Day 77
Exchange Anxiety for
Joy
Joy
in God is of great consequence in the Christian life; and Christians need to be
again and again called to it. It more than outweighs all causes for sorrow.[i]
Matthew Henry
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e indulge fears when we ought to place
those fears at God’s feet in compliance with the exhortation of Philippians
4:6: “…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
It isn’t that we
should avoid struggle over the things that cause us worry, but how we struggle matters. If the main
portion of our effort is spent in avoidance of fearful thoughts through
escapism, then we are in trouble. Crying out to God with a weight of anxiety is
an uncomfortable process, but it is a discomfort that ends in peace. By
contrast, repression through escapism requires an upward spiraling effort that
will eventually fail, and may lead to addictions.
God holds the dynamic
entity of time in His hands, sculpting the future even as it hurtles toward us.
By the time any given moment reaches us, it has taken God’s desired form so
that events the enemy intended for our destruction have been formed into
conduits for blessing by God’s great and powerful love. Our Lord’s virtuosity
is like that of a master sculptor whose hands move so quickly that the motion
is a blur. When circumstances align themselves against us and every prognosis
calls for frightening outcomes, we must remember that God’s sculpting hands are
in control of the future.
Even when we accept
the fact of God’s love, power, omnipotence, and provision, we still somehow
manage to turn responsibility for our own deliverance back upon ourselves. It
is really amazing how we are still able to think our sins are too much for the
Lord; we believe that our continued failures might have power against blessings
promised by the Almighty God. And so we turn away from Him, waiting until we
can get our acts together before we will accept the joy He offers.
God’s grace is not a
contractual agreement; it is a free gift. His grace does not come with a list
of stipulations that must be met before we can enjoy the peace He freely gives.
Our peace comes through His presence with us. Nothing can rob us of this gift;
if we belong to Him, He is with us whether we look at Him or not. We must get
past the destructive tendency to close our eyes to His presence until we think
we deserve Him. We are covered by His grace. Of course this doesn’t mean we are
to give up efforts to move away from sin. We trust there will come a point when
our love for Christ is greater than our love for the sin we have cherished for
too long. However, we do need to dismiss the thought that “Tomorrow I will turn
over a new leaf so that I may have God’s joy and peace,” and open our eyes to
the joy and peace that are ours today, as we “…press on toward the goal for the
prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”[ii]
Pray: Lord,
thank You for loving me, right where I am, and thank You for saving me, just as
I am. Let this be enough for me today and every day so that I may walk in joy
and thanksgiving to You. Amen.
~~~
My times are in your hand…
Psalm 31:15
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