Worship for the Weekday
Hope and Good Courage
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Psalms 146:1-6
Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. Put not your trust in princes, [nor] in the son of man, in whom [there is] no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. Happy [is he] that [hath] the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope [is] in the Lord his God: Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein [is]: which keepeth truth for ever:
Deuteronomy 31:6-8
Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he [it is] that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. And Moses called unto Joshua, and said unto him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of a good courage: for thou must go with this people unto the land which the Lord hath sworn unto their fathers to give them; and thou shalt cause them to inherit it. And the Lord, he [it is] that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed. The Lord God goes before us. I’ve come to terms with this truth recently in a rather surprising way! Our son has dealt with some undiagnosed learning disabilities his entire life. At 19 (this year) we finally received a valid diagnosis, and so are able to acquire some services that will allow him to live a full and productive life. My initial response to the situation was not one of joy, though. I was angry and sad—in fact, I was both outraged and devastated that he did not receive the help he should have had while in the school system.
Last week, I met one of my dear brothers in Christ for our annual Christmas “meet at the book store coffee shop” to get caught up on the year past and share plans for the upcoming year. While we were talking I had the revelation that I was being quite sinful in that I was limiting God and his power and doubting his wisdom. I had shared that I was so sad and angry that my son might not have the life he “could have” had if he had of received more help during his school years. Then I posed (to myself as much as my friend), “Who am I to question God?” Further, I shared, “How do I know that God did not intend the exact path for my son that he was on throughout his life?”
Even if the path was not the one “originally” planned for him, God surely will use everything my son has experienced and struggled with and celebrated and use it for his good and bountiful future! I wasn’t looking at all the wonderful qualities my son has, at all the ways he sees the world as a godly and faithful young man. I was discounting God’s ability and desire to overcome whatever obstacles man puts in our way and to turn it into something more, even better, than it might have been otherwise.
These verses tell us not to “trust in man” or to rely upon the wisdom or inherent goodness of human kind. We are rather to lean upon God and his understanding, wisdom, power and will. His knowledge is perfect. His wisdom is without flaw. His understanding far surpasses anything the human mind can comprehend. My son’s hope has always been in the Lord. It is my hope that has faltered and been overshadowed by doubt and fear.
God not only prepares us for our future, he sustains us in our present and transforms our past to equip us to do His good will. If that is not reason for hope and good courage, I don’t know what is. I’ll say it again: God not only prepares us for our future, he sustains us in our present and transforms our past to equip us to do His good will.
My prayer today is that you will Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid. And that you will sing praises unto your God while you have any being.
Mary
Labels: courage, faith, fear, future, hope
Take Courage, Fear Not
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Isaiah 35:3,4 NASB
They will see the glory of the LORD, The majesty of our God. Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble. Say to those with anxious heart, "Take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; The recompense of God will come, But He will save you."
Are you feeling exhausted and feeble? All of us get to the point sometimes where we just feel spent. Especially around the holiday season, we can get run down and lose sight of the true meaning of Christmas. All the added activity and increased number of tasks can absolutely overwhelm us.
It’s important to remember, though, that no matter what we are going through, no matter how hard life may be at any given point in time, we can have hope. That hope is not borne of desperation or of childish beliefs. It is a hope borne of a magnanimous and omnipotent God and His promise to us.
The broken hearted and those who rejoice have the same promise and the same hope because they worship the same God. Sometimes, that hope is the only way we can make it through the day. Sometimes that hope compels us to go an extra mile, to try a little harder, to endure one more hour. God’s words to Isaiah are words for all time, not just for the people of that day. “Take courage, fear not.”
This is short and sweet today. I don’t think there is much I need to add. The words from Isaiah speak volumes all on their own.
My prayer today is that you take courage in the promise and the hope of a good and loving God. And that you remember that he has worked throughout history to uplift and sustain his children.
Mary
Labels: courage, fear, hope
Fearless!
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Romans 8:38-3938.
For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39. nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Philippians 4:6-76.
Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Well . . . do I really need to add anything to these two hopeful and uplifting passages? No matter what is going on in our lives, we have the assurance that God is in it; He is with us and walks through every moment with us. That’s not always easy to remember when we are in pain, experiencing a difficult time in our lives, or have lost a loved one. To my mind, those are the times we need the reassurance of these verses the most.
I read the Philippians to mean that once we have prayed and presented our supplications to God, we need to let it go. Once we give it our Heavenly Father, we can be assured that everything will happen as he has planned out of his wisdom and grace. In a time of tragedy, mourning, struggle or fear we may not feel very close to God. Those are the times we actually need to seek Him out. That’s when we need to read and pray upon the Romans verses.
Because of Christ, we have assurance that God has our present and our future in his hands. There is nothing we can do, nothing we can experience that is stronger than God’s love. Think about that for a minute! Beyond our own daily lives and our personal future lives, He holds the world! No war or revolt, no acts of genocide, no words of hatred, no earthquake, volcano, tsunami, drought or flood is beyond the depth and breadth, the height or the power of God!
More, in spite of our own sins and the sins of the world, God values us tremendously. He jealously oversees our actions and knows our thoughts. He loves us anyway—individually as his precious ones, and as a people. We are all His Own, his beloved. Nothing will ever separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. The Cross won for us eternity in heaven. That’s why we are not to be anxious, to fret, to be afraid. No traffic light color of alert level will change our future. We’re going to heaven!
I think it helps to step back and reframe our own little lives, and all the things going on in the world from that perspective. Since we are going to heaven, all we need to really be concerned about is taking as many with us as we can, and being the best person we can possibly be. It’s a cliché, I know. But it is true, and it is the answer to how to have the best life possible—a grace-filled life of abundance and blessings. Death is not the final word. Nor is warfare, natural disasters, hatred, military power or living in fear.
Because of Christ we are fearless! We are not afraid, and so we are free to share the Good News and to live abundantly and fully into the promise sealed for us 2000 years ago on Calvary.
Rejoice! We have nothing to fear! We are God’s beloved and His precious creations. He waits for us!
My prayer today is that you fearlessly go out into the world intending to be Christ to the world. And that you live the rest of your life with reckless abandon!
Mary
Labels: Christ, death, fear, God, war
