Psalm 145:13b-21
The story’s told of a man who went to see a psychiatrist for the first time. “Why are you here?” the doctor asked him. “For the past six months, I can’t seem to stop worrying,” he explained. “What’s been going on in your life?” the doctor wonderd. “I lost my old job, then started a new one and two weeks later, I got a new boss. My son is addicted to the Home Shopping Network and just ran up $15,000 of debt on my charge card. My daughter came home from school the other day, announcing that she had to write an essay on her greatest hero and asked me, “Who should I write about, Dad: Lindsay Lohan or Osama bin Laden?” The doctor listened to all of this and told the man that the explanation for his worrying was simple: He had a lot of worries!
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been talking about overcoming worry. We’ve said that to overcome worry, we need to place ourselves in the hands of God. Last week, we considered four steps for overcoming worry that came from Psalm 104.
But the fact is that worries do come our way in life. Today, I want to hold up four key affirmations and four accompanying action steps that we can use when faced with worrying times. They’re based on one section of Psalm 145.
Affirmation #1 is found in verse 13. “The Lord is faithful in all his words, and gracious in all his deeds.” When you and I face worrying times, it’s important to remember that God is faithful.
A number of years ago, Lutheran pastor Walt Kallestad told the story of Phoenix builder Gary Gietz. Gietz formed his own company, dreaming of providing customers with beautifully-crafted homes, reasonably priced and readied for occupancy in a timely manner. But fifteen years later, he had wandered far from his dreams. He excused shoddy business practices, telling himself that delays and poor workmanship afflicted the building business. His whole life was composed of worrying about and striving to keep subcontractors, vendors, and customers just happy enough to move onto the next job and stay in business. But then, Gietz decided to approach things differently. He asked himself a piercing question about his approach to business: What is it that God wants me to do?
That question, a prayer really, caused him to gather twenty-one key people at a local restaurant. They brainstormed together about “how it would be to have freedom from the tyranny of reneging on promises, the freedom to keep their word and be on time...” What Gietz and others are learning and teaching is that when we make our supreme concern not pleasing others and not merely getting by, but living and working for God, worries recede. Sometimes, we may become more successful when we do this, though we could be less so. There are no guarantees along those lines. But either way, we can rely on God because God is faithful.
And the action step that flows from that affirmation is simply this: When worries come, seek God. Lay your worries before God. God makes a way through and beyond our worries.
The next affirmation is drawn from the next verse of Psalm 145. “The Lord upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down.” The affirmation here is: God raises those laid low by life!
When worries come our way, it’s easy to give in to despair. It’s even understandable. But it needn’t happen!
Corrie ten-Boom, a Dutch Christian who, along with her family, were imprisoned by the Nazis during World War 2, because they helped Jews escape their occupied country, is one of my heroes. At one point during her time in the Ravensbruck Concentration Camp, Corrie was placed in solitary confinement. For four months. The cell was dark and there was dirty standing water on the floor. At times, she heard the cries of other prisoners and she knew that she too could be tortured by the Nazis. Once, terrified beyond all bearing, she cried out to God, “Lord, I’m not strong enough to endure this. I don’t have the faith.”
At that moment, Corrie looked down to see an ant. She noticed that the moment the ant felt water on the floor, it went straight back into its hole in the wall. Corrie realized that when the ant confronted something too big or overwhelming, it went to its hiding place. “Corrie,” God seemed to tell her, “don’t look at your weak faith...I am your hiding place, and you can come running to Me” the way that ant went to its hiding place.
It was then that Corrie remembered Jesus’ words, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” God raises those laid low by life. That’s the affirmation. And the action step that goes with it is this: Dare to hope. Dare to act on the belief that whether here or in eternity, God will lift you up and be with you always!
Our third affirmation comes from the next verse of Psalm 145: “The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season.” Here’s the affirmation: God helps those who turn to Him.
This past week, I read the true story of Beth Slevcove. She made the decision not long ago to move into an inner-city area and found that she loved urban life. All except for one thing. The guys who owned the tattoo parlor across the street from her always “got into fights, harrassed women and intimidated men.” Beth looked at this and decided to do a very brave thing. She would get a tattoo at the parlor across the street. Now, that’s not the brave part. She told the guys who ran the place that she wanted, “Love thy neighbor” imprinted on her wrist. She told them that she was having trouble loving her neighbor because of all their fighting. One of the tattoo artists turned to his boss and said, “Manuel, dude, we’re scaring our neighbors. We got to stop fighting.” From that moment on, the fighting stopped and the sidewalk was safe. A few months after Beth got her tattoo, she ran into Manuel. He hugged her and told a nearby friend, “Here, this is my neighbor, the one I was telling you about.”
Beth Slevcove is a pastor who works with Youth Specialties. When she went to get that tattoo and to lovingly confront her neighbors for their bullying, she had no guarantees that things would turn out as they did. The God we know in Jesus Christ doesn’t promise us easy, propserous earthly lives. Just ask Christians who endure poverty, persecution, or other afflictions. But God does promise to help those who turn to Him and to be for them. That’s the affirmation in which Beth Slevcove obviously believed. And here’s the action step she exemplified: Dare to expect God to help you and be for you!
The next affirmation comes from the next verse: “You open Your hand, satisfying the desire of every living thing.” The affirmation is simple: God satisfies our desires.
Now, the moment I say that, an alarm bell ought to go off in our heads.
That's because when I consider my desires, I have to confess--one sinful human being to others, that some of the things I desire aren’t good. They’re things that don’t glorify God or that hurt my neighbor.
And some of the things I desire may be good, but just not good for me. For example, I may want to eat chocolate 24/7. But, even though chocolate isn’t a bad thing, it would be really bad for me to eat it all the time.
And, it seems that there are some desires I have that God just doesn’t want me to have. No matter how much I pray about it, for example, I’ll never be as handsome as Brad Pitt, Orlando Bloom, or Denzel Washington.
Those who follow Jesus are expected to channel their desires. That’s why Jesus tells us to pray, “Your will be done.” People who truly surrender to God find that their desires are, day by day, transformed. Our brains can get fogged in by a lot of selfish desires. I know that mine can be. But as we submit to God, we start to want what God wants for ourselves and for our world. Psalm 37:4 says, paraphrasing it just a bit, “[First,] Take delight in the Lord, and [then] he will give you the desires of your heart.” Put God first and God will give you the things you most need to be a fulfilled person of God.
Worries come to us all. But worry doesn’t need to have the final word over our lives.
- God is faithful; so, seek Him in prayer.
- God raises those laid low by life; so dare to hope in the God we know in Jesus Christ.
- God helps those who turn to Him; so expect God to help and to be for you.
- God satisfies our desires; so ask God to transform your desires to ones that please and honor God, help your neighbor, and bring you personal fulfillment.
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