Good Morning All,
Psalm 25: 16-18;
“Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out of my
distresses. Look upon my affliction and
my trouble, and forgive all my sins”
Do you remember a time when you were really
frightened? It doesn’t really matter
what your fear was, the physical reactions are pretty constant; a dry mouth,
sweating with chills, your arms and legs can feel very heavy, our chest can
feel heavy, plus some others as well.
Some of the emotional responses include anxiety and a feeling of
loneliness. We have that sense of
impending doom.
Our verses come from one of David’s Psalms,
Psalm 25. In this psalm, David is in
danger, surrounded by enemies, and making very difficult decisions. David uses the words “way” or “journey”
repeated as to describe the fact that this journey he is on has many challenges
and trials which he alone cannot succeed at.
David’s plight is very much like ours.
We may not have physical, earthly enemies
who are out to kill us and put us to shame like David did. We do have a spiritual enemy that is. The devil and our sinful nature want to do
exactly that. The spiritual warfare
causes emotional stress and has physical symptoms. The devil will use any event in our life and
try to scare us to death or at least separation from God.
It is those times when we feel like we are
all alone and our heart feels like it is enlarged from the fear that the devil
is striking. Danger, loneliness, fear, a
sense of regret all play into the devil’s hand.
It can occur when it doesn’t rain, when there is tension in a family, a
fear of the future, a loss of control; all these cause us to fear. Yet the psalmist gives us some hope.
When your outlook is bleak, that is the
best time for an “uplook.” We need to
turn to God for our comfort and reassurance.
God has promised to provide for us all we need do is take advantage of
it. The devil wants us to look at our
trials here on earth; which are real, through a funhouse mirror, the kind that
distorts the image. The devil wants to
distort our situation so that we fear; we fear that God has abandoned us. Yet God has promised to always be there for
us to wipe away our pain and our fear. So,
while we struggle with certain events in our lives, we do not have to fear for
God is always with us, to guard and protect us.
We may have the physical battles, but the spiritual war is won, and we
are the victors through the atonement by Jesus and his death and
resurrection. He earned the
righteousness for us and freely gives it to us.
Jesus gives us hope and the certainty of our salvation. He is truly gracious unto us.
Dear Father in heaven,
your mercies are new to us every day.
Drive our fear away and keep us close to you. Give us strength as we face the challenges of
life that we may never doubt your loving kindness. We give you thanks for all we have and all we
receive from your generous hand. In Jesus’
precious name we pray, amen.
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret
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