Friday, December 19, 2008

Worship for Today: The Lord brings joy in anxious times!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing,
majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of
him in Psalms 94:19,

"When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul."

The psalmist calls out to the Lord to avenge the righteous and "pay
back to the proud what they deserve." Verse 2. In his great anxiety,
he recounts that the wicked "band together against the righteous and
condemn the innocent to death." Verse 21. The Lord brought him
consolation and joy as the psalmist recognized that the Lord "will
repay them for their sins and destroy them for their wickedness".
Verse 23.

For me today, I find whatever there may be that generates anxiety
within me, the Lord's consolation always brings joy! Paul speaks to
the very same thing in his second letter to the Corinthians. "We do
not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we
suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far
beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.
Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened
that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead."
2 Corinthians 1:8-9. Paul precede's this account by explaining,
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our
troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort
we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of
Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort
overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation;
if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you
patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer." 2 Corinthians
1:3-6.

In Psalm 73:16-17, Asaph was vexed with seeing the prosperity of the
wicked, but the outcome of his anxiety gave way to relief when he
turned to the Lord, "When I tried to understand all this, it was
oppressive to me till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I
understood their final destiny."

A wonderful advantage of being a child of God is that when we face
those anxious times, it is right there we find a consolation from the
Lord that brings a joy to our lives!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share
your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd
love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com

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