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Please turn in the Bible to Psalms 42:11 and read with me, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who
is the health of my countenance, and my God." There are times when you are moved from resting in the joy of your Lord. You become unthankful. You struggle to find place for injustices against you
Why? Soul, why art thou disquieted? Certainly if you understand that you deserve worse, and you expect to be treated worse than you are, you would not get hurt. Becoming disquieted must therefore relate to your
expectations. You must think that you have been treated in a manner worse than you deserve. This is simple to resolve. You deserve to be burning in hell at this very moment. Right now you deserve to drop through the
floor into the flames of a devil's hell, and to be relentlessly and mercilessly exposed, shamed, and crushed by the penetrating holiness of an angry God, and to be trampled underfoot by Him in unbridled fierceness and fury. (Is
63:3, Rev 19:15) You merit being cast alive into the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, to be eternally decimated by the immeasurably cataclysmic rage of Almighty God. You deserve this forever, because of your own sin,
because of what you have done. You deserve to be eternally damned right now. What have you received that is worse than that? I say! How easily we give thanks for all things when our expectations are properly set!
When our expectations rise above what we truly deserve, we need only remind ourselves that we have begun to take for granted the goodness of God and have become hardened to His graciousness toward us. If indeed you
are not bound for a devil's hell and the decimating fury of the Lord of Sabaoth, it is but for the blood of Jesus Christ, that He became sin for you, and that He gave you faith in Himself. Your merit, your righteousness, is in
Christ alone and it is by free grace that you are in Him. God has been exceedingly good to you, to you His elect, regardless what little suffering He has purposed now to chasten and cleanse you. (Heb 12:10) You should be intensely
and passionately grateful, not the least disquieted. When God is good to us and we are not careful to remember what we truly deserve, we begin to expect His graciousness, rather than to appreciate Him. We begin to
think that we deserve His goodness to us, and begin to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. We become proud and unthankful, as the lost around us, who do know of God, but glorify Him not as God, neither are they
thankful. (Rom 1:21) This is the first sin in the downward spiral into destruction, and how oft we find ourselves a prey to this! We fail here always first, in thankfulness. Here we find the resistance of God upon
us, and that we have become vulnerable to the wiles of the devil. We find distresses, troubles and problems; we find the heavens brass and our enemies roused to unsteady us. We fight back and struggle. We become disquieted within. Thus the cycle of life, "In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him." ( When you are disquieted, hope in God. Never rest in thoughts of your own goodness, in what you deserve. Peek out over the edge of your comfortable little life into the
eternal flame... and ponder where you would be right now were it not for the merciful loving kindness and boundless grace of God. He is a consuming fire. (Heb 12:29) Yet to you He is love. (1 John 4:16) Those who
wrong you have... in all liklihood... a fearfully dreadful end: do not envy them, nor seek their hurt. Neither pity yourself: weep for them. So did Christ. (Luke 23:28) Hear the eternal cries of those appointed to destruction and
love them. Love your enemies. This dark world is likely the only heaven they will ever know. Meditate deeply upon, " It is from this lowly place that you find hope in God, for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace unto
the humble. (James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5) Return to the joy of your Salvation, " Take your rightful and lowly place before God. Your hope is not in having higher expectations met, it is in remembering who you really are, what you deserve, and where you are headed. You are a sinner saved by grace. All you could ever truly deserve is eternal punishment, but you are loved by the Almighty, have a home in the heavenlies, and are seated there in Christ. Humble yourself therefore under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time. (1 Pet 5:6)
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