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.

Paul shared these words with the Philippians when the church itself was in a time of anxiety. A schism was brewing between two women leaders of the church, and there was a fear that their disagreement might lead to further divisiveness within the community.

But Paul regards the faithful community, even in the midst of such times, as those who "have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel" (Philippians 4:3). Our work in the gospel may also take place in the midst of chaos, turmoil and unrest - all of which may prompt anxiety. But anxiety can never get the upper hand when we engage in prayer, bringing our supplications and thanksgiving to God.

Paul reminds us, "The Lord is near" (Philippians 4:5). In union with God through Christ who was crucified and risen for our sake, we are never without hope and promise. We trust that our Lord hears our supplications and accepts our prayers over all our anxiety.

-- Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

Psalm 6:8 Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.

Do we hear the laments of others? There are those who rarely listen to them. We may even need to count ourselves among those who do not hear. 

The psalmist could hear all the "workers of evil" who heaped upon him harsh words and mortifying turmoil. Still, however, he cries out to God. He trusts that, even if these do not hear, God will hear him in the midst of his struggle and pain.

Christ came into this world for us and for our salvation. All who are overcome by the turmoil of evil feel lost to the world and unheard by anyone. But Christ picks up His cross and brings our cry to the ears of God, even our scent of death to the very nostrils of God. The Lord hears the sound of our weeping! And our cries will give way to songs of hope.

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Psalm 6:4 Turn, O Lord, save my life; deliver me for the sake of your steadfast love.

The Psalmist makes no claim to be righteous. He knows that God must hold him accountable for his sin. But here he cries to God to turn and look upon him in the midst of his struggle. He cries for God to save his life and to deliver him. And why should God do that? The psalmist lifts that up as well: "for the sake of your steadfast love."

There is an audacity to faith. There is the boldness that, no matter how bad it gets, we still call upon God to love us. In fact, Christ came to give us that promise of love and mercy. We are even baptized into that promise. Luther, in his greatest hours of turmoil, would cry out, "I am baptized!" "I am a Christian!"

Christ's love goes to great lengths, and at great cost, to save us and set us free from the depths of our turmoil. All that would separate us from God is nailed with Christ to the cross. The promise of love is with us always!

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

Psalm 6:6  I am weary with my moaning; every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with my weeping.

We all have had nights of deep weeping. We cry. We lament. We suffer. We feel like we are dying. We may wonder "Where is God?" or even "Where is the need for confession for all that we have done or not done?"

The psalmist cries out in his pain, "My soul is struck with terror, while you, O Lord - how long?" (Psalm 6:3). There is no answer. In the turmoil of the night, we can feel abandoned, orphaned, alone. How deep our night of weeping can be! Author Elie Wiesel spoke of his night-weeping in the terrors of the Holocaust, even as the experience drained him of all his tears.

When Jesus was crucified, he cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He takes his place with us in the midst of our night of weeping, in our place of death, even in our place of seeming abandoned before God. In the midst of our tears, even in the hour of our last breath, Christ is there. And because he is, we are not alone.

And because Christ's peace is there with us, even in our weeping there are cries of faith. "Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; O Lord, heal me, for my bones are shaking with terror" (Psalm 6:2). "Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning" (Psalm 30:5). The morning of Christ will dawn.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,


 

Proverbs 3:5  Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.

One of the more hideous sources of doubt is an overreliance on our own insight. To be sure, the world encourages us to find true strength in our own wisdom born of knowledge and experience - even to boast of such things. But this only makes us self-righteous.

True wisdom is grounded in God's ordaining. And not all that the world puts forth as "wisdom" is so divinely rooted. Do our hearts trust God's wisdom, or do we rely only on our own insight?

St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians about this contest between God's wisdom and the world's. The world considered the death of Christ on the cross to be a sign of weakness. But on the cross, Christ in God's wisdom is the strength that sets us free from the judgment of sin, death, and evil. We are thus graced with God's strength through Christ in the midst of all trials and sufferings. We get to share God's wisdom that love and lifts up one and all who are low and despised and rejected in this world. Trust rooted in the cross grasps the power and the wisdom of God. And a heart filled with Christ's promise has a greater foundation than anything in the world.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

 

Matthew 14:31  Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?"

When Jesus heard Peter's cry for help, he immediately grasped him and pulled him up, Matthew writes. This was an act of grace - the same grace that was extended in Jesus' outstretched arms on the cross for us all. But faith is that which grasps this grace. Faith means that we trust our Lord is there to save us. Faith is our having the promise of our Lord, even now.

In contrast to the boldness Peter often displayed, his faith in this moment is called little. And the reason for that contrast is because of Peter's obvious doubt that the presence of Jesus is mightier than the power of the wind and waves. How much do we also suffer such "little faith" now and then?

Still, through Christ, we come to understand that it is not the size of our faith that matters but the object of our faith: Jesus Christ. It is he who rescues us from our sure and certain doom in order to give us a sure and certain hope through his death and resurrection.

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,


 

James 1:7-8  For the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

Doubt betrays us. It leaves us with only one message: You are on your own. And when it inflicts hardship on our lives, it makes us "double-minded and unstable" people. To be double-minded means we say we trust, but we go on worrying in fear. It means that we may say one thing but do another. That makes us worrisome hypocrites, leaving us ensnared in the isolation of our own lives. You are on your own.

Peter was double-minded in his struggle between faith and fear. He boldly thought that he could walk on water as hie Lord did and even started out doing so. But when his eyes caught the wind and waves, he was filled with only doubts and began to sink. So, in the midst of his fear, he cried out, "Lord, save me!" (Matthew 14:30). And the Lord saved him.

Do we trust that the Lord will save us? Our doubts tells us that we can't expect to receive anything from the Lord? But our doubts have surely betrayed us. In truth we know just how far the Lord will go. He will go into the depth of the sea for us, even into the depths of hell itself. That is where his cross is planted. That is where our eyes look, once again, in faith.

Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,