Worry Strangles Our Joy

I love and hate Psalm 139:23-24. I love it because I need God to search my heart and pull out the weeds that take root there. I hate it because it is hard to see the sin He has found. The sin I try to hide. The sin I try to ignore. The sin I try to justify.

He searches the secrets of my heart not that He may  know what is there but that I may know and see the swarms of microscopic sins that are minute but mighty in their ability to destroy my soul. To destroy my joy. To destroy my relationship with my first love: Christ.

One of those sins is worry.

I worry about what may happen and my wanders down a path it shouldn’t go down. A friend said it well. “God doesn’t give grace for imaginary trials.”

Amen. He isn’t giving me grace for something I made up in my head.  And it is dumb for me to think that He would. Worry distresses the mind and wearies the soul. Worry is debilitating. Worry strangles the joy. It becomes a fixed habit. A sort of drug we can’t live without.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Matthew 6:25

Yes, there will be trials in our lives and we can cling to worry or anxiety instead of Christ. We can let our minds go down a dark road until we have lost our way. We can let it suck the life out of us until it depresses us, discourages us, and weakens us.

The peace of Christ needs to rule in our hearts not our sins. The truth of His word has to dominate our lives daily. When we trust God, it gives us confidence, not in ourselves, but the one who redeemed us from the pit. Trust whispers in our ears that there is no cause for worry because the Lord will take care of everything.

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Psalm 62:5-8

We all have hidden sins that the Lord needs to yank out. It can be painful and difficult to see but we need to explore the deep recesses of our hearts. It takes courage to do this and ask God to show us our blind spots and to show us our pride. We need to be courageous and ask the Lord to search our hearts, so we can become more like our Saviour. Each day should show us our need for the Lord. Each day should show us that we can’t boast in anything we do but we need to boast in the Lord. Each day should bring us to our knees in awe, praise, gratitude, and confession.

We can’t let our sin dwell in our minds or hearts. Instead, we must put on Christ and make no provisions for flesh in regards to its lust. Romans 13:14

This isn’t easy but it must be done and the Lord is faithful to help us.

How?

We need to make it a habit to be in the word. We need to plant our face and hands into His word so He can teach through the pages or scripture how to walk humbly and confidently with Him. May we let the word of Christ richly dwell within our souls. 

This is a great quote from Charles Spurgeon.

"We do not stand or fall according to our personal merit; but because Jesus lives we live, because Jesus is accepted we are accepted, because Jesus is beloved we are beloved: in a word, our standing is not based upon merit, but upon mercy; not upon our changeable character, but upon the immutable mercy of God."