LIVING WITHOUT FEAR IN FEARFUL SITUATIONS

Who or what do you depend on when life starts falling down around your ears? Do you have a fright of heart that sends you into a depression, isolation, a panic, a frantic texting of all your friends demanding their assistance, or consumption of something that will calm you down? I doubt that any of us have been in the life and death situations that David often found himself in particularly during the time King Saul pursued him. Yet all of us meet with critical situations many times in our lives and we find tremendous help during those difficult days if we look at how David (a man after God’s own heart) faced the stress points in his life.

Psalm 56 tells us basically everything we need to know about where David found hope, strength, and solace when life was at its worst. My favorite set of verses regarding this would be these: “My foes have trampled upon me all day long, For they are many who fight proudly against me. When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, In God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me?” (Psalms 56:2-4) Oh that this would be a reality in our lives!

See you Thursday morning as we study Psalm 56 and encourage one another to live wholeheartedly and without fear for God.

DO YOU HAVE PERFECT PEACE?

My peaceful grandson Luke in the midst of a crazy Costco.

During my early 20’s God blessed me with an unusually wonderful 85 year old Bible study leader. Grace Burke. Many of the verses she often repeated to us have remained in my memory all of these years and have enriched my life for the glory of God. Among the most useful and dear of those verses came from Isaiah. “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.” (Isaiah 26:3-4)

The following explanation about “perfect peace” comes from David Guzik and I found his comments to be very informative and encouraging.

Some can have this perfect peace, but it is fleeting and they are never kept there. Others can be kept in peace, but it is not a perfect peace, it is the peace of the wicked, the peace of spiritual sleep and ultimate destruction. But there is a perfect peace that the LORD will keep is in.

“Whose mind is stayed on You:” This is the place of perfect peace, and the source of it. When we keep our minds stayed - settled upon, established upon - the LORD Himself, then we can be kept in this perfect peace. To be kept in this perfect peace, our mind must be stayed on the LORD. If our mind is stayed on ourselves, or our problems, or the problem people in our lives, or on anything else, we can’t have this perfect peace.

“Because He trusts in You:” This is another way of expressing the idea of keeping our minds stayed on Him. Almost always, you keep your mind stayed on whatever you are trusting. When we trust the LORD, we keep our mind stayed on Him. The battle for trust in our lives begins in our minds. If we trust the LORD, it will show in our actions, but it will begin in our mind.

If the LORD calls us to rely on Him completely with our mind, He appeals to our mind with a rational reason why we should trust the LORD - because He is everlasting strength. It isn’t that the LORD has everlasting strength, He is everlasting strength. End of quote from David Guzik.

Every day may we all be growing in our confidence of God’s care, direction, and sovereignty; and experiencing perfect peace.

This Thursday morning we will be zeroing in on Psalm 19. Please plan to join us as we have a great discussion of this Psalm and consider its reality in our lives.

THE WAY THROUGH A WICKED WORLD

Psalm 11:1a “In the LORD I put my trust;…”

Just a bit of observation of the world around us, like watching the news, very quickly makes us aware that we live in a morally deteriorating time. It would seem that we are once again experiencing what happened in the OId Testament days of the book of Judges when everyone did what was right in their own eyes. As followers of Christ, what should be our response? Do we know the way through a wicked world?

Although we may sometimes be tempted to either join in with the down hill slide or run from the difficulties, God has called us to maintain a lifestyle that brings glory to Him—this being the chief created purpose of humans. This means we can never face life independent from God, but rather our dependency must be constant. Our reliance on God and His word must be our conscious choice throughout every day—the easy and the difficult. Without this perspective our strength will fail and our lives will deteriorate into turmoil.

What does this dependency on God look like? This Thursday morning we will be digging into that very topic as we study Psalm 11 together. I’ll look forward to seeing you.