Sunday, September 7, 2014

Anxieties and the Word



"Great is Thy faithfulness,” O God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.

 “Great is Thy faithfulness!” “Great is Thy faithfulness!”
 Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—
“Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

The words of this great hymn keep going through my head as I am daily reminded of how great God's mercies have been to me.  His compassions have not failed though I have far too often been beset by anxiety!  How wonderful it is to be reminded that there is no shadow of His changing when I often seem to be like the boat that is tossed in the wind.  He gives me constant reminders in His word and creation of His faithfulness, mercy and love.

The other day as I held my sweet grandchild, Olivia, while reading my Bible  I was becoming distracted thinking of her congenital heart problem, her upcoming heart surgery (hopefully October) and her need to gain more weight.  I was reading in Exodus where God reminds Moses, "Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?" A perfectly timed reminder to me that God made Olivia just the way He intended her to be.  And God in His infinite mercy has caused her to start gaining weight, though it has its ups and downs.

There have been times in the last couple of months when anxieties about my own sarcoma have risen up and threatened to overtake me, yet even then God's Word brought me relief.  I went through a few weeks when the pain in my reconstructed hip was as severe as it had been before the surgery convincing me that the sarcoma had returned there.  By God's grace the x-rays showed it was simply injury from a fall I had taken and it has subsided to its normal discomfort.  Then a lump on my lower leg grew:  a lump that was presumed to be the sarcoma.  I struggled daily, not with the sarcoma rising up, but with the thought that I would have to be taking time out to go back to MD Anderson for biopsy and possible surgery at a time when I wanted to be able to help with my grandbaby. God is so merciful, humbling me as He still opened His word to me giving comfort to my soul as I struggled.  I read in Psalm 94 that even David experienced anxieties.  Verses 17-19 say, " If the Lord had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.  When I thought, 'My foot slips,'  your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up. When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul."  Besides the peace that gave me, the Lord was indeed my help causing the scans to show no obvious progression and allowing the decision to be made to do nothing until a recheck in three months.  Also, in nothing short of God's providence the nodules that have been seen in my lung scans for about two years now have remained unchanged in size.  In my vision, which had mistakenly been focused on me instead of Him, I had not even foreseen those outcomes as a possibility.  Oh me of little faith! God is gracious and merciful!

Recently there has been a great deal of focus on persecution of Christians throughout the world.  That too has caused me anxiety and daily it greatly burdens my heart, but even as I think on that I am given hope in the Word.  As I read about the plagues in Egypt, I made note with wonder that God caused flies to be in every Egyptian home to a point they could not escape them, yet the Bible says not one fly was found in Goshen.  To think that God controlled the flies so that not one entered the land of His people is amazing and humbling.   To know that He put Pharaoh in place just to show forth His power is a reminder that none of the persecution happens without His knowledge and permission.  As I think of Christians fleeing their homes with only what they can carry or being imprisoned, and I think of what comfort God's Word has been to me, I pray that these brothers and sisters will be reminded of Scripture to give them renewed hope and comfort.

As I've seen how applicable God's Word is in all my anxieties I am convicted to saturate myself more in my  todays as I don't know what tomorrow will bring.  How sad it would be to be faced with a time when I might not have the written Word and not be able to recall passages and stories of God's care.  It makes me determined to go back and memorize again chapters that I had down when younger that have slipped from my mind.  I am so grateful that God brings His words to mind when troubles beset my heart.


Paul Tripp, When you’re struggling with anxiety, Jesus tells you to look around at creation. Embedded in the physical world are constant theological reminders that God doesn’t abandon the work of his hands. The birds of the air, the flowers of the field, and countless other living organisms point to the loving care of God.

If God would care that much for birds and flowers, how much more would he care for those made in his image? If God feeds and clothes animals and plants without an eternal soul, how much more will he provide for those covered by the costly blood of his Son? You have reason to rest because creation preaches to you a gospel of divine faithfulness.