To Encourage You

Psalm 23:6 “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.^”

Do you ever wonder what’s coming around the next bend?  Are you anxious about tomorrow, or even the rest of today for that matter?  You’d be the rare individual if your answer is “No.”  But for the rest of us, what should we do when anxiety rears its ugly head? Where can we turn when fear threatens to grip us?  Well, if you are a Christian, the answer is always to look to God and listen to what He has said.  And He’s said a lot to us about this very subject, for He is well aware of our weakness. 

One of the things He’s done is to provide us with wonderful alternatives to fear.  For example, He’s told us, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6).   And then He has promised us that if we will actually do this, that “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).  He’s also given us examples of others, who just like us, were harassed by fears of one type or another.  He doesn’t condemn us for it. He has let us know that we aren’t alone and that people like the great King David, a man after God’s own heart, was subject to the same feelings that we are.

But what did David do at such times?  The same thing that God would have us to do and that David wrote in these words: “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you” (Psalm 56:3).  We are to always be looking up to the One Who we can surely trust, rather than at ourselves in our limitations and weakness. 

But then we have such wonderful promises as the one from Psalm 23 above, which is another psalm penned by David under the inspiration of the Spirit of God Whom he loved.  He begins with the word “surely.”  What he is about to say is a certainty, for it’s rooted in the power of almighty God.  And what is he so sure about?  It was that no matter what his anxiety would try to argue otherwise, goodness and mercy was around that next bend.  He knew that God had been merciful to him in the past. He had forgiven him of all his sins.  He had been incredibly patient with all of David’s shortcomings, and the mercy that had been shown to him in the past would continue all the days of his life.

The same for God’s goodness.  He knew that no matter what comes into a believer’s life, no matter how difficult, no matter how tragic, he could know (and we can, as well) that “for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). 

And when it is all said and done, when this life is over and we’ve breathed our last breath, then what? What’s coming around THAT bend? It is this: “I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” It is in that eternal place that we will realize that “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).  God is telling us that those things that so often intimidate and threaten us won’t even be worth mentioning in the glories to come. 

But do you believe all this?  Are you trusting in the Word of the only omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent One, or are you choosing to believe something or someone else?  May God help us to believe what He has said, for haven’t we been told in the Word of Truth that “it is impossible for God to lie” (Hebrews 6:18).  It is simply a mark of unbelief if we continue to be anxious in the face of this, for though we might not say so with our mouth, anxiety for the “believer” is simply a product of thinking that our Good Shepherd can’t be believed.  It’s nothing more than a lack of trust.