Today you may face challenges and circumstances beyond your control.  In life there will always be problems you didn’t ask for, and trials you didn’t sign up for.  When such calamities strike, remember there are a few things you can control.

Today you can control your attitude.

Legendary coach John Wooden said, “Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”  The way you respond to a situation oftentimes determines the outcome.  The world rarely sees the affliction you face, but they will always remember the attitude you displayed.  As someone anonymously …

PSALM 6:1-10

Introduction:

Crying is part of the human experience.  From the first tears as a baby to the deep loss of a loved one we all know what it is like to shed a few tears.  In this psalm David was overwhelmed by emotion and cried with the “voice of weeping.”

• Consider the various people in God’s Word who cried
• Even Christ wept
• Consider circumstances in life that brings tears

1. The Travail of His Soul (v1-5)

A. The Chastisement of David

• “O, LORD, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.”
• David

The modern pastor has to be many things to many people on many different levels at many different times.  He is a preacher, a counselor, an administrator, an evangelist, a visionary, a superintendent, a shepherd, a coach, a husband, a father, a confidant, a teacher, an organizer, a speaker, a worship leader, and a follower of Jesus Christ.  Too often, we (congregants and pastors alike) forget that he is first and foremost something else: human…flawed, fleshly, feeble human.

Is the pastor to lead with repute and character?  Absolutely. 

Is he to set forth an example of holiness and godliness in …

“We dishonor God if we proclaim a Savior who satisfies and then go around discontent” –J.I. Packer

“Contentment is pursuing God’s daily agenda even it if means walking directly into the storm” –Richard Swenson

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has” –Epictetus

“The virtue of contentment is the acquiescence of the mind in the lot God has given” –William Ames

“Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and fatherly disposal

“The worth of any journey,” said A.W. Tozer, “can always be measured by the difficulties along the way. The more difficult the journey, the more satisfying the destination.”  This sentiment rings true down in my heart.  My head even nods in agreement when I read such quotes.  However, the “journey” is more than a sentence written in a book, it is a reality recorded in the crucible of moments.  Hard-pressed, gut-wrenching, faith-tempting, storm-tossing moments.

The easiest thing to do is wax eloquent about adversity when you are not going through its waters.  But when you are hurled back and forth …