When Following God Gets Frustrating

St. Charles | Bob Ingle
November 1, 2026
Psalm 73:13-16

“All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long I have been been stricken and rebuked every morning. If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed the generation of your children. But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task…” Psalm 73:13-16 (ESV)

*Asaph’s frustration grew because of…

1. THE DISAPPOINTMENT HE COULDN’T DENY

"Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches." Psalm 73:12 (ESV)

“All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.” Psalm 73:13 (ESV)

Obedience becomes a BURDEN when we start treating it like a BARGAIN.

“But he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends.” Luke 15:29 (ESV)

"Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain." 1 Corinthians 15:58 (ESV)

The value of your obedience is determined by the GOD you serve, not the BENEFITS you receive.

2. THE DIFFICULTY HE COULDN’T ESCAPE

“For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning.” Psalm 73:14 (ESV)

"They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind." Psalm 73:5 (ESV)

Sometimes the greatest test of our faith isn't how BAD our suffering is, but how LONG it lasts.

"How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" Genesis 39:9 (ESV)

"But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love." Genesis 39:21 (ESV)

If circumstances determine your VIEW of God, they'll determine your TRUST in God.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us…For I am sure that (nothing)…will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:35, 37, 39 (ESV)

3. THE DILEMMA HE COULDN'T RESOLVE.

“If I had said, ‘I will speak thus,’ I would have betrayed the generation of your children. But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task.” Psalm 73:15–16 (ESV)

"If I had said, 'I will speak thus,' I would have betrayed the generation of your children." Psalm 73:15 (ESV)

Don't turn your temporary CONFUSION into somebody else's lasting CONCLUSION about God.

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8–9 (ESV)

You don't have to understand everything God is DOING to trust everything God has SAID.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5 (ESV)

"Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end." Psalm 73:17 (ESV)

When you can't understand what God is DOING, cling to what you know about who God IS.