God's Providence Amidst Our Fears
This is a different kind of post than I normally do. I just wanted to share a passage of Scripture that spoke to me recently.
For those of you who don't know, I'm recently engaged, which is very exciting. I'm so incredibly blessed, and I'm going to be marrying the love of my life. But along with being engaged comes a wide range of emotions, including doubt, fear and anxiety about what the future might hold. A great majority of you who follow the channel are between 18 and 30, so I thought some of you might be encouraged by this as I was.
My fiancée and I have been reading through the Psalms together as we count down to our wedding day, and recently we read Psalm 147:
Praise the LORD! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting... He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure...
Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on the lyre! He covers the heavens with clouds; he prepares rain for the earth; he makes grass grow on the hills. He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry. His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love...
He makes peace in your borders; he fills you with the finest of the wheat. (Psalm 147:1, 3–5, 7–11, 14, ESV)
Why it meant so much to me
When you're getting married, so much has to go right. You need a job, a place to live, the money to do what you have to do. That's quite stressful. Recently God brought me back to my hometown (which is, of course, where this library is). He's given me a new job, a new career, and I'm trying to build a business. It's the most horrifying thing I've ever done. Day in and day out I sit in anxiety and fear: is this going to work?
This psalm answers that. Instead of fretting and worrying, look at what the Lord is doing. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving. For all the anxiety and fear and pain you're feeling, He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. His power is abundant and His understanding beyond measure. We can't comprehend the Lord and His ways.
And to make it even more touching in this season of my life, it talks about how He feeds the wild animals, makes the grass grow on the hills, and prepares the rain and the clouds. Everything is under His control and command, and nothing happens outside of it. He makes peace in our borders and fills us with the finest of the wheat.
Of course, you have to be very careful when you take a passage like this and apply it to yourself. But the fact of the matter is that God is in control. He is sovereign over all these things, and He will work them out, even if it's not the way you think.
He doesn't delight in the strength of a horse or the legs of a man, in what someone else is doing. He takes pleasure in those who fear Him and hope in His steadfast love. Friends, He is steadfast in His love. Take hope. Rejoice in the Lord. Sing thanksgiving to Him and stop worrying about life. Do the work He gives you to do, and leave all your fears and anxieties at His feet.
I pray this helps you as much as it helped me.
Soli Deo Gloria!
