When the Cares of My Heart are Many

“Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord,

    and whom you teach out of your law,

to give him rest from days of trouble,

    until a pit is dug for the wicked.

For the Lord will not forsake his people;

    he will not abandon his heritage;

for justice will return to the righteous,

    and all the upright in heart will follow it.

“Who rises up for me against the wicked?

    Who stands up for me against evildoers?

If the Lord had not been my help,

    my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.

When I thought, ‘My foot slips,’

    your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.

When the cares of my heart are many,

    your consolations cheer my soul.” (Psalms 94:12-19 ESV)

This is the life of a true follower of Jesus Christ. We are the disciplined of the Lord. We are those whom he reproves and corrects and chastises, which is for our good, that we may share his holiness. “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” Therefore, we are to make straight (upright) paths for our feet (see Hebrews 12:1-17).

We are also those who are being trained in the Word of the Lord and in his ways that we may walk in them. We are being taught by the Lord through our times spent with him in his word, listening to him speak truth to our hearts, and then obeying his word in his power and strength. Through the teachings of the written word, as we listen to the Spirit’s voice, we find rest from days of trouble, too, for we trust in God’s sovereign will.

For the Lord will not forsake those who are truly his by genuine God-persuaded and God-given faith in Jesus Christ. But this faith is not lip service only. This faith leads us to be crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. This faith leads us to walk in obedience to his commands in holy living, by his grace (Romans 6:1-23).

Then, when the wicked come against us to sin against us, to attack us, to betray us, and to do all sorts of evil against us, the Lord is our support. This doesn’t mean that he is always going to physically deliver us from those who do evil against us. He will not always remove us from our difficult circumstances, but he will provide us with all that we need to withstand all opposing forces and to keep the faith and to keep pursuing righteousness.

But I can attest to the fact that when we face fierce opposition and persecution, it is only in the strength of the Lord that we are able to endure and to keep going and to keep loving our enemies and to continue praying for them and doing good to them and forgiving them. For it is hard to love those who hate us and who treat us badly. But Jesus is our example to follow, for he loved us while we were still his enemies, enough to die for us.

And when we go through these times when our enemies are coming after us to take us down, and we come to that breaking point where we wonder if we can keep moving forward another day, and when, in our emotions, we may feel like giving up, that is when we need to reach out to the Lord in prayer and pray for the strength to keep going, and to keep loving, and to keep doing the will of the Lord even when we are opposed and rejected.

And I just love this part! “When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.” Amen! Even when streams of tears are flowing from my eyes down my cheeks, and my heart is aching, and I long for the day when my Lord will rescue me from this evil world, the Lord’s consolations cheer my soul, and I am able to smile again, and even to laugh, and to keep moving forward in doing what he has called me to do.

Trials and Sufferings: [Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-25; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 6:22-23; Lu 21:12-19; Jn 15:1-21; Jn 16:33; Jn 17:14; Ac 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13; Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev 11:1-3; Rev 12:17; Rev 13:1-18; Rev 14:1-13]

Near the Cross  

Hymn lyrics by Fanny J. Crosby, 1869

Music by William H. Doane, 1869 

Jesus, keep me near the cross; 

There a precious fountain, 

Free to all, a healing stream, 

Flows from Calvary's mountain. 

Near the cross, a trembling soul, 

Love and mercy found me; 

There the bright and morning star 

Sheds its beams around me. 

 

Near the cross! O Lamb of God, 

Bring its scenes before me; 

Help me walk from day to day 

With its shadow o'er me. 

Near the cross I'll watch and wait, 

Hoping, trusting ever, 

Till I reach the golden strand 

Just beyond the river. 

In the cross, in the cross, 

Be my glory ever, 

Till my raptured soul shall find 

Rest beyond the river.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5gong-PNmY

Caution: This link may contain ads