“When the cares of my heart are many, Your consolations cheer my soul.” – Psalm 94:19

TO STATE THAT a Christian never worries, even after years of believing and tasting of the joys of salvation, is utterly severed from reality. The most mature believer will know pangs of care to contend with throughout their pilgrimage. Contend with is the key word.

I have never forgotten a dear Christian once saying to me, “You cannot prevent birds landing on your head, but you can prevent them from building nests.” – and it all has to do with thinking, temptation that are inextricably linked. It’s what we do with those that really counts, whether it’s unto progression or digression.

We read that the apostle Paul was beside himself (2 Corinthians 5:13) – that pioneer leader of the New Testament church, such a state of mind that would shock our ‘piousness’. Would we ever believe it? No, certainly if we are not pressed in the same measure Paul encountered – a life beset with trouble, burdens and immense suffering. There are saints who tread the depths of deepest oceans, others that are content to paddle amidst waves that gently lap onto the shoreline. Yet, Paul didn’t remain in a state of anxiety but pressed through to relying on nothing, no one – anything – but God Himself.

When Paul stated, “Be anxious for nothing”, that didn’t entail we know nothing of worry, but what we do with that worry means everything. Contending with worry, either to defeat or victory, is the battleground; will we trust God or will we resign ourselves to ‘humanistic’ fate? “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”  (Philippians 4:6). It is arresting those thoughts, taking every thought captive and turning them around for the glory of God. When we bring everything to God in prayer, it is acknowledging His absolute sovereignty over all affairs – past, present and future; it is an awareness of not just His existence, but His Fatherly care over every detail of our lives. He infinitely knows before we even utter a word of concern to Him.

A recalling of God’s goodness and faithfulness to us – BECAUSE He loves us – that we find innumerably echoed throughout the Psalms, is also to be our habit when we find ourselves in dire straits and when God seems to be ever so distant and silent. It is not a resignation to what our feelings may be – as real as they are to us – but it’s a refusal in letting our feelings dictate Reality – Reality as God sees it.

We get ourselves into such mental and emotional tangles when we interpret our circumstances from a standpoint of despair that issues a gentle rebuke for leaning on our OWN understanding. Doing so is a kind of presumptuous ‘deified’ thinking; we know better than God.

When we find ourselves in the presence of God – and oftentimes when we least expect it – a recalibration or defragmentation of our thinking radically takes place; we hear and feel everything ‘clicking’ into its rightful place to where there is no longer any clutter; our misconceived notions of life fly out of the window as we are clothed with a right mind – a mind that is fixed on God. It isn’t, therefore, any wonder as Isaiah 26:3 states, “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.”

Barely do many know this discipline of mind, and yet it can be learned. It is one aspect God is developing in us – that we implicitly trust Him despite the circumstances.

God is incalculably gracious to us. There are times when we cannot even lift up our own heads. David said, “…the One Who lifts up my head.” (Psalm 3:3), and that implies in the midst of certain situations and our infirmities, God knows our frame, our condition that are beyond words to even express. When God comes near in such instances it is so graciously gentle. No wonder David said, “Your gentleness made me great.” (Psalm 18:35). Think of that for a moment… David in all of His greatness (God elevating him) is attributed to NOTHING but God’s gentleness! That is astounding truth. How many times do we fail to count God’s gentleness toward us? Oh, how He lifts up our heads in the midst of heart-wrenching pain and when acute worry overwhelms us. Our immediate longing is to know God in the midst of such times; to know Him near us, and in our weakness He lifts up our heads and wipes our tears. Some of us may have no mother or father – mum or dad – to wipe away our tears, but God, Who never forsakes us – and never will – knows how to speak to us. His voice that immediately comforts and calms the racing heart. Oh, how it transforms and transfigures everything. The loving Shepherd’s words that penetrates the deepest recesses of our hearts. They are His consolations that far transcend the greatest earthly father’s and mother’s comforting embrace, reassurance and instilling of confidence. They are His consolations that most certainly cheers our soul in the midst of whatever circumstances we are in. Most importantly, it is not we alone in our situations, but the King, the Shepherd – our God Who is ever with us in the deepest depths to lead us through.