Those Who Look to Him

“I will bless the Lord at all times;

    his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul makes its boast in the Lord;

    let the humble hear and be glad.

Oh, magnify the Lord with me,

    and let us exalt his name together!” (Psalms 34:1-3 ESV)

No matter what we are going through; no matter what life throws at us; no matter what difficulties or trials or tribulations we are facing, perhaps day by day, if Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, and if we are his by faith in him, then we should be those who make it our practice to bless the Lord. We should be those who praise the Lord with our mouths and with our hearts and minds, even on the darkest of days. We should not be those who just go around grumbling and complaining about everything.

And this is not to say that we cannot pray and present our situations to the Lord, and cry out our suffering to him. Indeed we can! But then we must rest in him, believe in his sovereignty over our lives, and trust him with our circumstances. For there is not anything that comes into our lives that God did not allow. And yes, he allows for us to be hated, mistreated, abused, accused falsely, forsaken, forgotten, rejected, persecuted, and cast aside as unwanted. He allows trials in our lives to mature us in him.

“I sought the Lord, and he answered me

    and delivered me from all my fears.

Those who look to him are radiant,

    and their faces shall never be ashamed.

This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him

    and saved him out of all his troubles.

The angel of the Lord encamps

    around those who fear him, and delivers them.” (Psalms 34:4-7 ESV)

No matter our circumstances or what we are going through, we are not to give way to fear. We must hold on strong to our faith in Jesus Christ, believing that he is absolutely in control over all things. And we must take all these matters to our Lord in prayer, seeking his counsel and his wisdom in knowing what to do or not to do in response to our trials. And we should pray for the Lord to teach us his ways through our trials, and to guide us and direct us in how those trials can be used in our lives for our good.

Now I will share with you briefly that I was brought up by an abusive father and a good mother who was emotionally distant. I was deathly afraid of my dad for I never knew when his anger was going to flare up and that he would lash out in anger and abuse. So, even though I believed in Jesus at the age of 7, I was afraid much of the time, although I did cry these things out to the Lord on a daily basis, as I recall. And I subconsciously built a wall of fear around myself that made it very difficult for me in relationships with people.

Anyway, circumstances led to me discovering one day that I had a spirit of fear that I was unaware of, and the Lord delivered me from that at the age of 32. All of a sudden my face was lit up and I was smiling all the time and I felt the freedom to be able to hug people (in the right way), and truly my face was radiant. And the Lord encouraged me with this passage of Scripture at that time. And that is what I think about whenever I read this. A battle for my mind and heart did follow that, but the Lord won the victory over that.

“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!

    Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints,

    for those who fear him have no lack!

The young lions suffer want and hunger;

    but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.” (Psalms 34:8-10 ESV)

Satan is against all of us who are following Jesus Christ with our lives in obedience to his commands. So, he is going to try to instill fear in our hearts and minds, and he will attempt to get us to doubt God, and to doubt his word, and to be afraid, for he wants us to retreat. He wants us to back down and to give up the fight and to give in to the enemy and to our emotions. And he wants us to look to other humans and/or to sinful pleasures to satisfy us and to “rescue” us, rather than us resting in the Lord.

So we must fight the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12), and we must daily put on the armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-20) with which to fight off the evil schemes and attacks of the enemy so that we can run with perseverance the race God has marked out for us to run (Hebrews 12:1-2). And we must not give way to fear, but we must resist Satan and eventually he will flee from us. And we must take refuge in our Lord, take everything to him in prayer, trust him fully, and keep walking in his ways in his strength and wisdom.

His Tender Mercies 

An Original Work / January 26, 2014

Fear not! I’m with you.

Be not dismayed!

God watches o’er you.

Trust Him today.

He’ll lead and guide you;

Give you His aid.

He’ll love and keep you

With Him always.

Walk in His footsteps.

He’ll lead the way.

Trust in His love;

Believe that He cares.

He will not leave you.

Faithful He’ll be.

His tender mercies

Now you will see.

Fellowship with Him

Throughout the day.

Tell Him your heartaches.

He’ll heal always.

Rest in His comfort.

He is your friend.

Your faith He’ll strengthen,

True to the end.

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