felt. But David’s cause, and the cause of the people of God, were upheld. David grew personally through this experience and he was thankful for God’s help, and so, he gave God the glory.
If we are careful to look and listen we will see God at work in our lives. Even in the most difficult of circumstances, even through taxing times, God is with us and always has our very best interest at heart. Sin, that of ours and others, causes all kinds of troubles, but God is ultimately in control, he always has the right perspective, and we can always trust in him.
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