You’ve Got This

A series on the Psalms - the voice of emotions
When you’re feeling worried or anxious.
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Psalm 37 

[Life is filled with emotions… anger and love; fear and courage; anxiety and peace. The Book of Psalms is also filled with emotions. They help us to validate our feelings and understand ourselves better; to grow in our faith and our relationship with Jesus; to understand the character of our Lord and how He works in our life.]

  

My two oldest grandchildren have played soccer since they were four years old. When they first started, you could have called it “amoeba” soccer. That’s because players from both teams bunched together in a tight group, like an amoeba, and ran from one end of the field to the other chasing the soccer ball. It’s pretty humorous.

 

As the players got older and more competitive, the parents would yell words of encouragement to their son or daughter. One of the things that they sometimes would say is, “You’ve got this”! It’s intended to give their child confidence to face any adversity that comes their way. Certainly, it’s not bad wisdom.

 

But in this psalm, David does the exact opposite. Instead of saying, “You’ve got this”, he says, “God’s got this”.

 

²³ The Lord directs the steps of the godly.
    He delights in every detail of their lives.
²⁴ Though they stumble, they will never fall,
    for the Lord holds them by the hand. NLT

 

³⁹ The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord;
    he is their stronghold in time of trouble.
⁴⁰ The Lord helps them and delivers them;
    he delivers them from the wicked and saves them,
    because they take refuge in him.        NIV

 

The people of Israel, experienced more than their share of worry and anxiety. After all, God led Israel out of slavery into the Promised Land. But the land was already occupied, so the Israelites needed to drive the people out by force! David also experienced extreme anxiety as he constantly fled for his life from Saul.

 

I made a list of the things that can cause me to feel anxious or to worry. Maybe you can identify with some of them.

 

Finances. Change. Circumstances that are out of my control. Health concerns. Relationships. Unmet expectations. Pressure from the outside or within. Insecurities. Feeling threatened. Conflict.

 

In Psalm 37, David wrote eight times either “inherit the land” or “dwell in the land”. For the people of Israel, the land was their salvation from slavery. But for us, it can be a metaphor for dwelling in the presence of the Lord, trusting in Him and entering into His salvation.

 

³ Trust in the Lord and do good;
    dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
⁴ Take delight in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.         NIV

 

When we do this, we’ll discover that all those things that we worry about and feel anxious about, can melt away. Not because “You’ve got this”. But because the Lord does.

 

⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.      NIV                 Philippians 4                                      

 

Copyright 2023 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

A Force to be Reckoned With

The Life of Jesus Series:

How Jesus interacted with others.

Mark 2:1-12

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%202%3A1-12&version=NIV;NLT

 

My eight year old granddaughter is playing in her 4^th year of soccer. After a recent game, I made the comment that one of the players on the other team was a “force to be reckoned with”. She asked what that meant. I explained to her that the girl was really good and because of that, she changed the course of the game.

 

Even though Jesus was in the early stages of his ministry, he was a force to be reckoned with. Included in the large crowd in this story in Mark were a paralytic and his friends. As the story goes, the paralytic’s friends carried him to the roof, dug a hole in it and lowered him down, right in front of Jesus.

 

Of course they did this for the paralytic to be healed. It was obvious. The paralytic was handicapped and his friends had gone to a great deal of trouble to get him in front of Jesus who they thought could do the job. After all, Jesus was a force to be reckoned with.

 

But, what if Jesus had only forgiven the sins of the paralytic? What if he didn’t heal him so that he could walk out of the house as a physically whole person? Would his life have been changed forever?

 

I’m reminded of Joni Eareckson Tada who suffered a diving accident at the age of seventeen resulting in her being paralyzed from the shoulders down. Jesus didn’t heal her physically, but he did forgive her. Because of this, she used her disability as an opportunity to minister to others. As a result, she became a force to be reckoned with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What about you or me? Jesus has forgiven us. Have we become a force to be reckoned with?