Wars raging on and on, assassination attempts, hurricanes … all unbelievable, all out of our control. In the midst of all this, the normal things keep moving and we are expected to function as usual.
Are you feeling unsettled? Unsure? Worried? Or, are you feeling brave?
If I had to guess, I’d imagine more of us are feeling unsettled and not really brave. Yet, if you are a Jesus-follower, we should be feeling brave. Right?!? The battle has already been won. We know where we are spending the rest of our lives. Even if everything goes to you-know-what in a hand basket, we are safe. Even if we perish from this earth, we are safe.
Yet, we still feel afraid, worried, and unsettled about our future in this lifetime. We still want our children and grandchildren to live a good and peaceful life, filled with all the beauty this place has to offer. And so, we get anxious sometimes.
As I’ve mentioned in my past few blog posts, my ministry is shifting to a more “niche” group – those women who are steeped in sorrow (for whatever reason, but with an emphasis on grief). This is something I’m afraid of, anxious about, and unsure that I’m up to the challenge.
And our Almighty Father kept bringing a particular Psalm to my mind. It’s a Psalm I’ve cherished since we lost Austin and were left standing alone on this earth with a 15-month old boy who would follow in his big brother’s footsteps in so many ways. If we could lose Austin to strep throat, how could we possibly protect Ethan?
Would I lose another son? What if we did? How am I supposed to go on? God, how do we raise Ethan without fear?
Psalm 121 was God’s answer. “We” were not going to keep Ethan safe – “HE” was!
So, in these turbulant times, God challenged me about a month ago to memorize Psalm 121. Like many Scriptures and stories in our Bible, I know the gist of it and could give you a pretty good summary. But, this time, the Holy Spirit told me that wasn’t enough.
The Holy Spirit whispered something like this into my soul: Memorize the words, exactly as they appear in your Bible. You’re going to need them through this next season.
It took longer than I thought it would to get the exact words in the exact order. There’s only 8 verses for goodness sakes! At some point I realized that I would have to say it every single day in order to lock it into my brain, so I wrote it out (which also helps me memorize) and tucked it into my devotional.
Have you ever memorized a passage of Scripture? Do you still remember it?
Memorizing Psalm 121 gave me something to focus on when worry seemed to ramp up. During my prayer time, Psalm 121 gave me something to pray that was specifically geared towards relying on the Lord – and not myself.
Psalm 121 goes like this (keep in mind I change the pronoun to make Scripture personal to me, and as you read, put emphasis on the Lord and He):
I lift my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth.
He will not allow my foot to slip. He who keeps me will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is my keeper. The Lord is my shade in my right hand. The sun will not smite me by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord will protect me from all evil. He keeps my soul. The Lord will guard my going out and my coming in from this time forth and forevermore.
If the maker of heaven and earth stands before us, the keeper of our souls, our protector and provider, what in this world could scare us? If the One who put the sun and the moon in the sky is the One protecting me from all evil, whom shall I fear?
Sweet friend, the Lord will not allow our foot to slip! He never sleeps! God is watching us, always and forever.
What could be better?
Are my plans, my efforts, my strengths anything to be relied upon in the face of Psalm 121? No. The Lord marks my steps. The Lord paves my path. The Lord provides everything. Every. Single. Thing. Not me. Psalm 121 makes me feel brave because I know the Lord’s “got this.”
Whew! Isn’t that a relief?
What are you worried about? What should you surrender to God’s control?
Are you feeling a little more brave for the battle? I hope so!